GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
LIFE AND WORK.....................................................................................................................3
HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY...........................................................................................................4
THE IDEA IS THE ESSENCE OF EVERYTHING..............................................................4
PANLOGISM..........................................................................................................................4
DIALECTICS..........................................................................................................................5
The trinity of thesis, antithesis and synthesis......................................................................5

1
 The dialectic of self-determination of battle........................................................................6
Dialectics - the power of negative thinking.........................................................................6
ENCYCLOPEDIC PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM.....................................................................7
LOGIC.....................................................................................................................................7
PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE.................................................................................................7
PHILOSOPHY OF THE SPIRIT............................................................................................7
Subjective spirit...................................................................................................................7
Objective spirit....................................................................................................................8
Absolute spirit......................................................................................................................8
FAMILY.....................................................................................................................................9
CIVIL SOCIETY........................................................................................................................9
COUNTRY...............................................................................................................................10

2
INTRODUCTION

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is one of the deepest, most systematic and certainly
the most ingenious thinkers of all time. It represents the culmination of the most prolific
period in the history of German (and not only German) philosophy, lasting about fifty years
(approximately from the release of the first edition of Kant's Critique of the Pure Mind in
1781 until Hegel's death in 1831). The main representatives of this epochal historical thought
are classical German philosophy Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, and this thought is not
only current and relevant to this day, but still stands as an indispensable basis for
understanding our modernity and solving important problems. our present. Hegel is a creator
who in the most appropriate way expressed the essence of the European spirit of modern
times (bourgeois world),

LIFE AND WORK

Hegel was born in Stuttgart in 1770, where he finished primary school and grammar
school. His father was a senior financial officer. He began studying theology and philosophy
in Tübingen in 1788, where he befriended the famous romantic poet Hölderlin and Schelling,
five years his junior, a philosopher who played a major role in Hegel's philosophical
development. panlogism, which also carried out in Brlin the task, given to the Prussian
government, to suppress the then great and "destructive" influence of Hegel's philosophy). As
a student in Tübingen, together with Hölderlin and Schelling, he was an ardent supporter of
the French Revolution, and after completing five years of study he returned home to Stuttgart.
Having no means of subsistence, Hegel became a home teacher first for three years in Bern
and then for four years in Frankfurt am Main. During this time he seriously studied Kant's and
Fichte's writings, as well as the works of Schelling, with whom he is constantly in
philosophical correspondence. He also wrote his first writings during this period. It was not
until 1801 that Hegel Schelling obtained his first university position as a private assistant

3
professor at Jena, where he and Schelling published the journal Critical Journal of Philosophy
and published several of his first papers. In the Jena period (until 1806) Hegel wrote some of
his famous works on logic, metaphysics and natural law, and on the eve of Napoleon's battle
of Jena in 1806 he completed his famous and perhaps most significant work The
Phenomenology of the Spirit, which he published in 1807 with the help of his good friend
Niethammer. As head of the Bavarian Ministry of Education, he secured the position of
director of the grammar school in Nuremberg, and Hegel remained in that position for a full
eight years. In Nuremberg, Hegel also wrote his major work, Logic, where he married the
daughter of a baron at the age of 41 and had two sons with her. Hegel then became a professor
at the University of Heidelberg, where his university career resumed, and where he became a
prominent philosopher and became famous by invitation to Berlin, where he remained from
his famous inaugural lecture in 1818 until his death. cholera 1831 The main work from that
period was the well-known and controversial Hegel's Philosophy of Law. Along with the
Encyclopedia written mostly in Heidelberg, and later revised and supplemented by some
smaller writings, among which the most important is Ratlika between Fichte's and Schelling's
systems of philosophy, Phenomenology of Spirit, Logic, Philosophy of Law and Philosophy
of History are the only works published by Hegel . All other works were published after his
death by his students and listeners, such as: Aesthetics, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of
Religion, etc. The Philosophy of Law and the Philosophy of History are the only works
published by Hegel himself. All other works were published after his death by his students
and listeners, such as: Aesthetics, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, etc. The
Philosophy of Law and the Philosophy of History are the only works published by Hegel
himself. All other works were published after his death by his students and listeners, such as:
Aesthetics, History of Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, etc.

HEGEL'S PHILOSOPHY

Hegel's philosophy represents such a versatile, deep and consistently logical system of
thought that, according to this systemic comprehensiveness and mental consistency, it has
almost no predecessor or successor in the history of philosophy. Therefore we do not call
Hegel in vain the modern Aristotle. Hegel cared about systematicity in everything precisely
because he believed that philosophy without a system could not contain anything
scientifically objective and necessary, so that such unsystematic, therefore accidental and
subjective thinking would be the fruit of non-obligation, bear the stamp of transience, express
the state of things. is at that moment for us and our opinion, not what it is for itself and in
itself. Hegel means the philosophical culmination of that general cultural spirit of that time
which wants to fully encompass and completely creatively interpret all areas of practice and
theory, the whole world, its essence and its rich and varied appearances. "There is no" - says
Hegel - "the closed essence of the universe in itself a force that can resist the audacity of
cognition, it must dissolve before him, show him your depths and give them to enjoy." And
regardless of what for Hegel is the starting position has always been an idea, in general, a law,
which is, therefore, his system a classic example of objective idealism, his entire grandiose
philosophical building is extraordinarily full and rich in real, living material, so his
philosophy is often more realistic than many "materialist" or "realistic" “Concept.

4
THE IDEA IS THE ESSENCE OF EVERYTHING

The idea is to Hegel the essence of everything. Idea, mind, intellect, that is the basic,
essence and being of everything. This absolute, all-encompassing, universal essence of
consciousness and the world, spirit and nature, subject and object, develops in such a way that
only at the end of the process does one become aware of oneself. Only at the end is what it
really is. Cognition is possible, Hegel believes, only with this assumption of the identity of
consciousness and the world. That the subject knows and penetrates the object, and that man
in the world acts purposefully and meaningfully, is possible only if the subject and the object
are essentially identical, if nature and man are permeated by the same mental basis. Mind and
reality are therefore identical, unique in their foundation. Hegel therefore insists that it be
truly understood and expressed not only as a substance but also as a subject. The law by
which cognition takes place is also the law of reality. Logic is to Hegel the same as ontology.

PANLOGISM

Hegel thus confirms and conceives the essential presupposition of all rationalism:
thought and being are identical: the law of the mind is at the same time the law of reality. This
thesis underlies rationalism from its earliest beginnings in Heraclitus and Parmenides. We can
then follow her to Plato and the Stoics, and there are others. But Hegel expresses it in the
more exposed formula of his panlogism: "To comprehend what is is the task of philosophy,
for what is is the mind" and "What is intelligent is real, and what is real is intelligent." But
every existence is not reality (not real, not real). Hegel distinguishes between appearance and
reality. Existence is partly a phenomenon (accidental - transient existence, what is only
possible, so it may not be as it is), and partly reality - a necessary being, which contains the
essence. Until in ordinary life this distinction appears and is not implemented, the philosopher
must keep it in mind. The idea is real. Hegel is always looking for an idea, the mind, the
thought as the basis, the essence that is realized in everything.

DIALECTICS

Along with the thesis of panlogism (absolute idealism), dialectics is another important
feature of Hegel's teaching. It permeates his entire philosophical system. Hegel's dialectic is
not just a method, especially not just an external skill, but a "soul and notion of content": it is
the all-encompassing science by which everything happens. In everything Hegel reveals the
duality of the subjective and the objective: the flows of consciousness are parallel to the flows
of the world. Dialectics is both logic, but also ontology. Dialectics is the path of self-
development of an absolute idea.

The trinity of thesis, antithesis and synthesis

5
The dialectical course is threefold: it consists of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. These
moments of the triad are also referred to as setting, negation and negation of negation.

 Thesisis the first stage of simple setting, of arbitrary definiteness of a concept;

 antithesisis the second degree - the degree of negation, differentiation, opposition,
conflict;
 synthesisthat is, the negation of negation, the abolition of negation - affirmation, is the
third degree - the degree of mediation which includes the first two determinations and
at the same time abolishes their opposites in one higher unity.

In the permeation of these moments and their constant overcoming and abolition, there is
a continuous development of concepts, life and reality in general. Each lower degree is
abolished, preserved, and overcome (surpassed) by a higher degree.

"A fool never notices that everything has two sides. He works with ancient performances,
with simple, monotonous ones, in which one can rest and in which nothing happens. And if he
thought one thought to the end, then he would notice that there is a conflict in the opinion,
that objections are raised, which enrich it and move it in content. A is not always A, it must be
said B; but it is precisely consistency that gives B as the opposite. And above that tense arc,
which thus arises, C rises as a climax and simply until C separates again and a new unity of
opposites is produced in an unstoppable dialectical development. "(E. Bloch)

The role of synthesis in the “trinity scheme” is explained by Windelband as the

overcoming of the difference between affirmation (position) and negation (second battle).
"They are abolished in it in three ways: its one-sided validity is overcome, their relative
meaning is preserved and their original meaning is transformed into a higher truth"
(Wintelband, II, 171.) The threefold meaning of Hegel's term "abolished" is similarly
interpreted and known Hegel commentator Alexandre Kojeva in his book "How to Read
Hegel":

"The thesis and antithesis are, on the one hand, abolished or annulled in what is fragmented,
relative, partial or biased in them, ie. in what makes them false, when one of them is taken not
for one opinion, but as truth in general. They are also on the other hand maintained or
preserved in what is essential or general in them, i. in what in each of them reveals one of the
many aspects of the whole and one reality. They are, finally, sublimated, ie. elevated to a
higher level of cognition and reality, and therefore of truth; because by complementing each
other, the thesis and the antithesis are freed from their one-sided and limited, namely
"subjective" character, and as a synthesis they publish a more comprehensive, and therefore
more comprehensible aspect of the 'published real'. (A. Kojeve)

The synthesis is not the end, but only a new thesis for a new antithesis to the new synthesis,
etc., hence the beginning of a three-part sequence.

The dialectic of self-determination of battle

6
 Hegel's dialectic is not an external skill, but an immanent performance of the battle
itself, the self-development of reality, of the subject, of the mind. The movement of the battle
consists in the fact that he makes himself only a moment of his own development and that he
becomes something else to himself.

Namely, self-setting is not exhausted in its goal, but in its performance; nor is the result a real
whole, but a real whole he together with his becoming.

The self-creation of a living substance is the movement of setting oneself up or mediating

with oneself in becoming different from oneself. It is the emergence of itself like a circle that
assumes its thread as its goal, has it as a beginning, so its real thread is only by performance.
The idea is thus shown as an opinion that is identical with itself and at the same time as an
activity that opposes itself.

Dialectics - the power of negative thinking

Marx says that in Hegel the contradiction is the source of all dialectics.

"Hegel's dialectic understands the world as a history of dissonance, not as a temple of

harmony." (E. Bloch)

H. Marcuse emphasizes dialectics as the power of negative thinking, negation as the central
category of dialectics. Indeed, contradiction is the driver of dialectical progress. Hegel
emphasizes that the life of the spirit is not afraid of death and does not guard against
destruction, but endures death and is sustained in it; he does not look away from the negative,
but he is the power that looks the negative in the face, deals with it and turns it into being.
That power of the spirit is the subject - "the spirit is the infinite subjectivity of the Idea".

Negativity = Death = Individuality = Freedom = History; man is: a mortal, finite, free
historical individual.

ENCYCLOPEDIC PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM

Hegel's teaching is characterized by systematicity in the highest sense. Hegel strives to

realize the ideal of all modern philosophy; to bring it to science itself. Truth is a whole, not a
piece of money that can be given and received. Hegel therefore derives a system of
philosophy - an encyclopedia of philosophical sciences, in which each individual discipline is
a link in the chain of the whole of the unique development of philosophy as a circle of circles.
He follows the self-development of the idea from the abstract logical idea, which is first of all
the naked being = everything = nothing, all the way to the consciousness of the idea of oneself
in philosophy as the highest form of the absolute spirit.

7
LOGIC

Hegel's logic is no longer the so-called formal logic of the Aristotelian type in the
form of the so-called school philosophy, rather than dialectical logic which has pretensions to
conceptually derive in the "ether of pure thought" dialectically, ie. historically-graded
logically, from each other the whole categorical "structure of the world" of both nature and
spirit. Therefore, Hegel constantly invokes this categorical structure derived in logic
throughout his extensive work, and paradigmatically it comes to the fore, e.g. in his history of
philosophy, where each major philosopher is developmentally and dialectically assigned one
category as the central place of his philosophy

PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE

Philosophy of nature the weakest point of Hegel's whole thought is the traditional
pretensions of metaphysical omnipresence, from a time when - like ancient philosophy -
philosophy took on the role of an as yet undeveloped natural science, and nature imposed
itself as the object of philosophical imagination. Thus Hegel's philosophy of nature remained
a mere construction from his earliest writings.

PHILOSOPHY OF THE SPIRIT

The philosophy of spirit is divided into subjective, objective and absolute spirit.

Subjective spirit

Subjective spirit consists of anthropology, phenomenology of spirit and psychology,

where anthropological and psychological problems are intertwined, and phenomenology of
spirit as part of subjective spirit is a very brief summary of the essential moments of
Phenomenology of Spirit. It is certainly strange that the phenomenology of the spirit as a
history or science of the experience of consciousness, which as such goes far beyond even
treating consciousness from the standpoint of cognitive theory, has fallen here to the rank of a
moment of subjective spirit, but it seems obvious. The anthropological-psychological
approach to this issue seeks to show the unity of the physical and the mental and their internal
inseparability, which is in line with Hegel's dialectical thought, for which there are no
dualisms or independent entities that are not internally interconnected. Only at a higher level,
at the level of the so-called the real soul, which completely permeates its body and rules over
it, becomes that consciousness which knows itself in difference from the body, because with
it, i.e. with the notion of consciousness we find both at the standpoint of self-awareness. This,

8
in turn, is already a transition to the stages of the phenomenology of the spirit: consciousness,
self-awareness, and the mind. This brings us to the concept of spirit, whose essential feature is
cognition. The spirit thus appears as: theoretical, practical and free. This third stage must be
the transition to the objective spirit, and is identical with free will, which is the very basis and
essential problem of the philosophy of the objective spirit, which means that the
objectification of the spirit is at work. with the notion of consciousness we find both at the
standpoint of self-awareness. This, in turn, is already a transition to the stages of the
phenomenology of the spirit: consciousness, self-awareness, and the mind. This brings us to
the concept of spirit, whose essential feature is cognition. The spirit thus appears as:
theoretical, practical and free. This third stage must be the transition to the objective spirit,
and is identical with free will, which is the very basis and essential problem of the philosophy
of the objective spirit, which means that the objectification of the spirit is at work. with the
notion of consciousness we find both at the standpoint of self-awareness. This, in turn, is
already a transition to the stages of the phenomenology of the spirit: consciousness, self-
awareness, and the mind. This brings us to the concept of spirit, whose essential feature is
cognition. The spirit thus appears as: theoretical, practical and free. This third stage must be
the transition to the objective spirit, and is identical with free will, which is the very basis and
essential problem of the philosophy of the objective spirit, which means that the
objectification of the spirit is at work.

Objective spirit

For Hegel, the basis of the whole realm of objective spirit is freedom or free will. True
free will is meant here as the unity of theoretical and practical spirit. Will, on the other hand,
is free intelligence. Speaking about the idea of freedom, Hegel emphasizes that
misunderstandings about the real spirit and freedom in history have had enormous practical
consequences, and points out that the idea of freedom as such is a product of the new age, the
bourgeois world. “Entire parts of the world, Africa and the Orient, have never had this idea
and do not have it yet; The Greeks and Romans, Plato and Aristotle, as well as the Stoics did
not have it; they knew, on the contrary, only that man is truly free by birth, or by strength of
character, by means of education, of philosophy. This idea has entered the world with
Christianity, according to which the individual as such has infinite value ... " as the backbone
of the modern notion of humanity and the highest reach of the civic spirit.

Absolute spirit

The absolute spirit is realized in art in the form of dawn, that is. in sensory appearance, in
religion in the form of imagination and feeling, and finally in philosophy in pure terms as the
spirit most appropriate and perfect form. Hegel's lectures on aesthetics deal with:

1.) the idea of an artistically beautiful or ideal,

2.) development of ideals into special forms of artistically beautiful and

9
3.) the system of individual arts (architecture, sculpture and romance: painting, music and
poetry).

Aesthetics is the philosophy of art, its subject is the realm of the beautiful, the beautiful in art,
but not in nature. It’s a nice sensory illusion of an idea. Hence the requirements that are
placed before art: that the content of artistic representation be suitable for presentation, ie not
to be an abstraction, and that the design be concrete and individual. The idea and its design
should be appropriate to each other. Hegel distinguishes three relations of the idea according
to its design: a symbolic art form is more a "pure search for artistic representation than an
actual representation." The idea has not yet found its form in itself and therefore only the
struggle and aspiration towards it remains. ”The idea is abstract and vague, it seeks its own
character and has it outside itself in its sensory structure. The harmony of idea and character
always remains incomplete. Symbolic form is most adequately manifested in architecture.
Classical art has both content and form as its content. It reaches the ideal of beauty, and is
most pronounced in sculpture. The disadvantage of classical art is that the spirit here is
human, particular, not absolute, eternal, not pure spirituality. Philosophy is the highest form
of absolute spirit. It is the absolute cognition of the absolute, the conclusion of the mental
development of the idea. Hegel was the first to expose the history of philosophy as a
philosophical discipline - precisely as a philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical
teachings are an expression of the self-awareness of the spirit of their time, and at the same
time a necessary moment in the self-development of the absolute spirit. The sequence of
philosophical systems in the time course of history is identical with the sequence of logical
deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel gave them in his Logic. Classical art
has both content and form as its content. It reaches the ideal of beauty, and is most
pronounced in sculpture. The disadvantage of classical art is that the spirit here is human,
particular, not absolute, eternal, not pure spirituality. Philosophy is the highest form of
absolute spirit. It is the absolute cognition of the absolute, the conclusion of the mental
development of the idea. Hegel was the first to expose the history of philosophy as a
philosophical discipline - precisely as a philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical
teachings are an expression of the self-awareness of the spirit of their time, and at the same
time a necessary moment in the self-development of the absolute spirit. The sequence of
philosophical systems in the time course of history is identical with the sequence of logical
deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel gave them in his Logic. Classical art
has both content and form as its content. It reaches the ideal of beauty, and is most
pronounced in sculpture. The disadvantage of classical art is that the spirit here is human,
particular, not absolute, eternal, not pure spirituality. Philosophy is the highest form of
absolute spirit. It is the absolute cognition of the absolute, the conclusion of the mental
development of the idea. Hegel was the first to expose the history of philosophy as a
philosophical discipline - precisely as a philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical
teachings are an expression of the self-awareness of the spirit of their time, and at the same
time a necessary moment in the self-development of the absolute spirit. The sequence of
philosophical systems in the time course of history is identical with the sequence of logical
deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel gave them in his Logic. The
disadvantage of classical art is that the spirit here is human, particular, not absolute, eternal,
not pure spirituality. Philosophy is the highest form of absolute spirit. It is the absolute

10
cognition of the absolute, the conclusion of the mental development of the idea. Hegel was the
first to expose the history of philosophy as a philosophical discipline - precisely as a
philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical teachings are an expression of self-awareness
of the spirit of their time, and at the same time a necessary moment in the self-development of
the absolute spirit. The sequence of philosophical systems in the time course of history is
identical with the sequence of logical deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel
gave them in his Logic. The disadvantage of classical art is that the spirit here is human,
particular, not absolute, eternal, not pure spirituality. Philosophy is the highest form of
absolute spirit. It is the absolute cognition of the absolute, the conclusion of the mental
development of the idea. Hegel was the first to expose the history of philosophy as a
philosophical discipline - precisely as a philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical
teachings are an expression of self-awareness of the spirit of their time, and at the same time a
necessary moment in the self-development of the absolute spirit. The sequence of
philosophical systems in the time course of history is identical with the sequence of logical
deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel gave them in his Logic. Hegel was
the first to expose the history of philosophy as a philosophical discipline - precisely as a
philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical teachings are an expression of self-awareness
of the spirit of their time, and at the same time a necessary moment in the self-development of
the absolute spirit. The sequence of philosophical systems in the time course of history is
identical with the sequence of logical deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel
gave them in his Logic. Hegel was the first to expose the history of philosophy as a
philosophical discipline - precisely as a philosophy of philosophy. Some philosophical
teachings are an expression of self-awareness of the spirit of their time, and at the same time a
necessary moment in the self-development of the absolute spirit. The sequence of
philosophical systems in the time course of history is identical with the sequence of logical
deduction of conceptual definitions of an idea - as Hegel gave them in his Logic.

FAMILY

Hegel considers the family, the first moment or degree of custom (consisting only of parents
and children, not the family, which includes all related relatives, and where the civil-capitalist
disintegration of the old clan community or cooperative is at work) to be the "basic cell"
society. As he now has before him a modern, civic-shaped and structured emerging family, it
is thought of as a cell of civil society as it is politically-socially and economically-legally built
especially after the great French Revolution.

CIVIL SOCIETY

11
 Civil society defines Hegel as a system of needs. This is already characteristic of
Hegel's vision of the very essence of that society, because it is precisely this radical critical
definition, which far-reaching in its sense anticipates Marx's later critique of civil society. The
system of needs for Hegel is just a euphemism for those relationships that e.g. Hobbes defines
his famous, civilly appropriate attitude, "Homo homini lupus." Because the system of needs
determines the lowest possible level of communication between people in a society of
substantially private owners, whose interests external necessities. To that extent, Hegel is also
a radical critic of civil society, but at the same time he nurtured the illusion that its essential
contradictions can be resolved and overcome on his own assumptions, ie. by simply
"overcoming" these contradictions and the whole of civil society with the help of the state!

COUNTRY

For Hegel, the state is the means by which he seeks to resolve all the contradictions of civil
society. It is understood not only as the highest degree of objective spirit, but also as a
dialectical-historical realization of the ordinary idea. This means, above all, that the idea of
the state contains, implies and is essentially constitutive of all previous moments and degrees,
and above all law and morality. For Hegel, the state and its political activity are
inconceivable, which would not be based primarily on law and morality, since the state is
primarily thought of as a guarantor of individual freedom, as well as society as a whole,
which can not guarantee and realize that freedom alone. That is its philosophical and
historical significance,

12
13