HEGEL - OVERVIEW

<BODY> <TABLE WIDTH=400 BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=2 CELLPADDING=1> <TR> <TD><IMG SRC="1601a.jpg" WIDTH="131" HEIGHT="150" ALT="HEGEL"></TD> <TD><CENTER><FONT SIZE=5><B><FONT SIZE=6>HEGEL</FONT><BR> THE ABSOLUTE IDEALIST<P> (1770-1831)</FONT></B></FONT><BR><BR> "The history of the world is nothing but the development of the idea of freedom."</CENTER></TD> </TR> </TABLE> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Overview</B></FONT><P> A German absolute <A HREF="../t03/g024.html" TARGET="_top">idealist</A> philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel saw reality in terms of a universal Absolute Mind which manifests itself in both natural and human history. Hegel's friend, <A HREF="../t06/t06f28.html" TARGET="_top">Schelling</A>, had extended <A HREF="../15/15f01.html" TARGET="_top">Kant's</A> concept of the individual mind constructing reality to postulate a Universal Mind or Spirit (Geist). Hegel expands this further into a system of thought that explains all of reality in terms of such an Absolute Mind, a unified totality of all rational truth. History is the embodiment of Mind's <A HREF="../t03/g009.html" TARGET="_top">dialectic</A>, with the great epochs of history serving as the theses, antitheses and syntheses in the movement towards the wholly rational condition.<P> For Hegel, the modern Nation State, as exemplified by Prussia, embodied in its culture and institutions, the current stage of Mind's progress towards unity with Reason, towards consciousness of freedom. The choice to follow its moral system thus corresponds with reason and is a greater freedom than choice making based on individual whim. Thus Man finds his greatest happiness and freedom when he becomes conscious that his personal ideals match those of the state.<P> <FONT SIZE=4><B>Major Works</B></FONT><BR> <ul> <li>"Phenomenology of Spirit" (1807) <li>"Science of Logic" (1812-16) <li>"Encyclopaedia of Philosophic Sciences" (1817) <li>"The Philosophy of Right" (1821) </ul> Many of Hegel's lecture notes from his lectureship at the University of Berlin 1813-31 were published in annotated format by his ex-student admirers:<BR> <ul> <li>"Lectures on the Philosophy of History" <li>"Lectures on Aesthetics" <li>"Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion" <li>"Lectures on the History of Philosophy" </ul> <BR clear=left><BR> <HR width=100%> <A HREF="http://www.creatorix.com.au"><IMG SRC="../creatorix.gif" WIDTH="85" HEIGHT="40" BORDER="0" ALT="Creatorix" align=right></A> </BODY>