Absolute spirit: concept, theory

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:40

Today we will talk about a man, a thinker, who is rightfully the pinnacle of German classical philosophy. We will talk about the famous founder of the laws of dialectics, who became famous for his completely unique view of the world, which, of course, develops the ideas of his predecessors, but takes them to an incredible height. The system of absolute spirit, absolute idealism is the brainchild of this particular philosopher. A philosopher who proposed more than 150 fundamentally new concepts, key categories, broad terms with which he "embraces" the entire world around him. The topic of our conversation will be the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.

Hegel's philosophy

The famous philosopher was born in Stuttgart, in one of the southern regions of Germany. Hegel finds the Great French Revolution quite young. A little later, he admires the charismatic political leader - Napoleon Bonaparte. For Hegel, these events became truly significant. And the revolution, and the contemplation of the greatthe commander had a huge impact on his worldview and his philosophy. Of course, Hegel is a child of his time. That is, this is a person who lives in the situation of the Age of Enlightenment, who begins his own creative career as part of the analysis, the study of the then most famous concepts of the two great philosophers - Kant and Fichte. Hegel, of course, could not tear himself away from the tradition in which his predecessors lived and acted.

What is the absolute idea?

According to Hegel, the world is based on an impersonal, spiritual, that is, an ideal, autonomous beginning, which is the condition and basis for the development of the world as a whole, the development of man, the development of nature. In other words, the absolute idea, the absolute spirit is the ideal principle of "unfolding" the world into diversity, into completely different specifics. To be even closer to the text of Hegel himself, we can say that the absolute idea is a system of self-unfolding categories, which are the conditions for the formation of the surrounding world in general and human history in particular. Hegel variously calls this his first principle, which is the foundation of all that exists. It can be an absolute idea, it can be a world mind, it can be an absolute spirit - completely different options for explaining this interesting fact. Hegel believes that the key task of the absolute idea is nothing more than self-knowledge, the development of self-consciousness. An interesting thought that Hegel pronounces throughout his work, his entire creative path.

When Hegel begins to talk about this impersonal first principle, he says that nature cannot be the basis of everything that exists, because nature, according to the philosopher, is a kind of passive substance. It does not in itself contain any kind of active activity, an active impulse. That is, if there were no this absolute idea, nature would remain the same as it has been for eternity. For any changes and development, a certain creative streak is needed. And here Hegel takes the human mind as a basis - the most important thing in a person, what defines him as a Man - his thinking. Depending on how we think, we are what we are. Therefore, a kind of impetus for the development of the world should be an ideal beginning.

Discussing what an absolute idea is, Hegel will say that it is also the totality of the entire spiritual human culture. That is, all the experience that has already been accumulated by mankind. Hegel believes that it is at the level of human culture that a unique coincidence of the world of objects of our knowledge about it takes place. Culture, being the embodiment of an absolute spirit or an absolute idea, actually demonstrates not only the embodiment of the possibilities of our thinking, but also a way of seeing the world, a way of comprehending it.

Development of the absolute idea

Hegel creates three famous works, which will later be united under one name "Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences". The first work is "The Science of Logic", the second is "Philosophy of Nature" and the third is "Philosophy of Spirit". In eachFrom these works, Hegel will try to consistently show how this Absolute Idea develops, how it eventually creates the world.

The Science of Logic

“The Science of Logic” is one of the most fundamental works, because it is in this work that Hegel will substantiate his views on what is an absolute idea, what is logic, what is the role of reason and what is such is the role of thinking in human life and in history as a whole. It is within the framework of this work that the famous principle of ascent from the abstract to the concrete will be formed. What is it?

This is the first step in revealing, in knowing the absolute idea. The key concepts here are "being", "nothing", "becoming", "quantity", "quality", "measure" and "jump". Hegel says that the development of the theory of absolute spirit begins with extremely empty, abstract concepts not filled with any concrete content. Such a concept is pure "being". Just a word, there is not and cannot be any certainty, any specifics. It is so undefined that somewhere in something it becomes equal to the concept of "nothing". Precisely due to the fact that it does not have any qualitative characteristics. The mechanism that connects these two words - "being" and "nothing", is the concept of "becoming". The result of this "becoming", this kind of synthesis is the existing "being".

The Doctrine of Essence

The second part of Hegel's "Science of Logic" is called "The Doctrine of Essence". Here Hegel analyzes in great detail what essence is. This is the basis of the world, whichconstantly shines through the phenomena that we observe. Essence in its structure, in its essence, in its characteristics is the penetration, as Hegel says, into the internal laws of objects. Hegel says that this penetration opens up a completely unique picture for a person. We see that any situation, any process, any phenomenon is inherently contradictory, that is, it contains mutually exclusive opposites.

The third part of the "Science of Logic" is the "concept". This is a category that reproduces, according to Hegel, the entire process of development of being and thinking. That is, the "concept" is always historical. As a result, Hegel got a kind of triad in the development of knowledge: "being" - "essence" - "concept". Why such a connection? Because our cognition always begins with the presence of being, that is, what we observe, see, and can discover in our experience.

Philosophy of Nature

The second stage necessary in the development of the absolute idea is described in great detail in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature. The philosopher writes that the concept of absolute spirit, which is originally logic, that is, the realm of pure thought, is not capable of knowing itself. The absolute idea has its own antithesis, its own negation, its own otherness. He calls this otherness nature.

Philosophy of Spirit

The third stage in the development of the idea of absolute spirit in Hegel is called "Philosophy of Spirit". Here the author analyzes various formsknowledge development. From direct sensory perception he moves towards the possibility of absolute knowledge, truth in and for himself. Hegel begins with the starting point of modern philosophy, the faculty of intuitive perception. He studies the field of formation of human self-consciousness. This is a process in which Hegel attaches particular importance to the identification of the stages of knowledge. Ultimately, he comes to the idea of consciousness outside of consciousness. For him, the human personality, all objects of a single knowledge are the constituent parts of the infinite absolute.

The whole book of the philosopher can be conditionally divided into two parts. Chapters 6 to 8 deal with aspects of the existence of the absolute spirit of Hegel, the previous chapters are devoted to the question of human consciousness. Gyorgy Lukacs, a well-known researcher of this work, argued that Hegel considers the historical process from 3 positions. From chapters 1 to 5 the narrative is focused on the individual. In chapter 6, Hegel sets out the entire history of the world as he understands it, from Ancient Greece to the French Revolution. In chapters 7 and 8 - the "superstructure of history." Hegel examines in detail the stages of the development of consciousness - from sensual certainty to absolute knowledge, which lies in thought itself and is the highest form of development of the absolute spirit that has known itself. Thus, we can say that we are all nerve cells of God. Like any phenomenon, each statement is formed in a certain context of relations and connection. Nothing is permanent.