Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Philosophy
German Philosopher, One of the Creators of German Idealism
Feb 16, 2009
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a German idealist born in Stuttgart. Since Immanuel Kant, Hegel perhaps produced the most difficult and yet influential works of any philosopher. His most important and celebrated works are The Phenomenology of the Spirit and Philosophy of Right.
Hegel attempts to construct a grand metaphysics that will close the gap between appearance and reality that Immanuel Kant's "transcendental idealism" seemed to have left wide open.
Hegel's Philosophy
Hegelian philosophy is the attainment of completeness or transcendence of all limitation. This means that for Hegel, although falsified scientific theories are not in themselves wholly wrong, they don't tell the whole story.
His ultimate truth is slowly uncovered through the unfolding evolution of the history of the ideas. There is an absolute truth which, Hegel claims, is not propositional truth but rather conceptual. In order to understand this, one should first understand his view on the development of history and of thought.
Hegelian Dialectic
He says that the fundamental principle of the understanding minds is the commitment to the falsehood of contradictions. When an idea is found to involve a contradiction, a new development of thought must occur. Hegel calls this process "dialectic."
Thesis, Antithesis, Synthesis
Hegel further explains his philosophy in these three related terms:
- Thesis --- Hegelian dialectic begins with a thesis, initially taken to be true.
- Antithesis --- The contradictory point of view of the thesis.
- Synthesis --- Faced with the two contradictory ideas, thesis and antithesis, synthesis becomes apparent. Synthesis becomes the new thesis … and so the process continues.
In The Phenomenology of Spirit, he describes the unfolding of Being through history, in which the mind/spirit evolved from mere consciousness through successive stages of self-consciousness, reason, morality and religion to absolute self-knowledge.
In the Philosophy of Rights, he sets out his social and political beliefs, in which he advocates a constitutional monarchy as the ideal society and analyzing the contradictions inherent in unconstrained capitalism.
Hegel concludes: "The significance of that 'absolute' commandment, 'know thyself,' is not to promote mere self-knowledge in respect of the particular capacities of the single self. The knowledge it commands means that of man's genuine reality of spirit as the true and essential being."
Works by George W.F. Hegel
- The Phenomenology of Spirit, 1807
- The Science of Logic, 1812-1816
- Elements of the Philosophy of Right, 1821
- Lectures on the Philosophy of History, 1833-1836
Sources:
Biographical Dictionary, edited by Una Mcgovern, Chambers, 2002
Illustrated Biographical Dictionary, edited by John Clark, London, Chancellor Press, 1994
Philosophy, the Great Thinkers, by Philip Stokes, Capella, 2007
