“Truth is found neither in the thesis

nor the antithesis, but in an

emergent synthesis which reconciles
the two.”
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
HEGEL AND IDEALISM
Fe T. Canoy
Discussant
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

August 27, 1770

Stuttgart in south-
western Germany

Tübingen Seminary
in 1793, Majoring
in Theology
 Hegel’s Absolute Idealism

• Absolute idealism describes how being is an

all-inclusive whole.
• Since a thinking being can know the world,
there must be some kind of identity that links
the two.
• The identity is called “world spirit”.
 World Spirit

• It is reason
• The “world spirit” comes to know itself in three
stages: the subjective spirit (the individual), the
objective spirit (the family, society, and state), and
the absolute spirit (art, religion, and philosophy).
• He argues that there is not any absolute truth
beyond human reason.
 The Dialectic Process

• First, someone puts forth a claim:

this is called a thesis.
• Then, someone else puts forth a
contradictory claim: an antithesis.
• A third party forms a synthesis,
which accommodates the best of both
points of view.
The Dialectic Process

Height

Tall Short

The difference between heights

Hegel’s Philosophy of History

• His philosophy was mostly a method for understanding history.

• He believed that philosophers, and all thinkers, could not be
considered outside their historical context.
• The reason he stressed this is because his belief on truth was
that since the basis of human understanding changes from one
generation to the next, there is no eternal truth, but rather right
and wrong relate to a certain historical context.
• In fact, to Hegel, “truth” was that same process of history – in a
sense.
 “Truth”

• “Truth” is not an objective entity.

• “Truth” is also not subjective in the sense that it is “up to” the
individual.
• Truth is an evolving reality that develops in the same way that
the “world spirit” does, but toward full truth rather than
toward full knowledge of itself.
• So “truth” isn’t really a thing of the moment; rather it’s a sort
of living, growing being that develops alongside history and
humanity.
 Hegel and Idealism
• Absolute idealism states that being is an all-
inclusive whole, making it possible for a subject to
know an object.
• The “world spirit”, or human reason, is in the
process of coming to know itself, which is history.
• This process is called the dialectic process, which
consists of a thesis, an antithesis, and a synthesis.
• Since actions can be right or wrong in a given
historical context, there is no eternal truth, but
rather truth develops alongside the historical
process.
 Hegel and Idealism

• The finite world is a reflection of mind, which

alone is truly real.
• Hegel's aim was to show that we do not relate
to the world as if it is apart from ourselves,
but that we continue to find ourselves within
the world.
• Truth becomes the relationship of harmony
between thoughts.
 References
• https://www.britannica.com/topic
/Absolute-Idealism
• Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie’s
World. Trans. Paulette Møller.
New York: Farrar, Straus and
Giroux, 2007. Print.
• Redding, Paul. “Georg Wilhelm
Friedrich Hegel.” Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 22
July 2010. Web. 12 May 2011.