The development of idealism after Kant reached its apogee in the work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, who went down in history as the creator of the most comprehensive and proven system of the dialectic of idealism.
Hegel's "Absolute Idea"
Calling the philosophical concept "absolute idealism", G. Hegel stated that categories are real forms of reality based on "world mind", "absolute idea", in other words - "world spirit".
It turns out that the "absolute idea" is something that gives impetus to the emergence and evolution of the natural and spiritual worlds, a kind of active principle. And a person needs to comprehend this “absolute idea” through reflection. This train of thought includes 3 steps.
First stage
Here the absolute idea, being only a thought that existed before the definition of subject and object, is positioned as ordered knowledge in principle. Thus, it is revealed through a system of categories of logic related and arising from each other.
In his philosophical theory, Hegel divided logic into three doctrines: about being, about essence and about the concept. The starting point of his theory is the equalitythinking and being, or, in other words, the perception of the world of reality as a visible action of the spirit of the Idea. Initially, the absolute idea was an abstract thought about being. Then this thought of “pure being” was filled with concrete content: at first, being was positioned as an indefinite something, then it was defined as being, then a certain being was formed, and so on.
In this way, G. Hegel moves from understanding being - a phenomenon - to its essence, and then deduces a concept. In addition, during the formation of the absolute idea, Hegel explains a number of dialectical patterns.
Second stage
At the second stage of the formation of the concept of an absolute idea, it is abstracted into a natural valley, leaving for nature. It is from here that Hegel's formulation of the provisions on natural philosophy follows. For him, nature is only an outward expression, a manifestation of thought, but an independent progress of the categories of logic.
Third stage
The philosopher identifies three degrees of development of nature: mechanism, chemistry, organism, between which he finds a certain connection. This connection will later become the basis for studying the relationship between certain levels of organic and inorganic nature. Thus, Hegel's philosophy of the spirit is divided into three components: the doctrine of the subjective spirit, which includes the sciences of man; the doctrine of the objective spirit, which includes the study of moral problems, history, law; the doctrine of the absolute spirit, which reveals itself in the cultural componenthuman life (religion, philosophy, art).
Consequently, according to Hegel, the evolution of the absolute idea goes in a circle, and it is equivalent to the progress of the material world, which is a direct product of this idea. Hegel led to the conclusion that the completion of this absolute idea (when it realizes itself and its path) is the formation of the absolute spirit. This is the very system of Hegel's philosophy.
From now on, the progress of the absolute idea on the increase stops and acquires a circular trajectory, stopping the evolution of thought, dooming it to constant movement in a circle, without development. Thus, it turns out that Hegel's theory is closest to objective idealism, since it is the concept of "absolute idea", being pure thought, that gives rise to nature and man. As a result, a triad is formed on which the concept of Hegel's philosophy is built: thesis - antithesis - synthesis, which gives it consistent validity. After all, the categories of this theory are not blindly affirmed, but are generated by each other. Such integrity of the system is a contradiction of its dominant law - the principle of progress.
Conclusion
The absolute idea as a term seems to be fundamental for the entire philosophy of Hegel, expressing the entirety of the material, existing world, while at the same time being this truly existing world. It is also the subject of Hegel's philosophy.
Being the central concept of Hegelian theory, the absolute idea is divided into three facets:
- substantial(expanded in the first stage);
- active (revealed in the second stage);
- "self-awareness" (revealed in the third stage).
Being a rationalized system, having only a true logical being, the absolute idea must also be a "for-itself-existing unity", manifest itself in the field of nature and spirit. The triad (logical idea - nature - spirit) is a deep parameter of the absolute idea, which finds itself through the confrontation of "other" and "self" and the following "removal" of this opposition by achieving unity with itself. Therefore, according to Hegel, the absolute idea is the concept of existence, explained not only by logic, but also by being, conditioned by the ontological position of reality.
