'0 {oc; paxuc;, O 't XVll a1(pft (Hippokrates) That life is short needs no proof when we are engaged in ambitious projects. When I began this book, almost forty years ago, I did not forsee that its completion would take such a long time, although I was well aware that some of Hegel's texts stubbornly resist a thorough deciphering of their meaning and argumenta- tion. Having written a dissertation on the young Hegel's moral, political, and religious...