Hegel’s Philosophy: Dialectics and Absolute Idealism
Hegel’s Dialectics: Overcoming Dualism
Hegel seeks to overcome the dualism between reason and understanding, between phenomenon and noumenon, and between physical determinism and freedom of conscience. When Hegel speaks of overcoming, he refers to the constant flux of a dynamic, universal reality, where what was true at one time is no longer. The process of overcoming, namely to oppose and fight against elements that are finally reconciled, is called dialectics.
The main law of dialectics is that all realities unfold dialectically, and the law of reason states that reason itself unfolds with dialectical logic. The reality of development processes and the development processes of reason are the same thing, and thought identifies with them.
The dialectical process has three components, often called:
- Thesis: The moment of affirmation.
- Antithesis: The moment of denial.
- Synthesis: The denial of denial, or reconciliation.
Hegel’s Absolute Idealism
Hegel attempts to overcome Fichte’s subjective idealism and Schelling’s objective idealism. In the Hegelian system, there is a reason that governs everything, and this reason is the origin of everything. This drive follows a universal model, a rational plan, an idea. All of this comes true.
The idea and nature manifest material events, and consequently, all reality is impregnated with rationality. The idea now has primacy, manifesting and unfolding itself in nature and in the world. Hegel’s idealism is an absolute idealism; nothing is excluded from this dialectical development in which the idea now has primacy. Absolute indicates the union of all elements that are opposite or contrary in reality. For Hegel, philosophy is the science of the Absolute.
The Hegelian System: Deployment of the Absolute Idea
Hegel’s absolute idealism can be seen as the triadic deployment of the content of the idea. The Hegelian system is a grand exposition of this triadic deployment, the development of the whole of the divine, the absolute idea, through its three stages:
- Logic: The idea in itself.
- Nature: The idea outside itself.
- Spirit: The idea returning to itself.
In Hegelian thought, everything is interconnected and mutually related, forming a system in which every event has its reason for being, and nothing is marginalized.
Logic: The Science of the Idea in Itself
Logic is the science of the idea in itself. In logic, philosophy exhibits its code, the structure of all that will become rational. However, humankind can only access a limited knowledge of this rational plan. After passing through several historical stages, the Spirit is able to contemplate itself deployed in ideas.
Philosophy of Nature: The Idea Outside Itself
The Philosophy of Nature is the science of the exteriorization of the idea in nature. Nature is the negation of the idea, that is, the idea outside itself. Nature follows a dialectical process composed of different moments, from the planets to the impetuous movements of animal life.
Philosophy of Spirit: The Idea Returning to Itself
This philosophy is the most developed part of the system. At this moment, the idea and its negation are reconciled in the Spirit. Through creative freedom, the Spirit objectifies itself in human institutions and their history, and finally achieves self-consciousness and comprehends all that has transpired.
Divisions of the Spirit
- Subjective Spirit (Anthropology, Phenomenology, Psychology): Reveals the individual as freedom and subjectivity, as thought and self-consciousness.
- Objective Spirit (Law, Morality, Ethical Life): The historical incarnation of freedom in the institutions it creates.
- Absolute Spirit (Art, Religion, Philosophy): The moment of the Spirit’s final realization; it achieves its fullness in self-thought.