Heiberg's Contingency Regarded from the Point of View of Logic and Other Texts

Inspired by G.W.F. Hegel’s system, Johan Ludvig Heiberg authored a series of essays and monographs on different philosophical issues in both Danish and German; these works began after his famous encounter with Hegel in Berlin in 1824 and continued for the next two decades.

The present volume features Heiberg’s early work, Contingency Regarded from the Point of View of Logic (1825), which represents a pseudoHegelian account of the categories of contingency and necessity. Two years later Heiberg published a sequel to this treatise, entitled, “Nemesis. A Popular-Philosophical Investigation.” This work attempts to demonstrate that even though we today no longer believe in Nemesis as a goddess who has control over our lives, nevertheless we very often make use of the concept of nemesis without knowing it.

The present volume also includes several other philosophical and literary articles primarily from Heiberg’s journal Kjøbenhavns flyvende Post. These articles, which date from between 1825 and 1843, serve as a useful introduction to the different aspects of Heiberg’s philosophical thinking and supplement his more extensive monographs in this field.