Philosophy
1770 to 1831, Stuttgart, Germany
The dialectic, the self-development of Spirit (Geist), and history as the unfolding of freedom.
Start learning G. →Hegel saw reality and thought as moving by contradiction: every position generates its opposite, and the conflict is resolved in a higher unity that preserves both. This dialectical motion is the engine of his entire ph…
Hegel’s idealism holds that reality is ultimately Geist - Spirit or Mind - coming to know itself. The Absolute is not a static thing beyond the world but the whole process by which reality becomes self-conscious t…
In the most famous passage of the Phenomenology, two self-consciousnesses meet and fight to the death for recognition. The outcome - one becomes master, one becomes slave - sets in motion a dialectic in which, paradoxic…
Hegel saw world history as the progress of the consciousness of freedom - the rational self-development of Spirit, advancing from the ancient world (where one was free) through the classical world (where some were free)…
At the summit of Hegel’s system, Spirit grasps the Absolute through three forms: art (the Absolute in sensuous form), religion (in representation and feeling), and philosophy (in pure thought). In philosophy, Spir…
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