In this clear, critical examination of the ideas of one of the greatest and most influential of modern philosophers, Inwood makes Hegel's arguments fully accessible. He reconstructs Hegel's thought throughout the book by arguing with him, considering Hegel's system as a whole and examining the wide range of problems that it was designed to solve- metaphysical, epistemological, theological and political. The logical and metaphysical ideas which underpin the system and which supply the key to understanding much of what is obscure in Hegel's thought are fully explained.