Reddit mentions of Hegel

That is a good list. I am mostly familiar with German Idealism, and I think wrestling with the Hegelian project is a good place to start. Charles Taylor wrote an exposition on Hegel which emphasizes fragmentation that occurred in modernity and Hegel's attempt to overcome this fragmentation.

https://www.amazon.com/Hegel-Charles-Taylor/dp/0521291992

To wrestle with this topic directly there is Hegel's Critique of Modernity: Reconciling Individual Freedom and the Community by Tim Luther.

Most of the works on that reading list are a reaction to Hegel, so it is a good idea to be familiar with him, especially the Phenomenology.

It's good talking with you, and I'll reply to this with meatier content a little later since I'm busy, but in the meantime I'd like to add that the #1 very short, sharp, starter-book that I'd recommend to you to understand where I'm coming from is actually written by an apolitical (as far as I know) Christian philosophy professor and Dietrich Bonhoeffer Society member named Jens Zimmermann who wrote Hermeneutics: A Very Short Introduction. This goes a long way towards explaining why I can't just dismiss Christianity or the Jesus message, and also the methodology of how to approach texts and ideas historically situated in a tradition.

This will be controversial, but I also recommend Peter Singer's Very Short Introductions to Marx and Hegel for a critical reading (and in the case of the famously obsucrantist Hegel, comprehensible). Charles Taylor's as supernaturalist introduction to Hegel is also extremely worthwhile. Don't simply dive into Hegel's primary material -start with secondary sources.

. Since you are an anarchist, I suppose you might not have much trouble finding the free PDF of the Marx: A Very Short Introduction floating on Google.

German Idealism, particularly Hegel and Schelling, touches on this. Schelling's later works become too mythological and "out there", even for absolute idealism, but his early works present some amazing ideas on nature being mind and us a part of God realizing itself. These ideas also stem from Spinoza's Ethics in that Spinoza presented the idea that we are finite forms of infinite nature and that nature = God, thus we are all a part of God realizing itself, or natural consciousness gaining knowledge about nature.

In terms of recommended readings, I would mostly recommend secondary literature, German Idealism is exceedingly difficult to jump into. Therefore, I recommend the following:
http://www.amazon.com/German-Idealism-Struggle-Subjectivism-1781-1801/dp/0674027175/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404678870&sr=8-1&keywords=beiser+german+idealism

http://www.amazon.com/Hegel-Charles-Taylor/dp/0521291992/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1404678915&sr=1-1&keywords=taylor+hegel

Also, Pinkard has a book on German Philosophy but it is more general (1760 - 1860) which is still a good read but is unable to go into any great depth.
There is also the Routledge guide to Hegel's Phenomenology of spirit which gives an alright surface reading of the book (explains the historical examples used by Hegel and the basic ideas) but I found that it did not go into the metaphysical arguments as in depth as I would have liked.


This is all off the top of my head so I'll return with more reading options if they come to mind.