Absolute idealism is an ontologically monistic
philosophy "chiefly associated with Friedrich
Schelling and G. W. F. Hegel, both German
idealist philosophers of the 19th century,
Josiah Royce, an American philosopher, and
others, but, in its essentials, the product
of Hegel". It is Hegel's account of how being
is ultimately comprehensible as an all-inclusive
whole (das Absolute). Hegel asserted that
in order for the thinking subject (human reason
or consciousness) to be able to know its object
(the world) at all, there must be in some
sense an identity of thought and being. Otherwise,
the subject would never have access to the
object and we would have no certainty about
any of our knowledge of the world. To account
for the differences between thought and being,
however, as well as the richness and diversity
of each, the unity of thought and being cannot
be expressed as the abstract identity "A=A".
Absolute idealism is the attempt to demonstrate
this unity using a new "speculative" philosophical
method, which requires new concepts and rules
of logic. According to Hegel, the absolute
ground of being is essentially a dynamic,
historical process of necessity that unfolds
by itself in the form of increasingly complex
forms of being and of consciousness, ultimately
giving rise to all the diversity in the world
and in the concepts with which we think and
make sense of the world.The absolute idealist
position dominated philosophy in nineteenth-century
England and Germany, while exerting significantly
less influence in the United States. The absolute
idealist position should be distinguished
from the subjective idealism of Berkeley,
the transcendental idealism of Kant, or the
post-Kantian transcendental idealism (also
known as critical idealism) of Fichte and
of the early Schelling.
== Teachings ==
For Hegel, the interaction of opposites generates
in dialectical fashion all concepts we use
in order to understand the world. Moreover,
this development occurs not only in the individual
mind, but also through history. In The Phenomenology
of Spirit, for example, Hegel presents a history
of human consciousness as a journey through
stages of explanations of the world. Each
successive explanation created problems and
oppositions within itself, leading to tensions
which could only be overcome by adopting a
view that could accommodate these oppositions
in a higher unity. At the base of spirit lies
a rational development. This means that the
absolute itself is exactly that rational development.
The assertion that "All reality is spirit"
means that all of reality rationally orders
itself and while doing so creates the oppositions
we find in it. Even nature is not different
from the spirit since it itself is ordered
by the determinations given to us by spirit.
Nature, as that which is not spirit is so
determined by spirit, therefore it follows
that nature is not absolutely other, but understood
as other and therefore not essentially alien.
The aim of Hegel was to show that we do not
relate to the world as if it is other from
us, but that we continue to find ourselves
back into that world. With the realisation
that both the mind and the world are ordered
according to the same rational principles,
our access to the world has been made secure,
a security which was lost after Kant proclaimed
the 'Ding an sich' to be ultimately inaccessible.
== Neo-Hegelianism ==
Neo-Hegelianism is a school (or schools) of
thought associated and inspired by the works
of Hegel.
It refers mainly to the doctrines of an idealist
school of philosophers that were prominent
in Great Britain and in the United States
between 1870 and 1920. The name is also sometimes
applied to cover other philosophies of the
period that were Hegelian in inspiration—for
instance, those of Benedetto Croce and of
Giovanni Gentile.
=== Hegelianism after Hegel ===
Although Hegel died in 1831, his philosophy
lived on. In politics, there was a developing
schism, even before his death, between right
Hegelians and left Hegelians.
In the philosophy of religion, Hegel's influence
soon became very powerful in the English-speaking
world. The British school, called British
idealism and partly Hegelian in inspiration,
included Thomas Hill Green, Bernard Bosanquet,
F.H. Bradley, William Wallace, and Edward
Caird. It was importantly directed towards
political philosophy and political and social
policy, but also towards metaphysics and logic,
as well as aesthetics.
America saw the development of a school of
Hegelian thought move toward pragmatism.
=== German twentieth-century neo-Hegelians
===
In Germany there was a neo-Hegelianism (Neuhegelianismus)
of the early twentieth century, partly developing
out of the Neo-Kantians. Richard Kroner wrote
one of its leading works, a history of German
idealism from a Hegelian point of view.
=== Other notable neo-Hegelians ===
Francis Herbert Bradley (1846–1924), a British
absolute idealist who adapted Hegel's Metaphysics.
Bernard Bosanquet (1848–1923), a British
idealist / speculative philosopher, who had
an important influence in political philosophy
and public and social policy.
Josiah Royce (1855–1916), an American defender
of absolute idealism.
Benedetto Croce (1866–1952), an Italian
philosopher who defended Hegel's account on
how we understand history. Croce wrote primarily
on topics of Aesthetics, such as artistic
inspiration/intuition and personal expression.
Giovanni Gentile (1875–1944), important
philosopher within the fascist movement. Ghost-wrote
"The Doctrine of Fascism".
Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968), gave rise
to a new understanding of Hegel in France
during the 1930s. His lectures were attended
by a small but influential group of intellectuals
including Raymond Queneau, Georges Bataille,
Maurice Merleau-Ponty, André Breton, Jacques
Lacan, Raymond Aron, Roger Caillois, Michel
Leiris, Henry Corbin, and Jean Hyppolite,
and influenced Jean-Paul Sartre.
== Criticisms ==
Exponents of analytic philosophy, which has
been the dominant form of Anglo-American philosophy
for most of the last century, have criticised
Hegel's work as hopelessly obscure. Existentialists
also criticise Hegel for ultimately choosing
an essentialistic whole over the particularity
of existence. Epistemologically, one of the
main problems plaguing Hegel's system is how
these thought determinations have bearing
on reality as such. A perennial problem of
his metaphysics seems to be the question of
how spirit externalises itself and how the
concepts it generates can say anything true
about nature. At the same time, they will
have to, because otherwise Hegel's system
concepts would say nothing about something
that is not itself a concept and the system
would come down to being only an intricate
game involving vacuous concepts.
=== Schopenhauer ===
Schopenhauer noted that Hegel created his
absolute idealism after Kant had discredited
all proofs of God's existence. The Absolute
is a non-personal substitute for the concept
of God. It is the one subject that perceives
the universe as one object. Individuals share
in parts of this perception. Since the universe
exists as an idea in the mind of the Absolute,
absolute idealism copies Spinoza's pantheism
in which everything is in God or Nature.
=== Moore and Russell ===
Famously, G. E. Moore’s rebellion against
absolutism found expression in his defense
of common sense against the radically counter-intuitive
conclusions of absolutism (e.g. time is unreal,
change is unreal, separateness is unreal,
imperfection is unreal, etc.). G. E. Moore
also pioneered the use of logical analysis
against the absolutists, which Bertrand Russell
promulgated and began the entire tradition
of analytic philosophy with its use against
the philosophies of his direct predecessors.
In recounting his own mental development Russell
reports, "For some years after throwing over
[absolutism] I had an optimistic riot of opposite
beliefs. I thought that whatever Hegel had
denied must be true." (Russell in Barrett
and Adkins 1962, p. 477) Also:
G.E. Moore took the lead in the rebellion,
and I followed, with a sense of emancipation.
[Absolutism] argued that everything common
sense believes in is mere appearance. We reverted
to the opposite extreme, and thought that
everything is real that common sense, uninfluenced
by philosophy or theology, supposes real.
=== Pragmatism ===
Particularly the works of William James and
F. C. S. Schiller, both founding members of
pragmatism, made lifelong assaults on Absolute
Idealism. James was particularly concerned
with the monism that Absolute Idealism engenders,
and the consequences this has for the problem
of evil, free will, and moral action. Schiller,
on the other hand, attacked Absolute Idealism
for being too disconnected with our practical
lives, and argued that its proponents failed
to realize that thought is merely a tool for
action rather than for making discoveries
about an abstract world that fails to have
any impact on us.
Absolute idealism has greatly altered the
philosophical landscape. Paradoxically, (though,
from a Hegelian point of view, maybe not paradoxically
at all) this influence is mostly felt in the
strong opposition it engendered. Both logical
positivism and Analytic philosophy grew out
of a rebellion against Hegelianism prevalent
in England during the 19th century. Continental
phenomenology, existentialism and post-modernism
also seek to 'free themselves from Hegel's
thought'. Martin Heidegger, one of the leading
figures of Continental philosophy in the 20th
century, sought to distance himself from Hegel's
work. One of Heidegger's philosophical themes
was "overcoming metaphysics".
== See also ==
Doctrine of internal relations
Jena Romanticism
Objective idealism
== Notes ==
== Further reading ==
Fundamental Wisdom of the Middle Way (Garfield)
Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy (Blackburn)
A History of Christian Thought (Tillich)
From Socrates to Sartre (Lavine)
Hegel: Een inleiding (ed. Ad Verbrugge et
al.)
Hegel's Idealism – The Satisfactions of
Self Consciousness (Pippin)
Endings – Questions of Memory in Hegel and
Heidegger (ed. McCumber, Comay)
