Hegel - biography, facts from life, photographs, reference information. Hegel: short biography, philosophy and main ideas

It does not matter when a person lives, if his creation is in the zone of spatial values. Only for linear people such people can be history. For those who think and try to know themselves, they are always in the present and even in the future.

For me, Hegel is one of the founders of the theory of the development of consciousness, where he compares subjective analysis with objective analysis, not to resolve the issue in favor of one of them, but to identify the absolute concept, where spirit and consciousness are one. This allows us to know the natural-spatial connection of consciousness, which is so necessary for understanding the concept of human existence.

One of the greatest philosophers of his time, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, had an exceptional influence on the development of philosophical thought both in Western Europe and in Russia in the 40-60s of the 19th century. The German idealist philosopher opposed the dominant scientific thought in the 18th century (which considered the objective world and its reflection in the human psyche as a system of unchanging and self-contained elements) with the dialectical method, which required the study of the surrounding nature and human history in their movement and inseparable connection.

From Hegel's point of view, there is nothing immutable and constant, everything flows, moves and changes ... And the essence of this movement is not the laws of evolution, but the path of dialectics, that is, the path of development based on contradictions. The basis of everything that exists, for Hegel, is the Absolute Spirit, the development of which according to immanent laws constitutes the dialectical process.

Curriculum vitae

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart on August 27, 1770 into a Protestant family. After graduating from the gymnasium, Hegel entered the theological department of the University of Tübingen (1788–1793), where he took courses in philosophy and theology and defended his master's thesis. Hegel's friends here were the young Friedrich von Schelling, the future great idealist philosopher, and Friedrich Hölderlin, whose poetry had a profound influence on German literature. At the university, Hegel was also fond of studying the works of Immanuel Kant and the works of F. Schiller.

In 1799, after the death of his father, Hegel, having received a small inheritance, was able to enter the field of academic activity, and in 1800 the first draft of the future philosophical system (“Fragment of the System”) arose.

The following year, after submitting his thesis De orbitis planetarum to the University of Jena, Hegel received permission to lecture. At the university, Hegel managed to realize his research and analytical talent, while simultaneously receiving the status of a professor. Hegel's lectures were devoted to a wide range of topics: logic and metaphysics, natural law and pure mathematics.

In the same period, Hegel clearly formed the provisions of his first major work, Phenomenology of the Spirit (Phänomenologie des Geistes, 1807). In this work, Hegel develops the idea of ​​the progressive movement of consciousness from the immediate sensual certainty of sensation to its perception and then to the knowledge of rational reality, which leads a person to absolute knowledge. Thus, for Hegel, only reason is the only real.

In 1806, Hegel left Jena to accept the post of rector of the classical gymnasium in Nuremberg two years later. Here, for eight years of work, Hegel received a wealth of experience - both as a teacher and as a scientist. He talked a lot with people, lectured on the philosophy of law, ethics, logic, phenomenology of the spirit, various areas of philosophy. He also had to teach literature, Greek, Latin, mathematics and the history of religion.

In 1811 he married Maria von Tucher, who was from a family of Bavarian nobility. During this rather happy period for himself, Hegel wrote the most important works of his system (for example, "The Science of Logic" (Die Wissenschaft der Logik, 1812-1816)).

In 1816, Hegel moved to Heidelberg, having received an invitation from the local university. Here he teaches for four semesters, on the basis of which the textbook "Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences" (Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse, first edition 1817) appears. And in 1818 Hegel received an invitation to teach at the University of Berlin.

Hegel's lectures in Berlin gained such fame that not only German students, but also young people from many European countries rushed to the university. Moreover, the Hegelian philosophy of law and the political system began to acquire the status of the official philosophy of Prussia, and entire generations of public and political figures formed their views on the state and society on the basis of Hegelian teachings. It can be argued that the system of Hegel, as a philosopher, gained real strength in the intellectual and political life of Germany.

Unfortunately, the philosopher himself could not fully feel all the fruits of his success, so on November 14, 1831 he died suddenly (as they assume, from cholera).

(Shortly after Hegel's death, his friends and students prepared a complete edition of his works, which was published in 1832-1845, these were not only the already published works of the philosopher, but also university lectures, manuscripts, as well as his student notes on the widest topics (philosophy of religion, aesthetics, history of philosophy)).

Philosophy of Hegel

Hegel's philosophical system is built around the fact that reality lends itself to rational knowledge, because the Universe itself is rational. “What is reasonable is real, and what is real is reasonable” (“Philosophy of Law”). The absolute reality for Hegel is the mind, which manifests itself in the world. Accordingly, if being and mind (or concept) are identical, then we can learn about the structure of reality through the study of concepts, and in this case, logic, or the science of concepts, is identical to metaphysics, or the science of reality and its essence.

Hegel's dialectic lies in the fact that any concept, realized to the end, inevitably leads to its antagonistic beginning, that is, reality "turns" into its opposite. However, this is not a simple linear opposition, since the negation of the opposite leads to the agreement of concepts already at a new level, which leads to a synthesis, where the opposition of thesis and antithesis is resolved. But here a new turn also arises, because the synthesis, in turn, also contains an opposing principle, which already leads to its negation. Thus is born the endless alternation of thesis, antithesis, and then synthesis.

Hegel's reality exists in three stages: being in itself, being for itself, and being in and for itself. Concerning the mind, or spirit, this theory suggests that the spirit evolves through three stages. At first, it is a spirit in itself, then, expanding in space and time, it turns into its own "otherness", i.e. into nature. Nature, in turn, develops consciousness, thereby forming its own negation. But here there is no longer a simple negation, but a reconciliation of the previous steps at a higher level. The spirit is reborn in consciousness. In the new cycle, consciousness passes through three subsequent stages: the stage of the subjective spirit, the stage of the objective spirit, and, finally, the highest stage of the absolute spirit.

Based on the same principle, Hegel also systematizes philosophy, outlining the place and significance of various disciplines: logic, philosophy of nature and spirit, anthropology, phenomenology, psychology, morality and ethics, including the philosophy of law and the philosophy of history, as well as art, religion and philosophy as the highest achievements of the mind.

Quite a serious place in Hegel's philosophy is occupied by ethics, the theory of the state and the philosophy of history. The pinnacle of his ethics is the state as the embodiment of a moral idea, where the divine grows into the real. According to Hegel, the ideal state is the world that the spirit has created for itself, or the divine idea embodied on Earth. In historical reality, there are good (reasonable) states and bad states.

Hegel believes that the World Spirit (Weltgeist) acts in the realm of history through its chosen instruments - individuals and peoples, therefore the heroes of history cannot be judged by ordinary standards. In addition, the realization of the World Spirit itself may seem unfair and cruel to an ordinary person if it is associated, for example, with death and destruction, because individuals believe that they are pursuing their own goals, but in fact they are carrying out the intentions of the World Spirit, which decides first. all your tasks.

Through the prism of historical development, any nation, like an individual, experiences, according to Hegel, periods of youth, maturity and death, realizing its mission and then leaving the stage to give way to a younger nation. The ultimate goal of historical evolution is the achievement of true freedom.

An important concept in Hegel's system is the concept of freedom as the fundamental beginning of the spirit. He believes that true freedom is possible only within the framework of the state, because only here a person acquires dignity as an independent person. In the state, says Hegel, the universal (i.e., law) rules, and the individual, by his own free will, submits himself to its rule.

Born in Stuttgart (Duchy of Württemberg) on ​​August 27, 1770. His father, Georg Ludwig Hegel, Secretary of the Treasury, was a descendant of a Protestant family expelled from Austria during the Counter-Reformation. After graduating from high school in his native city, Hegel studied at the theological department of the University of Tübingen in 1788–1793, took courses in philosophy and theology and defended his master's thesis. At the same time, Friedrich von Schelling, who was five years younger than Hegel, and Friedrich Hölderlin, whose poetry had a profound influence on German literature, were studying in Tübingen. Friendship with Schelling and Hölderlin played a significant role in Hegel's mental development. While studying philosophy at the university, he paid special attention to the works of Immanuel Kant, which were widely discussed at that time, as well as to the poetic and aesthetic works of F. Schiller. In 1793-1796 Hegel served as a house teacher in a Swiss family in Bern, and in 1797-1800 in Frankfurt am Main. All these years he was engaged in the study of theology and political thought, and in 1800 he made the first sketch of a future philosophical system (“Fragment of the System”).

After his father's death in 1799, Hegel received a small inheritance, which, coupled with his own savings, allowed him to abandon teaching and enter the field of academic activity. He submitted to the University of Jena first theses (Preliminary theses of the dissertation on the orbits of the planets), and then the dissertation itself Planetary orbits (De orbitis planetarum) and in 1801 received permission to lecture. In 1801-1805 Hegel was a privatdozent, and in 1805-1807 an extraordinary professor on a very modest salary. The Jena lectures were devoted to a wide range of topics: logic and metaphysics, natural law and pure mathematics. Although they did not enjoy great success, the years in Jena were one of the happiest periods in the life of a philosopher. Together with Schelling, who taught at the same university, he published the "Critical Journal of Philosophy" ("Kritisches Journal der Philosophie"), in which they were not only editors but also authors. In the same period, Hegel prepared the first of his major works, the Phenomenology of the Spirit (Ph nomenologie des Geistes, 1807), after the publication of which relations with Schelling were severed. In this work, Hegel gives the first outline of his philosophical system. It represents the progressive procession of consciousness from the immediate sensual certainty of sensation through perception to the knowledge of reasonable reality, which alone leads us to absolute knowledge. In this sense, only the mind is real.

Without waiting for the publication of the Phenomenology, Hegel left Jena, not wishing to remain in the city captured by the French. He left his position at the university, finding himself in difficult personal and financial circumstances. For a while, Hegel edited the Bamberger Zeitung, but less than two years later he abandoned the "newspaper penal servitude" and in 1808 received a position as rector of the classical gymnasium in Nuremberg. The eight years that Hegel spent in Nuremberg gave him a wealth of experience in teaching, leading and dealing with people. At the gymnasium, he taught philosophy of law, ethics, logic, phenomenology of the spirit, and an overview course in philosophical sciences; he also had to teach literature, Greek, Latin, mathematics, and the history of religion. In 1811 he married Maria von Tucher, whose family belonged to the Bavarian nobility. This relatively quiet period of Hegel's life contributed to the appearance of his most important works. In Nuremberg, the first part of the Hegelian system was published - the Science of Logic (Die Wissenschaft der Logik, 1812-1816).

In 1816, Hegel resumed his university career, receiving an invitation to Heidelberg to fill the position previously held by his Jena rival Jacob Fries. At the University of Heidelberg he taught for four semesters; from the lectures he read, the textbook Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (Enzyklop die der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse, first edition 1817) was compiled, apparently the best introduction to his philosophy. In 1818 Hegel was invited to the University of Berlin to take the place that had once been occupied by the famous J. G. Fichte. The invitation was initiated by the Prussian Minister for Religious Affairs (in charge of religion, health and education) with the hope of pacifying the dangerous spirit of rebellion that roamed among the students with the help of Hegelian philosophy.

Hegel's first lectures in Berlin were left almost without attention, but gradually the courses began to attract an ever larger audience. Students not only from various regions of Germany, but also from Poland, Greece, Scandinavia and other European countries flocked to Berlin. The Hegelian philosophy of law and government became more and more the official philosophy of the Prussian state, and whole generations of educators, officials and statesmen borrowed their views on the state and society from the Hegelian doctrine, which became a real force in the intellectual and political life of Germany. The philosopher was at the pinnacle of success when he died suddenly on November 14, 1831, apparently from cholera, which raged in those days in Berlin.

Hegel's last published work was the Philosophy of Law (Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts oder Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse), published in Berlin in 1820 (on the title - 1821). Shortly after Hegel's death, some of his friends and students began to prepare a complete edition of his works, which was carried out in 1832-1845. It included not only works published during the life of the philosopher, but also lectures prepared on the basis of extensive, rather intricate manuscripts, as well as student notes. As a result, famous lectures on the philosophy of history, as well as on the philosophy of religion, aesthetics and the history of philosophy, were published. A new edition of Hegel's works, partially including new materials, began after the First World War under the direction of Georg Lasson as part of the "Philosophical Library" and, after the latter's death, was continued by J. Hoffmeister. The old edition was re-edited by G. Glockner and published in 20 volumes; it was supplemented by a monograph on Hegel and three volumes of Glockner's Hegel Lexikon. Since 1958, after the founding of the "Hegel Archive" in Bonn, the "Hegel Commission" was created within the framework of the "German Research Society", which took over the general editorial staff of the new historical-critical collection of works. From 1968 to 1994 the work of the Archive was directed by O. Pöggeler.

Philosophy.

Hegelian philosophy is usually considered the high point in the development of the German school of philosophical thought called "speculative idealism". Its main representatives are Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. The school began with the "critical idealism" of Immanuel Kant, but moved away from it, abandoning the Kantian critical position in relation to metaphysics and returning to the belief in the possibility of metaphysical knowledge, or knowledge of the universal and absolute.

Hegel's philosophical system is sometimes called "panlogism" (from the Greek pan - everything, and logos - mind). It starts from the idea that reality lends itself to rational knowledge because the Universe itself is rational. The preface to the Philosophy of Right contains the famous formulation of this principle: “What is reasonable is real; and what is real is reasonable. (There are other formulations of Hegel himself: “What is reasonable will become real; and what is real will become reasonable”; “Everything that is reasonable is inevitable.”) The last essence of the world, or absolute reality, is mind. Mind manifests itself in the world; reality is nothing but the manifestation of the mind. Since this is the case, and since being and mind (or concept) are ultimately the same, it is possible not only to apply our concepts to reality, but also to learn about the structure of reality through the study of concepts. Therefore, logic, or the science of concepts, is identical with metaphysics, or the science of reality and its essence. Every concept, thought through to the end, necessarily leads to its opposite. So, reality "turns" into its opposite. Thesis leads to antithesis. But this is not all, since the denial of antithesis leads to reconciliation at a new level of thesis and antithesis, i.e. to synthesis. In the synthesis, the opposition of the thesis and antithesis is resolved or abolished, but the synthesis, in turn, contains an opposing principle, which leads to its negation. Thus, we have before us an endless replacement of the thesis by antithesis, and then by synthesis. This method of thinking, which Hegel calls the dialectical method (from the Greek word "dialectics", dispute), is applicable to reality itself.

All reality passes through three stages: being in itself, being for itself, and being in and for itself. “Being in itself” is the stage at which reality is in possibility, but not completed. It is different from other being, but it develops the negation of the last still limited stage of existence, forming "being in and for itself." When applied to the mind or spirit, this theory suggests that the spirit evolves through three stages. In the beginning, spirit is spirit in itself. Spreading in space and time, the spirit turns into its "other existence", i.e. into nature. Nature, in turn, develops consciousness and thereby forms its own negation. At this third stage, however, there is not a simple negation, but a reconciliation of the previous stages on a higher level. Consciousness constitutes "in itself and for itself" the spirit. In consciousness, thus, the spirit is reborn. But then consciousness passes through three different stages: the stage of the subjective spirit, the stage of the objective spirit, and finally the highest stage of the absolute spirit.

Philosophy is divided according to the same principle: logic is the science of the "in itself" spirit; the philosophy of nature is the science of the "for itself" spirit; and the philosophy of mind itself. The latter is also divided into three parts. The first part is the philosophy of the subjective spirit, including anthropology, phenomenology and psychology. The second part is the philosophy of the objective spirit (under the objective spirit Hegel means the mind considered in its action in the world). The expressions of the objective spirit are morality (ethical behavior as applied to the individual) and ethics (manifested in ethical institutions such as the family, society, and the state). This second part consists respectively of ethics, philosophy of law and philosophy of history. Art, religion and philosophy, as the highest achievements of the mind, belong to the realm of the absolute spirit. Therefore, the third part, the philosophy of the absolute spirit, includes the philosophy of art, the philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. Thus, the triadic principle (thesis - antithesis - synthesis) is carried through the entire Hegelian system, playing a significant role not only as a way of thinking, but also as a reflection of the rhythm inherent in reality.

The most significant areas of Hegelian philosophy turned out to be ethics, the theory of the state, and the philosophy of history. The culmination of Hegelian ethics is the state. For Hegel, the state is the reality of the moral idea. In the state system, the divine grows into the real. The state is the world that the spirit has created for itself; a living spirit, a divine idea embodied on Earth. However, this applies only to an ideal state. In historical reality, there are good (reasonable) states and bad states. The states known to us from history are only transient moments in the general idea of ​​spirit.

The highest goal of the philosophy of history is to demonstrate the origin and development of the state in the course of history. For Hegel, history, like all reality, is the realm of reason: in history everything happens according to reason. "World history is the world court." The World Spirit (Weltgeist) acts in the realm of history through its chosen instruments - individuals and peoples. The heroes of history cannot be judged by ordinary standards. In addition, the World Spirit itself sometimes seems unfair and cruel, bringing death and destruction. Individuals believe that they are pursuing their own goals, but in reality they are carrying out the intentions of the World Spirit. The “cunning of the world mind” lies in the fact that it uses human interests and passions to achieve its own goal.

Historical peoples are carriers of the world spirit. Every nation, like an individual, goes through periods of youth, maturity and death. For a while, she dominates the fate of the world, and then her mission ends. Then she leaves the stage to free her for another, younger nation. However, history is an evolutionary process. The ultimate goal of evolution is the achievement of true freedom. "World history is progress in the consciousness of freedom." The main task of the philosophy of history is the knowledge of this progress in its necessity.

According to Hegel, freedom is the fundamental beginning of the spirit. However, freedom is possible only within the framework of the state. It is in the state that a person acquires his dignity as an independent person. For in the state, Hegel says, adhering to the Rousseauist conception of the true state, it is the universal (that is, the law) that rules, and the individual, by his free will, submits himself to its rule. However, the state is undergoing a remarkable evolution as far as the consciousness of freedom is concerned. In the Ancient East, only one person was free, and humanity knew only that one person was free. That was the era of despotism, and this one man was a despot. In reality, it was abstract freedom, freedom in itself, rather arbitrariness rather than freedom. The Greek and Roman world, the youth and maturity of mankind, knew that some people are free, but not man as such. Accordingly, freedom was closely connected with the existence of slaves and could only be an accidental, short-lived and limited phenomenon. And only with the spread of Christianity did mankind know true freedom. The path to this knowledge was prepared by Greek philosophy; humanity began to realize that man as such is free - all people. The differences and shortcomings inherent in individuals do not affect the essence of man; freedom is part of the very concept of "man".

The French Revolution, hailed by Hegel as a "wonderful sunrise," is another step on the road to freedom. However, in the late period of his activity, Hegel objected to the republican form of government and even to democracy. The ideals of liberalism, according to which all individuals should participate in the government of the state, began to seem unjustified: in his opinion, they led to unreasonable subjectivism and individualism. A much more perfect form of government began to appear to Hegel as a constitutional monarchy, in which the sovereign had the last word.

Philosophy, according to Hegel, deals only with what is, and not with what should be. Just as every man is "the son of his time," "philosophy is also time grasped in thought. It is just as absurd to suppose that any philosophy can transcend the limits of its contemporary world as it is absurd to suppose that an individual is capable of jumping over his epoch. Therefore, Hegel in the Philosophy of Law is limited to the task of knowing the state as a reasonable substance. However, considering the Prussian state and the Restoration period as a model of rational analysis, he was increasingly inclined to idealize the Prussian monarchy. What Hegel said about the state as a whole (the state is the divine will as a spirit present, unfolding into a real image and organization of the world), apparently, also applied to this particular state. This was also consistent with his conviction that the last of the three stages of historical development had already been reached: the stage of old age, but not in the sense of decrepitude, but in the sense of wisdom and perfection.

In the philosophical concept of Hegel there are fatalistic and even tragic motives. Philosophy cannot teach the world how it should be. It comes too late for that, when reality has completed its process of formation and has reached completion. “When philosophy begins to paint with its gray paint on gray, then a certain form of life has become old, but gray on gray it cannot be rejuvenated, one can only understand; the owl of Minerva begins its flight only at dusk.

Hegel is rightfully considered one of the greatest German thinkers who elevated German philosophy to unprecedented heights. Many researchers believe that it was Hegel who brought to mind the idea started by Kant.

His teaching had a great influence on all the philosophers who lived in his time. And even now, the philosophical system built by Hegel retains great influence. You can often hear that it was under him that German philosophy reached its peak in its development. This will certainly be an exaggeration, but his influence on German thought is indeed enormous.

However, for all his merits, he was rather bad at explaining his ideas to mere mortals. His works are written in heavy scientific language and it is easy to get lost in them even for those who have been studying philosophy for a long time.

In this article, we will more easily analyze the main aspects of his philosophy and consider his notorious laws of dialectics.

Brief biography of Hegel

But let's start, perhaps, with a brief biography of the famous philosopher.

Georg Friedrich Wilhelm Hegel was born on August 27, 1770 in the German town of Stuttgart, in the family of a government official. He worked for Duke Karl Eugen as a secretary at the treasury.

In 1788 he began his studies at the Tübingen Institute, from which he graduated in 1793. At the university, he paid much attention to theology and philosophy. According to a habit that had taken root since childhood, he read a lot and studied hard. During his university years, he is known to have been friends with Schelling and Hölderlin, the famous German poet.

Being only a 20-year-old student, Hegel defended his master's thesis, becoming a master of philosophical sciences. Despite the fact that he spent the last 3 years at the university studying theology and successfully passed the exams, the clergy did not attract him at all. It was probably because of his dislike for the church, which developed during his studies at the university.

After successfully graduating from the university, he worked for 3 years, from 1793 to 1796, as a home teacher in Bern. The next 3 years, from 1797 to 1800, differed little from the previous ones. Hegel still worked as a home teacher, but now in Frankfurt am Main.

Hegel spent all his free time from work writing his works and was completely immersed in books.

In 1799, having received an inheritance of 3,000 guilders from his father and adding his own savings to it, he was finally able to devote himself entirely to academic activities.

In January 1801 he received the post of Privatdozent at the University of Jena and the opportunity to lecture. However, this occupation was given to him with difficulty, and he was not popular with students.

In 1805 he was given the post of extraordinary professor at the same Jena University, where in 1806 he wrote one of his most famous works, The Phenomenology of the Spirit, which he completed, according to him, the day before the end of the battle for Jena, in which the French won and captured Jena. As a result, he had to leave the city and get a job as a newspaper editor in Bamberg, where he worked for only a year until 1808, which left him with a completely negative impression.

Therefore, when in 1808 he was offered to take the post of rector at the Nuremberg Gymnasium, he gladly accepted and happily moved. He worked there until 1816.

In 1811, Hegel nevertheless decided to marry, Maria Helena Susanna von Tucher, a representative of the Bavarian nobility, became his chosen one. Nuremberg plays an important role in the life of the German thinker, also because it was here that the first part of his fundamental work, The Science of Logic, was published.

He would have remained there even further, if in 1816 he had not received an invitation to the position of full-time professor of philosophy from three universities at once: Erlanger, Gelderberg and Berlin. He chose Gelderberg, where he worked for another 2 years until 1818, and then moved to Berlin, where he settled at the University of Berlin, acting as head of the department of philosophy.

If in 1818 his lectures were reluctant to attend, then by 1820 he had become so famous that not only German students, but also many interested people from all over the world came to listen to him. His view of the philosophy of law, as well as the Hegelian understanding of the political system, gradually began to become a state ideology, and in 1821 he released his new work, which he called "Philosophy of Law".

In 1830 he took the place of head of the University of Berlin and in 1831 received a special award from the current monarch for worthy service to the German state.

In August of the same year, Hegel hurriedly left Berlin, where a cholera epidemic was raging, but returned in October, as he considered that there was nothing more to fear. However, the disease still got him and in November he died.

Although cholera is considered the official cause of Hegel's death, many still believe that some serious stomach disease was the main cause of death.

Basis of Hegel's philosophical system

Before starting to analyze his main ideas, it is necessary to understand what analytical structure underlies his philosophical system.

The philosophical system of Hegel is based on Kantian ideas. But if Kant's stumbling block was pure reason, which was freed from everything sensual, material and even experienced. Kant is interested in the possibility of spontaneous knowledge of the world by pure reason, without involving the category of experience.

That Hegel adheres to a completely different opinion. He believed that our experiential knowledge is a necessary category for understanding the essence of things. Hegel even compared Kant's system of knowledge to a person who wants to learn how to swim without entering the water.

Based on these principles, Hegel formulates his main philosophical principle - the Principle of the identity of thinking and being.

It follows from this principle that our empirical knowledge is built into the structure of our thinking. Through our methods of cognition, nature reveals to us some part of its own. Its noumenal essence, as it were, shines through the phenomenon (phenomenon).

But much more important for understanding his philosophical system, its logic, described in the books "Great Logic" and "Small Logic", which are part of the fundamental work "Science of Logic".

In it, Hegel talks about his tripartite system, which he himself calls dialectic. Any property of an object, according to Hegel, if it describes a characteristic of a real whole, is in itself contradictory.

And it was precisely the contradiction that he considered the criterion of truth. Absence of contradictions is the criterion of delusion.

A statement about the properties of an object is called a thesis. A statement that contradicts it is an antithesis.

The third component in this system is the merging of these two contradictions, taking into account all the logical inconsistencies, taking the best from the two statements - synthesis. Synthesis is one of the most important phenomena in Hegel's philosophy. It was created in order to bring the thesis and antithesis to a common denominator, and then form a new thesis from the resulting synthesis, for which the antithesis is chosen, and so on until we reach some consistent Absolute.

The introduction of such a concept as synthesis, according to Hegel, was necessary to overcome the Kantian antinomies, judgments in which thesis and antithesis are equally provable.

Precisely according to this scheme practically the whole philosophy of Hegel works. That is how he formed his laws of dialectics, the doctrine of the absolute idea and everything else.

Absolute Idea

Definition of the absolute idea

In the Hegelian system of worldview, the doctrine of the absolute idea is the most global and extensive, covering the entire universe and many aspects of human life.

At the heart of the universe, according to Hegel, lies the impersonal Absolute. This spiritual, autonomous origin is the condition for the development of the world. Unlike Spinoza, who argued that the Absolute is characterized by extension and thinking, Hegel does not consider the Absolute to be a thinking and creative principle, it is only a starting point and a necessary resource for the development of everything that exists.

And it is the absolute idea that gives form to this impersonal substratum. In the words of Hegel:

“The absolute idea is a set of categories that are the condition for the formation of the world and human history.”

The main and key goal of the absolute idea is self-knowledge, as well as the development of independent self-consciousness.

To understand his logic, you should go through the chain of his thoughts.

Nature cannot be the basis of everything that exists, Hegel says, it is essentially passive and cannot lead an active creative activity. She needs something to push her to creation, to set the initial impulse for the subsequent transformation.

Without this impulse, nature would have remained unchanged from the very moment of its inception.

He probably invented this symbiosis of the absolute idea and impersonal nature by analogy with the human mind. After all, it is our thinking that makes each of us unique. It is thinking that changes our life depending on what categories we think.

Nature without an absolute idea can be compared to a man in a coma. Perhaps he still has the ability to think, but its results are completely invisible. The person himself does not change in any way, his state is static and he will simply die without outside help.

The absolute idea is also the totality of the entire spiritual human culture, all the knowledge accumulated by mankind over the entire period of its existence.

And it is at the level of human culture and experience that the world of things clashes with the human mind. Thanks to this, it becomes possible to understand the real noumenal essence of things. Although this understanding is incomplete, it is still better than the rather radical view of Kant, who argued that the understanding of noumena (things in themselves) is impossible with the help of experience.

This implies Hegel's statement that culture is not just a way of expressing one's own thinking and realizing a creative ability, but also a way of seeing and perceiving the world.

After all, each person sees the world in completely different ways through the prism of their own perception.

The evolution of the absolute idea

In his three fundamental works, The Science of Logic, The Philosophy of Nature and The Philosophy of Spirit, Hegel tried to reveal the theme of how the absolute idea works.

In his probably most famous book, The Science of Logic, Hegel explains the role played by reason, thinking and logic itself in human life and in general in world history. It is in it that another, no less famous than triodicity, principle of ascent from the abstract to the concrete is formed.

Hegel's understanding of abstract thinking can be illustrated by looking at people's reactions to any socially significant event. Whether it's a speech by a politician or a sentencing of a murderer. Each person from the crowd, (or from the comments under the news) watching what is happening has his own point of view.

However, they never see an absolutely complete picture of what is happening. And only by gathering together absolutely all available information about this event, having analyzed all points of view, a person can claim to have specific knowledge.

Concrete knowledge is always diverse. It includes the smallest possible details and nuances.

Without this, we become just hostages of our own opinion, shaped by our life attitudes.

The development of the Absolute Idea begins, according to Hegel, with completely abstract, indefinite concepts.

The science of logic itself consists of 3 parts, which are the steps along which we climb in the knowledge of things.

It can be expressed by the scheme: "Being-Essence-Concept". Let's dwell on this in more detail:

Being-Essence-Concept

The first of the abstract definitions is pure "Being". In its original form, Being is just a word, it has no certainty, and so much so that it can even be compared with the concept of "Nothing", precisely because it lacks any qualitative characteristic.

“Becoming” is a concept that unites these very impersonal “Being” and “Nothing”. This is a kind of synthesis, which gives being some qualitative characteristic.

To better understand how being takes shape, you can imagine an artist painting a picture. First, he outlines the edges of the drawing, draws a sketch, then in the process of work, the picture is filled with new colors, acquires various shades, shadows and other additional parameters.

In this example, the absolute idea will be the artist creating his masterpiece, and the painting will be a being that gradually takes on shape and form, thereby moving from an empty abstract “Being”, comparable to nothing, into the so-called “existent being”.

Having finished painting, he puts the picture aside and takes a new canvas, thereby again turning existence into nothing.

It is from the presence of existence that human knowledge begins, because it is logical to assume that we can only interact with what is visible or detectable by any of the available methods.

Essence, according to Hegel, is the basis of the material world, and if for Kant it is an unknowable thing in itself, then Hegel, as mentioned above, believes that through our observation it is partly revealed to us.

Gradually plunging into the understanding of the Essence, we find that each of them is internally contradictory.

A concept is a category that reproduces the entire process of being and thinking preceding it. It is historical, carries all the experience of previous generations, constantly changes, is supplemented and, in fact, is a synthesis of the triad Being (existing)-Essence-Concept.

Philosophy of nature

The absolute idea, according to Hegel, being a purely metaphysical entity, the personification of pure thought, cannot know itself without its antithesis. And this antithesis is nature, which is also called "Other Being".

The absolute idea is connected with nature through "Alienation". Being an intangible object, it needs to embody part of its creative material in the material world, in other words, to alienate a part of itself into nature. This process is necessary for the absolute idea to receive feedback in order to understand in which direction to move further in its self-knowledge.

Like Schelling, Hegel considers man to be the highest stage in the development of the Other Being. This creature, being the embodiment of an absolute idea in nature, can create and explore the surrounding world.

Philosophy of spirit

Speaking of man, it is impossible not to touch upon such a section of Hegelian philosophy as the philosophy of the spirit. In the book Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel, in his characteristic triodic manner, divides human consciousness into 3 components:

• The stage of the subjective spirit
• Stage of objective spirit
• Absolute Spirit Stage

At the first stage, we can only talk about one particular person, by studying whom we can expand and subsequently extrapolate our knowledge to all of humanity. At this stage, such sciences as psychology, which studies the inner world of a person, phenomenology, which analyzes human consciousness, and, finally, anthropology, which studies humanity in all its unity of manifestation of material and cultural values, are useful.

At the stage of the objective spirit, Hegel expands the boundaries of the study of man, introducing such new categories of knowledge of human society as the family, civil society and the state. Here, not only the person as such is taken into account, but also his connections, contacts, interactions in society.

The absolute spirit is the highest stage in the development of human thought. It includes such stages as art, religion and philosophy.

Art is a concept of beauty, a view of the world from the side of aesthetic perception.

Religion Hegel calls is a synthesis of the entire aesthetic worldview. Here he cites as an example the creation of the Christian paradigm, which, in his words, has become a synthesis of all ancient culture.

Philosophy is the highest level of development of human thinking, which Hegel calls: "The era known in thinking."

It incorporates all the main problems characteristic of any human era, which are raised by the most talented people of their time and brought to the surface, taking on a theoretical form.

Laws of dialectics

The Hegelian laws of dialectics are the most important achievement of the German thinker and are designed to serve a better understanding of society and, in principle, any processes associated with a person.

The Law of the Transition of Quantitative Changes into Qualitative

This law can be called the most comprehensive. It describes all the processes that occur with all things in the world, quantitative and qualitative changes can be seen in absolutely every aspect of our lives.

This law is characterized by 4 terms:

• Quantity. In the Hegelian interpretation - that which externally determines the subject. These are the parameters that allow us to fix the presence of an object in space and time. A quantitative characteristic is simply a statement of the presence of an object without any additional characteristics. For example, when we say “cat” or “human,” we simply isolate this subject from the entire universe.
• Quality determines the internal characteristics of an item. In this case, we are talking about a specific cat or a specific person who is different from other cats or other people.
• The measure acts as a synthesis of quantity and quality. This concept embodies a change in quantitative characteristics while maintaining qualitative ones. This is best seen in the process, for example, the freezing of water. If you pour water outside in winter at temperatures below zero, you can see how it turns into ice. This will be the destruction of the measure and the transition from one qualitative state to another.
• A jump is something with the help of which the transition from one qualitative state to another is carried out. And it is the moment when water turns into ice that can be called a jump.

The law of double negation

Forming the law of double negation, Hegel argues that human understanding of the world goes in a spiral, constantly ascending. And this applies not only to the world, but also to our own development.

In contrast to Kant, who argued that with regard to any issue, only a thesis (affirmation) and antithesis (negation) can be expressed, Hegel adds a synthesis to them, which in this case Hegel calls “Removal”.

This term describes the transition from a lower state to a higher one, but the lower state does not go anywhere, it remains latent in the higher one.

To illustrate this concept, we can give a classic example of the development of a fetus from a kidney.

First of all, a bud appears on a tree, after a while it transforms into a flower and by its appearance the flower denies the bud, the bud passes into a higher state, but the bud does not disappear, it is still contained in the flower in a hidden (removed) form. Following the bud, the flower also disappears, turning into a fruit (passing into an even higher state), which will contain both the flower and the bud in a removed form.

From this example, it can be understood that there are three conditions in Hegelian dialectical negation:

1. Overcoming the old, which consists in the emergence of new higher forms of development
2. Continuity - new forms contain the best and most useful characteristics of the old ones
3. Approval of a new

These three conditions are also valid for our own development. After all, each of our new knowledge is based on what was received some time ago or recently, the previous one and serves as a stepping stone for raising our knowledge to a new level.

Hegel chose the spiral to describe this law because it shows well the progress and regression of our knowledge. Points can be marked on the spiral at which our thinking moves to a higher state, however, when we stop moving up, regression begins.

The law of unity and struggle of opposites

This principle can be called fundamental in the entire philosophy of Hegel, since it is built precisely on the struggle of contradictions and their subsequent transition into synthesis.

The key definitions that define this law will be:

Identity. Expresses the equality of an object to itself. In the case of a person, this self-consciousness will be meant. Even more self-awareness.

Difference respectively expresses the inequality of the object to itself. Although I am aware of myself, my thinking is constantly undergoing changes, I am not a complete Absolute, I am constantly developing and comparing myself with others.

Opposites express those characteristics of an object that are completely different from each other, but they may well be part of one whole and coexist with each other.

contradictions Hegel is the cornerstone of all his philosophical thought. He considered them a necessary condition for moving forward, whether it be applied to an absolute idea or to human consciousness. Each statement must have a different side, contradicting this statement, which will be its complete opposite.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I would like to say that although the Hegelian system is rather difficult to understand, the tripartite structure underlying it is undoubtedly worthy of consideration. At the heart of his philosophical system lies the unity and at the same time the struggle of opposites, without which no development is possible. Such a conflict, of course, does not make our life easier, but it is thanks to it that the transition to higher levels of development is possible.

(4 ratings, average: 5,00 out of 5)
In order to rate a post, you must be a registered user of the site.

Great Soviet Encyclopedia: Hegel Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (August 27, 1770, Stuttgart - November 14, 1831, Berlin) was a German philosopher, a representative of German classical philosophy, the creator of a systematic theory of dialectics based on objective idealism. Born in the family of an official. In 1788-93 he studied at the Tubingen Theological Institute. In 1793-1801 home teacher in Bern and Frankfurt am Main. From 1801 he lived in Jena, engaged in scientific and literary work, in 1807 he edited a newspaper in Bamberg. From 1808 to 1816 director of the gymnasium in Nuremberg. From 1816 until the end of his life he was professor of philosophy at the universities of Heidelberg (1816-18) and Berlin (since 1818).
G.'s worldview was shaped under the influence of the ideas and events of the Great French Revolution and reflected the main contradictions of bourgeois progress. The implementation of bourgeois-democratic demands was conceived by G. in the form of a compromise with the estate-feudal system, within the framework of a constitutional monarchy. This tendency in Germany's views, due to the economic and political backwardness of Germany, also influenced the way he worked out specially philosophical problems, in particular the problems of dialectics, giving the last feature of tolerance to obsolete forms of life and thought and thereby weakening its revolutionary-critical character.
G. began as a follower of the "critical philosophy" of I. Kant and I. Fichte, but soon, under the influence of F. Schelling, he moved from the position of "transcendental" (subjective) idealism to the point of view of "absolute" (objective) idealism. Among other representatives of German. G.'s classical idealism stands out for his keen attention to the history of human spiritual culture. Already in his early writings, G. interprets Judaism, antiquity, and Christianity as a series of successive stages in the development of the spirit and epochs in the development of mankind, and tries to restore their historical appearance. G. considered his era as a time of transition to a new formation, gradually matured in the bosom of Christian culture, in the image of which the features of bourgeois society with its legal and moral principles clearly appear. In The Phenomenology of the Spirit (1807), G. deploys the basic principles of his philosophical concept. The spiritual culture of mankind was first presented here in its natural development as a gradual manifestation of the creative power of the "world mind". Being embodied in successively replacing each other images of culture, the impersonal (world, objective) spirit at the same time recognizes itself as their creator. The spiritual development of an individual briefly reproduces the stages of self-knowledge of the "world spirit", starting with the act of naming sensory-given "things" and ending with "absolute knowledge", i.e. knowledge of those forms and laws that govern from within the entire process of spiritual development - the development of science, morality, religion, art, political and legal systems. The "absolute knowledge" that crowns the phenomenological history of the spirit is nothing but logic. Therefore, the final chapter of the "Phenomenology of the Spirit" is a program for the critical transformation of logic as a science, implemented by G. in subsequent works, and above all in the "Science of Logic" (1812). In this sense, K. Marx called the "Phenomenology of Spirit" - "... the true source and secret of Hegelian philosophy" (Marx K. and Engels F., From early works, 1956, p. 624).
The universal scheme of the creative activity of the "world spirit" receives from G. the name of the absolute idea, and the "Science of Logic" is defined as the scientific-theoretical "self-consciousness" of this idea. The "absolute idea" is revealed in its general content in the form of a system of categories, starting from the most general and poor definitions - being, non-being, existing being, quality, quantity, etc. - and ending with specific ones, i.e. variously defined concepts - reality, chemism, organism (teleology), cognition, etc. In logic, G. deifies real human thinking, which he studies in the aspect of universal logical forms and laws that emerge through the cumulative historical process. By declaring thinking a "subject", i.e. the only creator of all the spiritual wealth developed by history, and understanding it as an eternal, timeless scheme of creative activity in general, G. brings the concept of an idea closer to the concept of God. However, unlike the theistic god, the idea acquires consciousness, will and personality only in man, while outside and before man it is realized as an internally regular necessity.
According to G.'s scheme, the "spirit" wakes up in a person to self-consciousness, first in the form of a word, speech, language. Tools of labor, material culture, civilization appear as later, derivative forms of the embodiment of the same creative power of the spirit (thinking), “concept”. The starting point of development is seen, therefore, in the ability of a person (as a “final spirit”) to cognize “himself” through the development of all that “wealth of images” that were previously contained within the spirit as unconscious and involuntarily arising in it “internal states".
The central place in the dialectic of geometry is occupied by the category of contradiction as a unity of mutually exclusive and at the same time mutually presupposing opposites (polar concepts). The contradiction was understood here as a "motor", as an internal impulse for the development of the spirit in general. This movement ascends from the “abstract to the concrete”, to a more and more complete, diversely dissected within itself and therefore to a “true” result. Contradiction, according to G., is not enough to understand only in the form of antinomy, aporia, i.e. in the form of a logically unresolved contradiction: it should be taken together with its resolution as part of a deeper and more concrete understanding, where the original antinomy is simultaneously realized and disappears (“removed”).
With the help of the dialectical method he created, G. critically rethinks all spheres of contemporary culture (scientific, moral, aesthetic, etc.). On this path, he everywhere discovers a tense dialectic, a process of constant “denial” of each presently achieved state of the spirit by the next state ripening in its depths. The future matures within the present in the form of a concrete contradiction immanent to it, the certainty of which presupposes a certain way of resolving it. A sharply critical analysis of the contemporary state of science and its concepts is intertwined in G. with a critical reproduction and philosophical "justification" of a number of dogmas and prejudices of his contemporary consciousness. This contradiction permeates not only logic, but also other parts of the Hegelian philosophical system - the philosophy of nature and the philosophy of the spirit, which, respectively, make up the 2nd and 3rd parts of his Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (1817). The philosophy of the spirit is developed further in the Philosophy of Law (1821) and in lectures published after G.'s death on the philosophy of history, aesthetics, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. Thus, in the philosophy of nature, G., critically analyzing the mechanistic views of 18th century science, expresses many ideas that anticipate the subsequent development of natural science thought (for example, about the relationship and mutual transitions of the definitions of time and space, about “immanent expediency” characteristic of a living organism, and etc.), but at the same time denies nature its dialectical development. Considering the past only from the point of view of those dialectical collisions that led to the maturation of the "present", i.e. modernity, uncritically understood as the crown and goal of the process, G. completes the philosophy of history with an idealized image of the Prussian constitutional monarchy, the philosophy of law with an idealized image of bourgeois legal consciousness, the philosophy of religion with an apology for Protestantism, etc.
At the same time, Hegelian dialectics included the possibility of a revolutionary-critical rethinking of reality. This rethinking - from a materialistic standpoint - was carried out in the 40s. 19th century K. Marx and F. Engels.
K. Marx, emphasizing that his "... dialectical method is fundamentally not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite", noted: "the mystification that dialectics underwent in the hands of Hegel did not at all prevent Hegel from the first gave a comprehensive and conscious image of its universal forms of movement. Hegel has dialectics on his head. It is necessary to put it on its feet in order to open the rational grain under the mystical shell ”(Marx K. and Engels F., Soch., 2nd edition, vol. 23, pp. 21, 22).
G.'s doctrine of the "objective spirit" developed in the "Philosophy of Law" had a tremendous influence on the subsequent development of sociology and social philosophy (with criticism of this particular work, G. began the development of K. Marx's materialistic view of society and history - see ibid., t .1, pp. 219-368 and 414-29). G.'s "objective spirit" encompasses the sphere of social life and is understood as a supra-individual integrity, which, in its objective regularity, rises above individual people and manifests itself through their various connections and relationships. The "objective spirit" unfolds in law, morality, and morality, and by morality G. understands such stages of the objectification of human freedom as the family, civil society, and the state. G. notes the contradictions of bourgeois society: the polarization of poverty and wealth, the one-sided development of man as a result of the progressive division of labor, and so on. G. assigned a large place to the analysis of labor, which he considered the main factor in the process of becoming a person.
G. considers history as a whole as "the progress of the spirit in the consciousness of freedom," and this progress unfolds through the "spirit" of individual peoples, replacing each other in the historical process as they fulfill their mission. The idea of ​​an objective regularity that makes its way regardless of the desires of individuals found its false reflection in the Hegelian doctrine of the “cunning of the world mind”, which uses individual interests and passions to achieve its goals.
In aesthetics, the most important for its subsequent development was G.'s meaningful interpretation of the beautiful as a "sensory phenomenon of the idea", and the emphasis in understanding the aesthetic was placed by G. on the fact that the idea is taken here not in its "pure", logical form, but in its concrete unity with some external being. This determined the Hegelian doctrine of the ideal and the stages of its development (“forms of art”). The latter are differentiated depending on the relationship between the idea and its external image: in a symbolic artistic form, the external image only hints at the idea (G. refers Eastern art to this stage), in the classical one, the idea and its image are in balance and fully correspond to each other ( ancient art), in the romantic one - the spiritual element, the depth of the soul and the infinity of subjectivity (grown up on the basis of Christianity, medieval and new European art) prevail over the external form.
In lectures on the history of philosophy G. first portrayed the historical and philosophical process as a progressive movement towards absolute truth, and each individual philosophical system - as a certain stage in this process.
Bourgeois philosophy of the post-Hegelian era was unable to assimilate G.'s real gains in the field of logic. Hegelianism developed more along the line of cultivating the formal and mystical tendencies of Hegelian philosophy (see Hegelianism, Neo-Hegelianism). The formal apparatus of Greek dialectics had a strong influence on existentialism (J. Hippolyte, J.P. Sartre, M. Heidegger).
Critically revised from a materialist standpoint, the philosophy of G. is one of the theoretical sources of Marxist-Leninist philosophy—dialectical materialism. In this regard, G.'s works are still the best school of dialectical thought, as K. Marx, F. Engels, V.I. Lenin.

Suzanne/ 12/13/2018 I read Hegel in one breath. The crazy writer writes so interestingly and excitingly .. I advise everyone. Respect and respect. True, I didn’t find his page on either Facebook or Twitter or Instagram, I would like to see pictures and all that ..

Valery/ 05/06/2018 “Regarding all sciences, fine and applied arts, crafts, there is a widespread belief that in order to master them, it is necessary to expend great efforts on their study and practice in them. Concerning philosophy, on the other hand, at the present time the prejudice seems to prevail that although it does not follow from the fact that everyone has eyes and hands that he will be able to sew boots if he is given leather and tools, nevertheless everyone directly knows how to to philosophize and talk about philosophy, because he has a measure for this in the form of his natural mind, as if he did not have the same measure for a boot in the form of his foot. As if, indeed, the mastery of philosophy presupposes a lack of knowledge and study, and as if it ends where the latter begin.
“It is sad that ignorance and even unceremonious and tasteless ignorance, unable to focus their thoughts on any abstract sentence, and even more so on the connection between several sentences, pretends to be freedom and tolerance of thinking, and even genius”

Hegel.

lotus/ 08/14/2016 GUYS DO NOT confuse SCIENCE WITH FAITH KAMU HEGEL TO WHOM OSHO, FORD'S TEACHING TO EVERYONE HIS OWN BUT RESPECT PEOPLE

BORING, BORING AND GREAT./ 03/08/2016 My friends,
True philosophy will never be dreary, gloomy and mournful. I should not consider a person great, because I am offered to do this by those who respect him very much. Moreover, the True Philosophy of Life can even be cheerful and with a sense of humor. Human consciousness has such advantages over other civilizations of the cosmos. For example, Osho . How happy I am to have met him in my life. Philosophy, in which there is no dance of the soul, no delight and enthusiasm, is a graveyard for the spirit. Go around everything gloomy and lifeless. Please, I beg you.

CORRECT REVIEW/ 8.03.2016 There is nothing worse than a crazy mind who thinks he is a reasonable philosopher. Nordic zaumi improvisations are always far from the Truth. Study the Great Roots of Wisdom. Go to the East. I advise the Teaching of Agni Yogi.

Reader1989/ 01/20/2016 Who knows in what context he said "so much the worse for reality"? If he's joking, then it's ok. And if in all seriousness - it smacks of mental retardation.

Evidentis/ 3.03.2015 Hegel is the platinum key to the gates of philosophy.
Removing the Kantian thing in itself, the consciousness that has reached the level of the Absolute Subject realizes that he is the world.