"To him who looks upon the world rationally, the world in its turn presents a rational aspect. The relation is mutual."And one must wonder if the one actually influences the other.
Hegel proposed a Platonic view towards seeking knowledge (See the reminiscence theory of knowledge). He disagreed with Locke, about the importance of the individual by stating that the whole, (the state) was greater than the sum of its parts, a concept known as synergy. Hegel posited an enveloping absolute spirit at the center of the universe that guides all reality including human reason, a spirit from which we are all alienated. Therefore, that the entire universe had a teleology. He felt that an historical observation of the world pointed to such a connection.
Hegel's aim was to set forth a philosophical system so comprehensive that it would encompass the ideas of his predecessors and create a conceptual framework in terms of which both the past and future could be philosophically understood. Such an aim would require nothing short of a full account of reality itself. To Nietzsche, this drive represented a desire to "be the end of philosophy itself".
Hegel conceived the subject matter of philosophy to be reality as a whole. This is pretty astounding when you realize that less than 100 years later the logical positivists would be saying that philosophy had no subject matter at all, and should exist solely in an auxilary role to science!
The main tenet of Hegel's philosophy relates to the total developmental process of everything there is - he referred to this as the Absolute, or the Absolute Spirit. According to Hegel, the task of philosophy is to chart the development of Absolute Spirit. This involves (1) making clear the internal rational structure of the Absolute; (2) demonstrating the manner in which the Absolute manifests itself in nature and human history; and (3) explicating the teleological nature of the Absolute, that is, showing the end or purpose toward which the Absolute is directed.
"People are the universe's way of learning about itself."Dialectic
- Carl Sagan
Concerning the rational structure of the Absolute, Hegel, following the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides, argued that "what is rational is real and what is real is rational." This must be understood in terms of Hegel's further claim that the Absolute must ultimately be regarded as pure Thought, or Spirit, or Mind, in the process of self-development. (IDEALISM). The logic that governs this developmental process is dialectic. The dialectical method involves the notion that movement, or process, or progress, is the result of the conflict of what appear as opposites. However, since we know as a prima facie fact that no contradictions can actually exist, this is a problem that must be solved.
"Contradictions do not exist. If you think you have one, check your premises. One of them is wrong.Traditionally, this dimension of Hegel's thought has been analyzed in terms of the categories of a triad - a thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Although Hegel tended to avoid these terms, they are helpful in understanding his concept of the dialectic. The thesis, then, might be an idea or a historical movement. Such an idea or movement contains within itself incompleteness that gives rise to opposition, protest or an antithesis, a conflicting idea or movement. As a result of the conflict, a third point of view arises, a synthesis, which overcomes the conflict by reconciling at a higher level the actual truths contained in both the thesis and antithesis. This synthesis becomes a new thesis that generates another antithesis, giving rise to a new synthesis, and in such a fashion the process of intellectual or historical development is continually generated. Logically, one can extrapolate from this that in some finite future there must come the final synthesis - making the entire universe one. Hegel thought that this logical endpoint was the Absolute Spirit itself (which is to say, the sum total of reality) and that therefore all of history was a development, in a dialectical fashion, toward this ultimate end or goal. Such a philosophy is at the core of the work of Ken Wilber.
Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged
For Hegel, therefore, reality is understood as the Absolute unfolding dialectically in a process of self-development with teleological purpose. As the Absolute undergoes this development, it manifests itself both in nature and in human history. Nature is Absolute Thought or Being objectifying itself in material form. Finite minds and human history are the process of the Absolute manifesting itself in that which is most kin to itself, namely, spirit or consciousness. In The Phenomenology of Mind Hegel traced the stages of this manifestation from the simplest level of consciousness, through self-consciousness, to the advent of reason.
Self-Knowledge of the Absolute
The goal of the dialectical cosmic process can be most clearly understood at the level of reason. As finite reason progresses in understanding, the Absolute progresses toward full self-knowledge. Indeed, the Absolute comes to know itself through the human mind's increased understanding of reality, in a fashion that even the atheist Carl Sagan sensed. Hegel analyzed this human progression in understanding in terms of three levels: art, religion, and philosophy. Art grasps the Absolute in material forms, interpreting the rational through the sensible forms of beauty. Art is conceptually superseded by religion, which grasps the Absolute by means of images and symbols. The highest religion for Hegel is Christianity, for in Christianity the truth that the Absolute manifests itself in the finite is symbolically reflected in the incarnation. Philosophy, however, is conceptually supreme, because it grasps the Absolute in a way religion cannot - rationally. Once this has been achieved, the Absolute has arrived at full self-consciousness, and the cosmic drama reaches its endpoint and goal. Only at this point did Hegel identify the Absolute with God. "God is God," Hegel argued, "only in so far as he knows himself."
Philosophy of History
Hegel's two key explanatory categories are reason and freedom. "The only Thought," maintained Hegel, "which Philosophy brings ... to the contemplation of History, is the simple conception of Reason; that Reason is the Sovereign of the world, that the history of the world, therefore, presents us with a rational process." As a rational process, history is a record of the development of human freedom, for human history is a progression from less freedom to greater freedom.
Ethics and Politics
Hegel's social and political views emerge most clearly in his discussion of morality (Moralität) and social ethics (Sittlichkei ). At the level of morality, right and wrong is a matter of individual conscience. One must, however, move beyond this to the level of social ethics, for duty, according to Hegel, is not essentially the product of individual judgment. Individuals are complete only in the midst of social relationships; thus, the only context in which duty can truly exist is a social one. Hegel considered membership in the state one of the individual's highest duties. Ideally, the state is the manifestation of the general will, which is the highest expression of the ethical spirit. Obedience to this general will is paradoxically the act of a free and rational individual. Hegel emerges as a conservative, but he should not be interpreted as sanctioning totalitarianism, for he also argued that the abridgment of freedom by any actual state is morally unacceptable.
Hegel and Dialetheism
Dialetheism is a term from logic, and it implies a rejection of the Law of Non contradiction. In effect, it argues that aspects of reality may well be contradictory - i.e. entities may possess elements and their own negation. The Standford site on philosophy notes that Hegel (as well as his successors in dialectics, such as Marx and Engels) were dialetheists. For example, in the Logic, Hegel says: ‘Something moves, not because at one moment it is here and another there, but because at one and the same moment it is here and not here, because in this "here", it at once is and is not’ (Miller, 1969, p. 440). Indeed, it is the resolution of these contradictory states that drives the development of the history of thought (or society) forwards.
Influence
At the time of Hegel's death, he was the most prominent philosopher in Germany. His views were widely taught, and his students were highly regarded. His followers soon divided into right-wing and left-wing Hegelians. Theologically and politically the right-wing Hegelians offered a conservative interpretation of his work. They emphasized the compatibility between Hegel's philosophy and Christianity. Politically, they were orthodox. The left-wing Hegelians eventually moved to an atheistic position. In politics, many of them became revolutionaries. This historically important left-wing group included Ludwig Feuerbach, Bruno Bauer, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx . Engels and Marx were particularly influenced by Hegel's idea that history moves dialectically, but they replaced Hegel's philosophical idealism with materialism.
Hegel's metaphysical idealism had a strong impact on 19th-century and early 20th-century British philosophy, notably on American philosopher Josiah Royce. Hegel also influenced existentialism through the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard. Phenomenology has been influenced by Hegel's ideas on consciousness. The extensive and diverse impact of Hegel's ideas on subsequent philosophy is evidence of the remarkable range and the extraordinary depth of his thought.
On his deathbed, Hegel uttered these words:
"Only one man ever understood me. And he really didn't understand me."