George Hegel (1770-1831)
Background
Idealists believed in
a positive historical
development that
led to rationality, but
they saw no reason
why the rational
mind had to be the
end of development.
George Hegel (1770-1831)
Hegel once
complained: “Only
one man
understands me,
and even he does
not.”
Hegel’s Dialectic
The dialectical idea
is that “something
new” does not
completely cancel
out the opposing
pair, but integrates
them at a higher
level where both can
exist in a new form.
Hegel’s Dialectic
What is Hegel doing
with the dialectic?
He is trying to
“comprehend how
all dimensions of
existence are
dialectically
integrated into one
unitary whole”
(Tarnas, 379).
History and the Evolution of
Consciousness
 Hegel proposed that
there was a further
development of human
intellect that would
come at a higher
synthesis when feeling
came together with
rationality. It had a lot
to do with intuition and
imagination.
History and the Evolution of
Consciousness
Kant was simply the
anti-thesis to the
Enlightenment’s
thesis. The clash
would give birth to a
new synthesis. And,
in fact, the whole
history of thought
can be understood
in this way.
History and the Evolution of
Consciousness
 “God is not beyond the
creation, but is the
creative process itself.
The universal essence,
which constitutes and
permeates all things,
finally comes to
consciousness of itself
in humans” (Tarnas, p.
381).
History and the Evolution of
Consciousness
 Hegel’s philosophy is
teleological, that is, the
end is in the beginning.
We are moving toward
an end that was set in
motion as a goal by a
force that gave rise to
space and time in the
first place.
Summary
 First religion, then
philosophy, and finally
science would have the
validity of its knowledge
questioned. But for
Hegel this was all the
working out of an
evolving understanding
that worked through
the dialectic.