The inspiring works of Hegelian philosophy. Hegel: biography life ideas philosophy: Hegel

Hegel (Hegel) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (1770-1831), a German philosopher who created a systematic theory of dialectics on an objectively idealistic basis. Its central concept - development - is a characteristic of the activity of the absolute (world spirit), its overtime movement in the field of pure thought in an ascending series of increasingly specific categories (being, nothing, becoming; quality, quantity, measure; essence, phenomenon, reality, concept, an object, an idea ending with an absolute idea), its transition to an alienated state of other being — into nature, its return to itself in a person in the forms of the individual’s mental activity (subjective spirit), super-individual “objective spirit” (rights oh, morality and "morality" - family, civil society, state) and "absolute spirit" (art, religion, philosophy as a form of self-consciousness of the spirit). Contradiction is an internal source of development described in the form of a triad. History is the "progress of the spirit in the consciousness of freedom", which is consistently realized through the "spirit" of individual peoples. The fulfillment of democratic demands was conceived by Hegel as a compromise with the estate system, within the framework of the constitutional monarchy. The main works: "Phenomenology of the spirit", 1807; "The Science of Logic", parts 1-3, 1812-16; "Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences", 1817; "Fundamentals of the philosophy of law", 1821; lectures on the philosophy of history, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, history of philosophy (published posthumously).

Hegel (Hegel) Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (August 27, 1770, Stuttgart - November 14, 1831, Berlin), German philosopher, creator of the system of "absolute idealism".

Life and works

Hegel was born in the family of a financial officer promoting a healthy lifestyle. At seven years old, he entered the Stuttgart gymnasium, where he showed abilities for ancient languages \u200b\u200band history. In 1788, after graduating from high school, he entered the Tubingen Theological Institute. Here he became friends with F.J. Schelling and the poet F. Gelderlin. As a student, Hegel admired the French Revolution (he subsequently changed his mind about it). According to legend, in these years he even planted a “tree of freedom” together with Schelling. In 1793, Hegel received a master's degree in philosophy. In the same year, he completed his education at the institute, after which he worked as a home teacher in Bern and Frankfurt. During this period, he creates the so-called "theological works", published only in the 20th century - "Folk Religion and Christianity", "Life of Jesus", "Positiveness of the Christian Religion".

Having received an inheritance, Hegel was able to pursue an academic career. Since 1801, he became a teacher at the University of Jena. He collaborates with Schelling in the publication of The Critical Philosophical Journal and writes the work The Difference Between Fichte and Schelling Philosophy Systems, in which Schelling is supported (their views later diverged). In the same 1801 he defended his dissertation "On the orbits of the planets." Hegel works hard to create his own system, trying a variety of approaches to its justification. In 1807, he published The Phenomenology of the Spirit, the first of his significant works. A number of vivid images of "Phenomenology" (part of the manuscript by which Hegel miraculously saved during the French invasion of Jena) is the "dialectic of the slave and the lord" as a study of freedom, possible only through slavery, the concept of "unhappy consciousness", etc., as well as the powerfully declared the doctrine of the historicity of the spirit immediately attracted attention and is discussed to this day.

After leaving Jena, Hegel (with the help of his friend F.I. Nithammer) becomes the editor of the Bamberg Newspaper in Bavaria. Despite the moderate nature of the publications, the newspaper soon closes due to censorship reasons. From 1808 to 1816, Hegel was the director of the Gymnasium in Nuremberg. In 1811 he marries (he had several children in his marriage, he also had an illegitimate son), and soon publishes one of his central works - The Science of Logic (in three books - 1812, 1813 and 1815).

Since 1816, Hegel returned to university teaching. Until 1818 he worked in Heidelberg, and from 1818 to 1831 - in Berlin. In 1817, Hegel published the first version of the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences, consisting of the Science of Logic (the so-called Small Logic, as opposed to the Big Logic of 1812–1815), Philosophy of Nature, and Philosophy of Spirit ( during Hegel's life, the Encyclopedia was reprinted twice - in 1827 and 1833). In Berlin, Hegel became the "official philosopher", although he did not fully share the policies of the Prussian authorities. He publishes the Philosophy of Law (1820, on the title - 1821), conducts active lecture activities, writes reviews, and prepares new editions of his works. He has a lot of students. After the death of Hegel from cholera in 1831, students publish his lectures on the history of philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion and philosophy of art.

Hegel was a very unusual person. With difficulty choosing words when talking on ordinary topics, he interestingly talked about the most complicated things. Thinking, he could spend hours standing still, not paying attention to what was happening. In absent-mindedness, he might not have noticed the shoes remaining in the mud and continue walking barefoot. At the same time, he was the "soul of the company" and loved women's society. Petty-bourgeois stinginess combined with his breadth of soul, caution with adventurism. Hegel walked for a long time to his philosophical system, but starting, he immediately overtook his teachers and persecutors. Hegel's philosophy is dual. On the one hand, this is a complex and sometimes artificially tangled network of speculative deductions, on the other hand, aphoristic examples and explanations that sharply distinguish Hegel's style from the esoteric philosophizing of F. J. Schelling. Hegel’s philosophy, as well as the system of his aggressive rival A. Schopenhauer, has in some sense a “transitional” character, manifested in a combination of classical philosophy and new trends of the popular and practically oriented metaphysics, which captured leading positions in Europe in the middle of 19 in. The main pathos of Hegel's philosophy is the recognition of the logical "transparency" of the world, faith in the power of rational principles and world progress, the dialectic of being and history. At the same time, Hegel often avoided direct answers to fundamental questions, which made it difficult to interpret the ontological status of the most important concepts of his philosophy, such as an absolute idea or an absolute spirit, and generated a wide variety of interpretations of the structure and meaning of his system. The decisive influence on Hegel's philosophical views was exerted by the ideas of I. G. Fichte and F. J. Schelling. He was also seriously influenced by J.J. Rousseau and.

Speculative method

The methodological basis of Hegelian philosophy is the doctrine of speculative thinking. Although Hegel argues that the speculative method and its rules are deduced by the very movement of thought, and not pre-sent to its system, in reality such deduction is possible only in the field of speculative thinking, the methods of which should be known in advance. Speculative thinking contains three main points: 1) “rational”, 2) “negative-rational”, or “dialectical”, and 3) “positive-rational”, or actually “speculative”. The absolutization of the first or second moments, which in the “withdrawn” form are part of speculative thinking, leads to a sharp weakening of a person’s cognitive abilities. The rational component of thinking is based on the laws of identity and the excluded third. Reason divides the world with the principle of "either - or." He does not understand the true infinity. The dialectical aspect of thinking is the ability to discover internal contradictions in any finite definition. However, the absolutization of contradictions leads to total skepticism. Hegel believes that reason should not skeptically retreat before contradictions, but synthesize opposites. The ability of such a synthesis manifests a speculative moment of thinking. The synthetic ability of the mind allows you to build up the richness of thought. Hegel calls such building up the movement "from the abstract to the concrete." By concreteness, he understands the multiplicity connected by internal necessity, which is realized only by thinking. In order to achieve higher concreteness, that is, an idea of \u200b\u200bGod, philosophy must show itself as a continuous movement of thought from the emptyness of the empty "concept-in-itself" to the highest fullness of the absolute spirit.

A great philosopher and thinker whose ideas remain fundamental in the theory of idealism. The biography of Georg Hegel is full of scientific ideas that brought the scientist worldwide eternal glory. Hegel's works belong to the pinnacle of philosophical thought and are studied in modern universities as the basis and foundation of science.

Childhood and youth

In August 1770, Georg Ludwig Hegel was born in Stuttgart, who was destined to enter the history of philosophical science. My father served as a high-ranking official at the court of the Duke of Württemberg. Having such an origin, the boy received a first-class education. Father, who considers school education to be insufficient, invested manpower and money, additionally inviting teachers to his home.

The future philosopher himself adored studying, and reading became a passion. Even pocket money was spent on new books. The boy became a regular in the city library. The preference in the literature was given to scientific and philosophical works, as well as to the authors of antiquity. But the works of art, famous German classics, were not included in the circle of favorite books. In the gymnasium, the boy received awards for academic performance and diligence.

After graduating from high school in 1788, Hegel undergoes theological and philosophical courses at a theological seminary at the University of Tubingham. There, a young man defends a dissertation. During his student days he became close to Schelling and the poet Gelderlin. Being young and ardent, like the leading thinkers of that time, he is fond of the calls of the French revolutionaries, but he does not join them.

At the university, the fascination with reading and books continues, which amuses fellow students, but does not bother the young man at all. The worldly joys of youth are also not far from the student. Like friends, the future thinker drank wine, sniffed tobacco and periodically sat out evenings for gambling.

Hegel obtained a master's degree in philosophy, but the last three years of his studies are devoted to theology, although the student was critical of church and worship. Perhaps that is why, despite excellent exams, the young man did not become a priest.

Immediately after graduation, the young man earned by conducting classes for the children of wealthy Germans. Such work did not burden the future philosopher too much, made it possible to work on his own works and conduct scientific research. However, when after the death of his father in 1799, the young man inherited a small inheritance, he stops the teacher’s private work and immerses himself in creativity and science, as well as starts academic teaching service.

Philosophy and Science

The beginning of Hegel's fundamental ideas lies in the work, which is considered the founder of idealism. However, Hegel's philosophy in the process of development departed from Kant, having formed into an independent teaching.

The method of philosophy of the German thinker was called dialectics. The essence of the absolute idea of \u200b\u200bthe mind is that reality is known rationally, since the Universe itself is rational. And the reality in the absolute is just the mind, which reflects itself in the world.

Dialectics is the endless change of thesis antithesis. The philosopher, explaining the concept, believed that any thesis ultimately leads to an antithesis, but the process does not stop there, and the next step is the synthesis of two opposites.

The system of being according to Hegel consists of three stages - being in oneself, being for oneself and being in oneself and for oneself. A similar theory applies to the concepts of spirit and mind. Being initially a spirit in itself, spreading in space, it becomes a being for itself - nature. And nature is developing in consciousness, which in turn also goes through three stages.

The identical principle of dividing into three stages is also used by Hegel in the system of philosophy. Logic is the science of the spirit in itself; philosophy of nature is a science of spirit for oneself; and independent philosophy of spirit.

Significant areas of philosophy for society turned out to be ethics, state theory and the philosophy of history. According to Hegel’s teachings, the state is the highest manifestation of the spirit, the divine idea embodied on earth, that which the spirit created for itself. True, the philosopher notes that only the ideal is such a state. Reality is full of both good and bad states.

History, in turn, is defined as the science of the mind, where events occur according to the laws of the mind. Laws seem cruel and unfair, but they cannot be judged by standard standards. They pursue the goals of the world spirit, which are not immediately accessible to understanding within the framework of society.

Of course, such thoughts are enthusiastically accepted by society and the authorities. Gradually, the doctrine became the official philosophy of the state, although Hegel himself did not fully share the policy of the rulers of Prussia. Hegel's books are published in vast print runs and are studied at universities and institutes.

The first in the list of noticed and appreciated works was Phenomenology of the Spirit, which saw the light in 1807, where fundamental thoughts, ideas of absolutism and the laws of dialectics were formulated.

It should be noted that Hegel did not always clearly define the concepts used. In this regard, directions appear that combine the followers of the doctrine. Philosophers differently interpret the thoughts of the founder of dialectics and form their own laws for the development of absolute spirit.

At different times, Hegel’s teachings were also subjected to harsh criticism. Thus, a contemporary philosopher accused a colleague of quackery, and the doctrine of complete nonsense, presented in a deliberately confusing and foggy way.

Personal life

The post of rector in the Nuremberg gymnasium, received in 1808, did not bring much salary. At first, Hegel and his thoughts were not successful with students. However, as the popularity of the doctrine develops, books that have gained recognition in the higher circles come out, the lectures of the philosopher are collected by full audiences.

In 1811, Hegel decided to start a family and marry the daughter of noble parents, Maria von Tucher. The girl is half the age of her spouse, but adores a great husband, admiring the mind and achievements of the latter.

Hegel led the economy on his own, controlling the expenses and income of the family. The wife managed only one servant. The spouses began to have children. The first daughter died after birth, which often happened to young mothers of that time. And then the birth of two sons followed - Karl and Immanuel.

Family and household chores did not prevent the philosopher from devoting himself to science and writing new books. In 1816, the scientist received an invitation to give lectures as an ordinary professor at the University of Heidelberg. A year later, by decree of the king, he received a position in a professorship at the University of Berlin. At that time, Berlin was the center of intellectual thought, the cream of an enlightened and advanced society lived in the capital.

The scientist quickly got used to the new environment, expanded the circle of acquaintances. Among the new friends appeared ministers, artists, scientific minds. As contemporaries recalled in their memoirs, Hegel loved secular society, was aware of urban rumors. Loved the company of women, young ladies. The philosopher became famous as a real dandy. A significant part of the budget was spent on outfits for him and his wife.

In 1830, Hegel was appointed rector of the University of Berlin, and in 1831 he was awarded the Order of the Red Eagle of the 3rd degree for serving the state.

Death

In 1830, cholera came to Berlin. The philosopher and his family left the city in a hurry. However, already in October, believing that the danger had passed, the rector returned to service by the beginning of the semester. On November 14 of that year, the great scientist passed away.

According to doctors, a brilliant thinker passed away due to an epidemic that took thousands of lives, but a gastrointestinal disease remains a probable reason for passing away. Solemn funeral of the scientist took place on November 16.

Bibliography

1807 - "The Phenomenology of the Spirit"
1812-1816 - The Science of Logic
1817 - "Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences"
1821 - The Philosophy of Law

What are the main ideas of Hegel's philosophy, the philosopher of German classical thought, you will learn from this article.

Hegel main ideas

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegelis a classic of German thought, and his philosophy is the achievement of the 19th century. The views of the professor were formed under the influence of the dialectic of Didro, Cartesian rationalism, Boehme's mysticism and Schelling's philosophy. Not the last role in the formation of his ideas was played by discoveries in the field of natural sciences and the spiritual mood of the Great French Revolution.

Hegel's philosophy differs from other philosophical systems in that the thinker did not try to understand what is the meaning of all that exists. On the contrary, he perceived everything that existed as thinking, which turned into philosophy. His views and ideas are not subordinate to an independent object, nature or God. For the professor, God is an absolutely perfect thinking mind, and nature is the shell of dialectical reality. For the thinker, the essence of philosophy is self-awareness.

Hegel main ideas: briefly

The ideas of the philosopher are expressed through the basic concepts of his philosophy.

Hegel believed that an outstanding personality who does world-historical deeds is an unchallenged morality. Only the greatness of the affair matters, not its moral meaning.
The absolute ideas of Hegel's philosophy imply the idealism of concrete and unconditional universality with the starting point and the ultimate goal of knowledge.
The subjective spirit is the individualization of the soul, which is characterized by the alienation of an absolute idea.
Objective spirit is the alienation of an absolute idea in the objective world, which is accompanied by the emergence of morality, law and morality.
Absolute spirit is the last step in rejecting an absolute idea. On it, the absolute spirit takes on the form of art, philosophy and religion, as the true embodiment of absolute knowledge.
Alienation. Hegel said that this is a reflection of the absolute spirit in nature and history, the relationship between created reality and man.
Withdrawal. This is a process of denial of denial, continuity in development from the old new.
Triad. It is a universal reflection of all development processes and consists of 3 steps: the thesis is the initial factor, the antithesis is the negation of the original essence, the synthesis is the combination of the thesis and antithesis.

In addition, Hegel's philosophical point of view was reflected in philosophical principles. They are in the transition from abstraction to historicism, systematic, concrete and contradictory.

The principle of ascent to the concrete from the abstract. This is the main dialectical method of cognition. Deep concrete knowledge that combines the special and the general occurs through the knowledge of the contentless and the general by deepening knowledge.
Principle of historicism. Any object of knowledge is the result of a development process. Moreover, cognition takes into account the historical dimension of the object. Hegel believes that the historical and logical aspects coincide.
The principle of consistency. The real world is considered as a single whole, in which all elements are interconnected with each other to the necessary extent. It is noteworthy that the system does not develop by elements, but as a whole.
Principle of contradiction. This is the reason and root cause of development. It can destroy the old system and build a completely new one.

We hope that from this article you learned what are the main ideas of G. Hegel.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) is a German philosopher who created a systematic theory of dialectics on an objectively idealistic basis. Its central concept - development - is a characteristic of the activity of the absolute (world spirit), its overtime movement in the field of pure thought in an ascending series of increasingly specific categories (being, nothing, becoming; quality, quantity, measure; essence, phenomenon, reality, concept, an object, an idea ending with an absolute idea), its transition to an alienated state of other being — into nature, its return to itself in a person in the forms of the individual’s mental activity (subjective spirit), super-individual “objective spirit” (right in, morality and “morality” - the family, civil society, state) and “absolute spirit” (art, religion, philosophy as a form of self-consciousness of the spirit).

Contradiction is an internal source of development described in the form of a triad. History is “the progress of the spirit in the consciousness of freedom”, successively realized through the “spirit” of individual peoples. The fulfillment of democratic demands was conceived by Hegel as a compromise with the estate system, within the framework of the constitutional monarchy.

The true essence of love is to give up consciousness of oneself, forget oneself in another "I" and, however, in this disappearance and oblivion to find oneself ...

The main works of Hegel: "Phenomenology of the spirit", 1807; The Science of Logic, parts 1-3, 1812-16; "Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences", 1817; "Fundamentals of the philosophy of law", 1821; lectures on the philosophy of history, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, history of philosophy (published posthumously).

Hegel's life and works

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born on August 27, 1770, in Stuttgart, in the family of a financial official. At seven years old, he entered the Stuttgart gymnasium, where he showed abilities for ancient languages \u200b\u200band history. In 1788, after graduating from high school, he entered the Tubingen Theological Institute, in which he made friends with Friedrich Wilhelm Schelling and the poet Friedrich Gelderlin. As a student, Hegel admired the French Revolution (he subsequently changed his mind about it). According to legend, in these years he even planted a “tree of freedom” with Schelling.

In 1793, Hegel received a master's degree in philosophy. In the same year he completed his education at the institute, after which he worked as a home teacher in Bern and Frankfurt. During this period, he created the so-called "theological works", published only in the 20th century - "Folk Religion and Christianity", "Life of Jesus", "Positiveness of the Christian Religion".

Civil society gives us an example of both extraordinary luxury, excesses, and an example of poverty, and their common feature of physical and moral degeneration.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Having received an inheritance, Hegel was able to pursue an academic career. From 1801 he became a teacher at the University of Jena. He collaborated with Schelling in the publication of The Critical Philosophical Journal and wrote the work The Difference Between Fichte and Schelling Philosophy Systems, in which Schelling was supported (then their views diverged). In the same 1801, he defended his thesis "On the orbits of the planets."

Hegel worked hard to create his own system, trying a variety of approaches to its justification. In 1807 he published The Phenomenology of the Spirit, the first of his significant works. A number of vivid images of “Phenomenology” (part of the manuscript by which Hegel miraculously saved during the French invasion of Jena) is “the dialectic of a slave and master” as a study of freedom, possible only through slavery, the concept of “unhappy consciousness” and others, as well as the powerful teaching about the historicity of the spirit immediately attracted attention and are discussed to this day.

After leaving Jena, Hegel (with the help of his friend F. I. Nithammer) got a job as editor of the Bamberg Newspaper in Bavaria. After his departure, the newspaper was closed for censorship reasons. From 1808 to 1816, Hegel was the director of the gymnasium in Nuremberg. In 1811 he married (in this marriage the philosopher had several children, he also had an illegitimate son), and soon published one of his central works - The Science of Logic (in three books - 1812, 1813 and 1815).

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

In Berlin, Gelel became an “official philosopher,” although he did not fully share the policies of the Prussian authorities. He published the Philosophy of Law (1820, 1821 on the title), conducted active lecture activities, wrote reviews, and prepared new editions of his works. He had many students. After the death of Hegel from cholera in 1831, students published his lectures on the history of philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophy of religion and philosophy of art.

Happy is he who has arranged his existence in such a way that it matches the characteristics of his character.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Hegel's philosophy is dual. On the one hand, this is a complex and sometimes artificially tangled network of speculative deductions, on the other hand, aphoristic examples and explanations that sharply distinguish Hegel's style from the esoteric philosophizing of F. J. Schelling. Hegel’s philosophy, as well as the system of his aggressive rival Arthur Schopenhauer, has in some sense a “transitional” character, manifested in a combination of classical philosophy and new trends in the popular and practically oriented metaphysics, which captured leading positions in Europe in the mid-19th century . The main pathos of Hegel's philosophy is the recognition of the logical "transparency" of the world, faith in the power of a rational beginning and world progress, the dialectic of being and history. At the same time, Hegel often avoided direct answers to fundamental questions, which made it difficult to interpret the ontological status of the most important concepts of his philosophy, such as an absolute idea or an absolute spirit, and generated a wide variety of interpretations of the structure and meaning of his system. The decisive influence on Hegel's philosophical views was exerted by the ideas of I. G. Fichte and F. J. Schelling. He was also seriously influenced by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Immanuel Kant.

The secret of happiness lies in the ability to leave the circle of your "I".

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Hegel's speculative method

The methodological basis of Hegelian philosophy is the doctrine of speculative thinking. Although Hegel argued that the speculative method and its rules are deduced by the very movement of thought, and not pre-sent to its system, in reality such deduction is possible only in the field of speculative thinking, the methods of which should be known in advance. Speculative thinking contains three main points:

1) "rational";

2) “negatively reasonable,” or “dialectical”;

3) “positively reasonable”, or actually “speculative”.

The absolutization of the first or second moments, which in the “withdrawn” form are part of speculative thinking, leads to a sharp weakening of a person’s cognitive abilities. The rational component of thinking is based on the laws of identity and the excluded third. Reason divides the world with the principle of "either - or." He does not understand the true infinity. The dialectical aspect of thinking is the ability to discover internal contradictions in any finite definition. However, the absolutization of contradictions leads to total skepticism. Hegel believed that reason should not skeptically yield to contradictions, but synthesize opposites. The ability of such a synthesis manifests a speculative moment of thinking.

Everything real is rational, everything rational is real.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

The synthetic ability of the mind allows you to build up the richness of thought. Hegel called this building the movement "from the abstract to the concrete." By concreteness, he understood the multiplicity connected by inner necessity, which is realized only by thinking. To achieve a higher concreteness, that is, an idea of \u200b\u200bGod, philosophy must show itself as a continuous movement of thought from the emptyness of the empty "concept-in-itself" to the highest fullness of the absolute spirit.

Two options for a philosophical system

The first version of the system published by Hegel included “The Phenomenology of the Spirit” as a “science of the experience of consciousness” as a kind of propaedeutics, a critical introduction to philosophy. The phenomenology of the spirit is followed by “logic,” and the logic should be followed by a “real philosophy,” including the philosophy of nature and the philosophy of spirit. The phenomenology of the spirit as the first part of the system is Hegel’s tribute to the new European philosophy of subjectivity. Based on the analysis of empirical consciousness, Hegel eventually showed that behind the external separation of consciousness into a sensing or thinking subject and object lies their identity, “absolute knowledge”. Having proved the identity of thinking and being in the “Phenomenology of the Spirit”, in “Logic” Hegel assumed it to be famous and talked about a single thinking-being, that is, the absolute.

For my action to have moral value, my conviction must be connected with it. It is immoral to do something out of fear of punishment or in order to gain a good opinion of yourself from others.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

The second version of the system is stated by Hegel in the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences. It is devoid of a phenomenological introduction and includes logic, a philosophy of nature, and a philosophy of spirit, one of which is phenomenology. Now Hegel believed that the truth of the system can be verified by self-justification. Self-justification involves the isolation of the system on itself. Hegel really draws an impressive philosophical circle. He began with the thought of pure being, and ended with the deduction of himself (i.e., man), who thinks of pure being, and then the absolute. The stages of this path are the derivation of the logical “absolute idea” and its alienation into nature, the discovery of biological organisms and humans in nature, the deduction of human spiritual abilities, the identification of the social nature of man, as well as the doctrine of the types of spiritual life, art, religion and philosophy called Hegel forms of absolute spirit. According to Hegel, it turns out that the absolute spirit, that is, God, attains self-knowledge in human thinking.

Mankind has been freed not so much from enslavement as through enslavement. After all, rudeness, greed, injustice are evil; a person who has not freed himself from him is incapable of morality, and discipline freed him from this very desire.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Three Attitudes of Thought to Objectivity

Hegel made a large-scale attempt to classify the possible types of philosophical knowledge, “the relationship of thought to objectivity”, highlighting its three main varieties: “metaphysics”, “empiricism” and “direct knowledge”. Metaphysics (an example of which is the system of the German philosopher Christian Wolf) is characterized by a naive belief in the identity of being and thinking, i.e., in the possibility of thought to comprehend things adequately, as well as a claim to cognition of the world through abstract rational representations. Empiricism (which Hegel considers British philosophers of the 17th-18th centuries to be typical representatives), realizing the dogmatism and abstractness of metaphysics, tries to eliminate it by appealing to an experience in which he wants to find a solid basis for concrete knowledge. The mistake of empiricism in the misunderstanding that sensory knowledge has only the appearance of concreteness. Moreover, an exclusive orientation to experience leads to the conclusion that it is impossible to know things as they exist by themselves, and not how they appear to us in our feelings.

The denial of the identity of being and thinking found its end in the system of Kantian criticism, which, according to Hegel, is a logical continuation of the empiricism of modern times. The philosophy of “direct knowledge”, by the representative of which Hegel called the German writer and philosopher-irrationalist Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi, fills the illusion of the possibility of a direct discretion of truth. The direct, however, is inextricably linked with the indirect. Only the simplest and poorest definitions can be directly thought. The main subject of philosophy, the absolute, can be adequately understood only by a long movement of thought towards true universality.

Man will not become the master of nature until he becomes the master of himself.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Hegel contrasted these three types of philosophy with “absolute idealism”, which eliminates the shortcomings of metaphysics, empiricism, and the concept of direct knowledge and incorporates all their advantages. From metaphysics, absolute idealism takes confidence in the possibilities of human cognition, from empiricism - a critical attitude and desire for concreteness, from a philosophy of direct knowledge - the thesis that it is necessary to start philosophy with direct definitions and, through a series of mediations, move towards the higher goal of cognition. Hegel did not like the subjectivity of the New Age with its principle of I as the beginning of philosophy. He believed that the idea of \u200b\u200bthe I was replete with many hidden mediations. Only the concept of pure being is suitable for the role of the beginning.

Hegel's logic

Hegel defined logic as "the doctrine of a pure idea." Moreover, the content of logic is "the image of God, what he is in his eternal essence before the creation of nature and any kind of finite spirit." Hegel divided logic into “objective” and “subjective”. The first contains the doctrine of being and the doctrine of essence, the second - the doctrine of the concept.

In the doctrine of being, Hegel began with the concept of "pure being," empty thought. As such, it equates to nothing. But nothing, Hegel argued, opposes pure being, which, therefore, passes into its opposite.

Man is nothing but a series of his actions.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

The next definition of thought was becoming as a moving unity of being and nothing. The result of one of the forms of formation (“occurrence”) is “present being”, concretized in the image of “quality”, that is, “immediate certainty identical with being”. "Reflected in itself in this certainty," being is "present-being, something."

Hegel further showed that, implying its own certainty, that is, the boundary, this “something” also implies “its own other,” something that is outside. "Something" sets in motion, transcending its own borders. But since, passing them, something turns into another something, that is, as if returns to itself, then, changing, it remains the same. This is a new definition of thought - "for-itself-being." The border "for-itself-being" becomes indifferent to it, and the quality turns into quantity, which is "pure being, in which certainty is no longer laid out as identical with being itself, but as withdrawn." Hegel then showed how quantity goes back to quality. A new definition arises - “measure” as the unity of quantity and quality, which is manifested in the law of the transition of quantitative changes to qualitative ones.

Man is immortal through knowledge. Cognition, thinking is the root of his life, his immortality.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

The concept of measure completes the doctrine of being. Hegel called the following doctrine of essence as a sphere of "reflective definitions" the most complex section of logic. It begins with “appearance”, that is, a “measure”, reflexed as an insignificant or baseless being. The reflection of being in itself gives an "identity", in which, however, the beginning of the "difference" is laid. The deepening of the distinction gives a "contradiction", resolving into a "foundation". The foundation justifies “existence”, and existence unfolds into “phenomenon”, which then merges with “essence” in the totality of “reality”.

In moving from one definition of thought to another, Hegel was often guided by linguistic intuitions, as he was sure that the German language was endowed with a true speculative spirit. Especially there are a lot of such moments in the doctrine of essence. For example, Hegel proved the transition from the concept of contradiction to the concept of foundation with the reference to the fact that opposites are “destroyed” (gehen zu Grunde), and Grund is the foundation. The etymology of the word "existence" (Existenz) indicates, according to Hegel, to "the origin of something, and existence is being, originating from the foundation." If we admit that poetry is a sense of language, then these and similar examples allow us to speak of Hegel's philosophy as a kind of poetry of concepts.

Conscience is a moral lamp illuminating a good path; but when they turn to bad, they break it.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Subjective logic, or the doctrine of the concept of a freely developing “reality”, opens with the doctrine of subjective concepts, judgments and conclusions (only this part of the “Science of Logic” recalls the traditional subject of this science). Hegel believed that every true concept contains three main points: unity, features and universality. He rejected the identification of a concept with a general idea. A concept is such a general idea that incorporates singularity and singularity. The triune nature of the concept is revealed in judgments (for example, the judgment “this is a rose” expresses the identity of individuality and universality) and, most of all, in conclusions.

The next step on the path to the absolute idea, Hegel called the "object" as a concept, "defined to immediacy." The object is revealed through the "mechanism", "chemistry" and "teleology". The synthesis of “concepts and objectivity” gives the idea, and the unity of the moments of the idea, “life” and “knowledge” - the “absolute idea”, the deduction of which completes the logic.

The relationship of two persons of different sex, called marriage, is not just a natural, animal union and not just a civil contract, but primarily a moral union that arises on the basis of mutual love and trust and turns spouses into one person.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Philosophy of nature and philosophy of spirit

The doctrine of the nature of Hegel is based on the thesis that nature is a different being of an absolute idea. The estrangement of an idea from itself has the character of an ontological decline. Reflecting the structure of the idea and embodying the multiplicity, nature is not nevertheless a true specificity, since the diverse in it is “out of position”. Nature is not without a moment of chance and an irrational beginning. Considering nature to be a non-existence of an invariable idea, Hegel denied evolutionist concepts: nature “exists as it exists; therefore, its changes are only repetitions, its movement is only a cycle. ” Of course, Hegel could not dispute the facts of, say, geological history. But he said that even “if the Earth was in such a state when there was nothing living on it, but only a chemical process, etc., then all the same, with the very first lightning strike of life into matter, a definite, finished education as Minerva emerges fully armed from the head of Jupiter. " “Man has not developed from an animal,” he continues, “just like an animal did not develop from a plant; every being is immediately and wholly what it is. ”

Hegel considered space, time, mechanical and chemical interactions of the elements, and also life as the main forms of natural existence. In life, nature passes “into its truth, into the subjectivity of the concept,” that is, into the spirit.

Speech is an amazingly powerful tool, but you need to have a lot of mind to use it.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

The philosophy of the spirit, dealing with man in all aspects of his mental and social being, consists of three sections that consider the subjective, objective, and absolute spirit. The philosophy of the subjective spirit breaks down into anthropology, the subject of analysis of which is the human soul in its “natural”, still fragile existence, a phenomenology that analyzes the history of consciousness in its advancement through self-consciousness to reason (in the broad sense), as well as psychology that considers the hierarchy of mental abilities, from sensuality to practical reason. The philosophy of objective spirit studies the forms of human social being. The initial concept of this part of the philosophy of spirit is freedom identical with practical reason, objectified in ownership. Ownership involves a system of law. Hegel called subjective awareness of law, considered in contrast to it, morality. The synthesis of morality and law is morality. The elementary unit of morality is the family. The purpose of the existence of the family is the birth of a child, who eventually creates his own family. Plurality of families forms a “civil society” as a sphere of “private interests”. Various corporations and police arise to streamline them.

Reason can form without a heart, and a heart without reason; there are one-sided reckless hearts and heartless minds.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Civil society was not the highest form of social life for Hegel. He considered the state as such. The state expresses the unity of the aspirations of the people. His device should reflect this feature. The best option is a monarchy. Hegel considered the Prussian monarchy a state close to ideal. He believed that every state has its own interests that are higher than the interests of individual citizens. In case of internal necessity, it can enter into war with other states, which Hegel considered a natural phenomenon in history. He understood history as self-disclosure of the “world spirit”, as a progressive movement of mankind towards the realization of freedom.

On this path, humanity has gone through several important stages. In the eastern despots, only one was free (monarch), in the Greco-Roman world - some (citizens), in the German world, who comes with the reign of Christianity, everyone is free. History develops beyond the will of the people. They can pursue their own interests, but the "trick of the world of reason" directs the vector of movement in the right direction. In every period of history, the world spirit chooses a certain people to realize its goals, and among this people - outstanding people, as if embodying the meaning of the era. Among such people, Hegel mentioned Alexander the Great and Napoleon.

Morality is the mind of the will.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

The world spirit as an object of subjective reflection, i.e., the unity of the subjective and objective spirit, becomes an absolute spirit. There are three forms of absolute spirit: art, religion, and philosophy. Art expresses the absolute in sensory images, religion in “representations,” philosophy in speculative terms. Hegel considered philosophy the most appropriate way of knowing the absolute. Art, according to Hegel, is “symbolic” when the image and the object only relate to each other externally, “classical” when they are harmoniously combined, and “romantic” when the artist has an understanding of the inexpressibility of the idea in the images. The highest form of art, according to Hegel, is classical art, which found its perfect expression in ancient culture (by the way, Hegel also greatly appreciated ancient philosophy, especially Greek). Hegel considered Christianity, the "absolute religion," the most adequate form of religion.

Hegel made a significant contribution to Christian theology, trying to give a new substantiation of the most important dogmas of Christianity and challenging Kant's criticism of the evidence of the existence of God. As for philosophy, he called his own "absolute idealism" the final system of philosophy.

Nothing great in the world is accomplished without passion.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Hegel was sure that the whole history of philosophy is a consistent disclosure of the content of the absolute. The change of philosophical systems ideally corresponds to a "sequence of deriving the logical definitions of an idea." In his opinion, there are no false philosophical systems, there are only more or less adequate theories of the absolute. Philosophy is also of great social importance. The philosopher said that she "is her era, captured in thought." However, philosophy never keeps up with history, "the owl of Minerva flies out at dusk."

Hegel's influence on philosophy

Hegel had a tremendous influence on the philosophy of the 19th century. Numerous students and followers were divided into “right,” “left,” and “orthodox” (K. Michlet, K. Rosencrantz) Hegelianism. Right-wing Hegelians (K. Geshel, G. Hinriks) offered a theological interpretation of Hegel's philosophy, left-wingers (Arnold Ruge, Bruno Bauer and others) radicalized the ideas of the teacher, sometimes giving them an atheistic or even revolutionary interpretation.

In the bowels of the left Hegelianism a wide movement of “Young Hegelians” arose, incorporating the philosophical teachings of Ludwig Feuerbach, Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and others. According to the well-known, albeit indisputable formula, Feuerbach “turned Hegel upside down”, depriving his “absolute idea” of independent existence and declaring God a projection of human essence. Marxists, on the other hand, considered the reformed Hegelian philosophy to be one of the most important sources of the new ideology of the working class. Hegel’s famous thesis “real rational, rational really” was interpreted by them in the sense of the need for a conscious transformation of the world. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, neo-Hegelianism arose, the echoes of which are still heard in neo-Marxism, hermeneutics, and other philosophical directions.

When a person commits a particular moral act, then he is not yet virtuous; he is virtuous only if this mode of behavior is a constant feature of his character.

Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich

Works:

Werke, Bd 1 - 19, B., 1832 - 87: Sämtliche Werke, hrsg. von H. Glockner, Bd 1-26, Stuttg., 1927-40;

Sämtliche Werke. Kritische Ausgabe, hrsg. von G. Lasson und J. Hoffmeister, Bd 1-30, Lpz. - Hamb., 1923 - 60 -;

Theologische Jugendschriften, Tübingen, 1907;

Briefe von und an Hegel, Bd 1 - 3, Hamb.,: In Russian. per. - Works, t. 1 - 14, M. - L., 1929 - 59;

Aesthetics, t. 1 - 2 -, M., 1968 - 69 -;

Science of Logic, vol. 1 -, M., 1970;

Works of different years, t. 1 - 2, M., 1970 - 71.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel - Wallpaper

Education aims to make a person an independent being, that is, a creature with free will.

Life is an endless cultivation. To consider yourself perfect is to kill yourself.

Of all immoral relations in general, the attitude towards children as slaves is the most immoral.

Truth is born of heresy, but dies by prejudice.

History teaches only that it never taught anything to the nations.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is a world famous German philosopher. His principal achievement was the development of the theory of so-called absolute idealism. In it, he managed to overcome such dualisms as consciousness and nature, the subject and the object. Georg Hegel, whose philosophy of Spirit united many concepts, still remains an outstanding figure, inspiring new generations of thinkers. In this article we will briefly review his biography and main ideas. Particular attention will be paid to the philosophy of the Absolute Spirit, ontology, epistemology and dialectics.

Biographical Information

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel from childhood was a very curious child. We call such people “pochimuchki”. He was born into the family of an influential official. His father was strict and loved order in everything. Nothing in nature and human relations left him indifferent. Even in early childhood, Georg Hegel read books on the culture of the ancient Greeks. As you know, they were the first philosophers. It is believed that it was this passion that prompted Hegel to his future professional activities. He graduated from a Latin gymnasium in his native Stuttgart. In addition to reading, in the life of the philosopher in general there were few other occupations. Georg Hegel spent most of his time in various libraries. He was an excellent specialist in the field, followed the events of the French bourgeois revolution, but he did not take part in the public life of the country. Hegel Georg graduated from the theological university. After that, he was engaged exclusively in teaching and his scientific research. With the beginning of his career, Schelling, with whom they were friends, helped him a lot. However, then they quarreled on the basis of their philosophical views. Schelling even claimed that Hegel appropriated his ideas. However, history has put everything in its place.

Fundamentals of Philosophical Thought

Hegel has written many works in his life. The most prominent of these are the Science of Logic, the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences, and the Foundations of the Philosophy of Law. Hegel considered any transcendentalism inconsistent, since it breaks down such dual categories as “thing” and “idea”, “world” and “consciousness”. Perception is primary. The world is its derivative. Any transcendentalism is obtained due to the fact that there are pure possibilities of experience that are superimposed on the world to obtain universal experience. Thus appears the Hegelian “absolute idealism”. Spirit, as the only reality, is not a frozen primary matter. Hegel's whole philosophy can be reduced to substantial discourse. According to Hegel, the Spirit is cyclical; it overcomes itself each time in double negation. Its main characteristic is self-promotion. It is designed as a subjective thought. The philosophical system is built on the basis of the triad: thesis, antithesis and synthesis. On the one hand, the latter makes it rigorous and clear. On the other hand, it allows us to show the progressive development of the world.

Georg Wilhelm Hegel: The Philosophy of Absolute Idea

The theme of the Spirit developed within the framework of a wide tradition and originates from Plato and Emanuel Kant. Georg Hegel also recognized the influence of Proclus, Eckhart, Leibniz, Boehme, Rousseau. All these scientists are distinguished from materialists by the fact that they considered freedom and self-determination as things that have important ontological consequences for the soul, mind, and divinity. Many followers of Hegel call his philosophy a kind of absolute idealism. The Hegelian concept of the Spirit is defined as an attempt to find the place of the divine essence in everyday life. To prove their argument, these followers quote from an eminent German philosopher. From these, they conclude that the world is identical with the absolute idea (the so-called Spirit). However, in reality, these statements are far from the truth. Georg Friedrich Hegel, whose philosophy is actually much more complicated, means by the Spirit not regularities, but facts and theories that exist separately from consciousness. Their existence does not depend on whether they are known to man. In this, Hegel's is similar to Newton’s second law. It is only a scheme that facilitates understanding of the world.

Hegel Ontology

In the "Science of Logic" the German philosopher identifies the following types of being:

Clean (things and space that are interconnected).
Cash (all divided).
Being-for-itself (abstract things that are opposed to everything else).

Hegelian epistemology

Georg Hegel, whose philosophy is often considered in university courses immediately after Kant, although he was influenced by his ideas, did not accept many of them. In particular, he fought with his agnosticism. For Kant, antinomies cannot be resolved, and this conclusion is the end of the theory. There is no further development. However, Georg Hegel finds an engine in problems and hindrances. For example, we cannot confirm in any way that the Universe is infinite. For Kant, this is an unresolved paradox. He goes beyond the bounds of experience, therefore, can not be meaningful and rational. Hegel Georg believes that this situation is the key to finding a new category. For example, endless progress. The epistemology of Hegel is built on contradiction, and not on experience. The latter is not like Kant.

Dialectics

The German philosopher Georg Hegel contrasted his teachings with everyone else. He did not try to find the root causes of the phenomena or their resolution in the final result. Simple categories he turns into complex. Truth is contained in the contradiction between them. In this he is close to Plato. The latter called the art of debate as a dialectic. However, Georg Friedrich Hegel went even further. In his philosophy there are no two debaters, but there are only two concepts. An attempt to combine them leads to decay, from which a new category is formed. All this contradicts the third law of Aristotle's logic. Hegel manages to find in contradiction an eternal impulse for the movement of thought along the road paved by an absolute idea.

Elements of the Spirit:

Being (quantity, quality).
Essence (reality, phenomenon).
Concept (idea, subject, object).
Mechanics (space, time, matter, motion).
Physics (substance, shaping).
Organics (zoology, botany, geology).
Subjective (anthropology, psychology, phenomenology), objective (law, morality) and absolute (philosophy, religion, art) spirit.

Social philosophy

Many criticize Hegel for the unscientific nature of his conclusions about nature. However, he never claimed it. Hegel revealed interconnections through contradictions and tried to organize knowledge in this way. He did not claim to discover new truths. Many see Hegel as the founding father of the theory of the development of consciousness. Although his work “The Science of Logic” does not at all describe the existence of a kind of absolute mind, which is the root cause of the existence of everything. Categories do not produce nature. Therefore, we can say that Marx and Engels turned Hegel's dialectic upside down. It was beneficial for them to write that the idea was embodied in history. In fact, the Absolute Spirit according to Hegel is only the accumulated knowledge of mankind about the world.

Marxism and the Frankfurt School

The name of Hegel is closely related to us today with another philosophical system. This is because Marx and Engels relied heavily on Hegel, although they interpreted his ideas in a way that was beneficial to them. Representatives of the Frankfurt School were even more radical thinkers. They base their concept on the inevitability of technological disasters. According to them, popular culture requires the sophistication of information technology, which will necessarily lead to problems in the future. It is safe to say that the dialectical materialism of the Marxists and the Frankfurt School is increasingly becoming a thing of the past. And Hegel’s ideas are now undergoing a new birth.

Georg Hegel: ideas and their development

The teachings of the German philosopher include three parts:

The philosophy of the Spirit.
The logic.
The philosophy of nature.

Hegel argued that religion and philosophy are identical. Only the presentation of information is different. Hegel considered his system as the crown of development of philosophy. Hegel's merit consists in establishing in philosophy and in the general consciousness of true and fruitful concepts: process, development, history. He argues that there is nothing separate, not connected with everything. This is the process. As for history and development, they are explained by Hegel even more vividly. It is impossible to understand a phenomenon without understanding the whole path that it has taken. And an important role in its disclosure is played by the contradiction, which allows development to occur not in a vicious circle, but progressively - from lower to higher forms. Hegel made a great contribution to the development of the method of science, that is, a combination of artificial devices invented by man and independent of the subject of research. The philosopher has shown in his system that knowledge is therefore Truth for him cannot be a finished result. It is constantly developing and revealing in contradiction.