Today we will talk about a man, a thinker who is rightfully the pinnacle of German classical philosophy. We will talk about the famous founder of the laws of dialectics, who became famous for a completely unique view of the world, which develops, of course, the ideas of its predecessors, but takes them to an incredible height. The system of absolute spirit, absolute idealism is the brainchild of this particular philosopher. The philosopher, who proposed more than 150 fundamentally new concepts, key categories, broad terms with which he “hugs” the whole world around him. The topic of our conversation will be the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.
Hegel's philosophy
The famous philosopher was born in Stuttgart, in one of the southern regions of Germany. Hegel, by a fairly young man, finds the Great French Revolution. A little later, he admires the charismatic political leader - Napoleon Bonaparte. For Hegel, these events have become truly significant. Both the revolution and the vision of the great commander had a great influence on his worldview and his philosophy. Of course, Hegel is a child of his time. That is, this is a man who lives in the situation of the Age of Enlightenment, who begins his own creative career in the framework of analysis, study of the then famous concepts of two great philosophers - Kant and Fichte. Hegel, of course, could not break away from the tradition within which his predecessors lived and acted.
What is an absolute idea?
According to Hegel, at the heart of the world lies an impersonal, spiritual, that is, ideal, autonomous principle, which is the condition and basis for the development of the world as a whole, the development of man, the development of nature. In other words, an absolute idea, an absolute spirit is the ideal principle of “unfolding” the world into diversity, into completely different specifics. To be even closer to the text of Hegel himself, we can say that the absolute idea is a system of self-expanding categories, which are the conditions for the formation of the surrounding world as a whole and human history in particular. Hegel differently calls this his origin, which is the foundation of all things. It can be an absolute idea, it can be a global mind, it can be an absolute spirit - completely different options for explaining this interesting fact. Hegel believes that the key task of an absolute idea is nothing but self-knowledge, the development of self-awareness. An interesting thought that Hegel speaks throughout his entire work, all his creative path.
When Hegel begins to talk about this impersonal beginning, he says that nature cannot be the basis of everything that exists, because nature, according to the philosopher, is a kind of passive substance. It alone does not contain any active activity, an active push. That is, if there wasn’t this absolute idea, nature would have remained the same as it had been for eternity. For any changes and development, a certain creative vein is needed. And here Hegel takes as a basis the human mind - the most important thing in man, that which defines him as a Man - his thinking. Depending on how we think, we are what we are. Therefore, a kind of impetus for the development of the world should be an ideal beginning.
Arguing about what an absolute idea is, Hegel will say that it is also the totality of the entire spiritual human culture. That is, all the experience that has already been accumulated by mankind. Hegel believes that it is at the level of human culture that a unique coincidence of the world of objects of our knowledge about him takes place. Culture, being the embodiment of an absolute spirit or an absolute idea, actually demonstrates not only the embodiment of the possibilities of our thinking, but also a way of seeing the world, a way of understanding it.
The development of an absolute idea
Hegel creates three famous works, which will later be united by one title "Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences". The first work is The Science of Logic, the second is Philosophy of Nature, and the third is Philosophy of the Spirit. In each of these works, Hegel will try to consistently show how this Absolute Idea develops, how it ultimately creates the world.
The Science of Logic
The Science of Logic is one of the most fundamental works, because it is in this work that Hegel will substantiate his views on what is such an absolute idea, what is logic, what is the role of reason and what is the role of thinking in life person and in history as a whole. It is within the framework of this work that the famous principle of ascent from the abstract to the concrete will be formed. What is it?
This is the first step in revealing, in the knowledge of an absolute idea. The key concepts here are “being”, “nothing”, “becoming”, “quantity”, “quality”, “measure” and “leap”. Hegel says that the development of the theory of absolute spirit begins with extremely empty, abstract, not filled with any specific content concepts. Such a concept is pure "being." Just a word, there is no and there can be no certainty, no specificity. It is so undefined that somewhere in something it becomes equal to the concept of "nothing." It is due to the fact that he does not have any qualitative characteristic. The mechanism that connects these two words - “being” and “nothing” is the concept of “becoming”. The result of this "formation", this kind of synthesis becomes the existing "being".
"The doctrine of the essence"
The second part of Hegel's Science of Logic is called The Doctrine of Essence. Here Hegel analyzes in great detail what essence is. This is the foundation of the world, which is constantly being seen through the phenomena that we observe. The essence in its structure, in its essence, in its characteristic is the penetration, as Hegel says, into the internal laws of objects. Hegel says that this penetration reveals a completely unique picture for man. We see that any situation, any process, any phenomenon is inherently contradictory, that is, it contains opposites mutually exclusive to each other.
The third part of the Science of Logic is the concept. This is a category that reproduces, according to Hegel, the entire process of development of being and thinking. That is, the "concept" is always historical. As a result, Hegel obtained a kind of triad in the development of cognition: “being” - “essence” - “concept”. Why such a bunch? Because always our knowledge begins with being, that is, what we observe, see, and discover in our experience.
"Philosophy of nature"
The second stage, necessary in the development of an absolute idea, is described in great detail in Hegel's work Philosophy of Nature. The philosopher writes that the concept of absolute spirit, which is originally logic, that is, the realm of pure thought, is not able to know itself. An absolute idea has its own antithesis, has its own denial, has its own other being. He calls this other being nature.
