Hegel

Answer : While Leibniz inferred the nature of representation in all the things from the nature of representation in the individual mind, Hegel attempted to draw from reality the universal, absolute Spirit itself which endeavors to fulfill the purpose and meaning of becoming the expression of Spirit that each individual spirit has its own task at its own stage to actualize itself through the series of thought’s objectification. According to Hegel, what is rational is real (the full actualization of the potential, implicit nature of Spirit), and what is real is rational (the reality understood as the pregnant self-expression of Spirit). Hegel was trying to see reality and its principle by means of the synthesis of two different ideas: The one of the philosophy of identity (from Schelling) and this identical articulates itself in the process of history as the totality of inevitable self-expressions of the identical Spirit:

1. At first, the Absolute (the absolute Spirit) exists as the abstract system of concepts prior to the concrete, actual world.
2. Next, this Absolute comes down to or reveals itself at the level of Nature and the unconscious,
3. The Absolute then further actualizes itself and is awaken as Consciousness through the lower stage of cognition to the higher ones such as in the form of Sensation, Perception, Consciousness to Self-Consciousness in the human,
4. It actualizes itself as the content of that absolute Idea in the social institution,
5. Finally it enriches itself in Philosophy, Religion and Arts and returns to itself as the completely actualized and articulated Absolute (Spirit).

If the world is thought’s generating process of itself, and philosophy is the expression of this process, then philosophy is the Scientific Doctrine of the Development of the Thought (Reason or Spirit). Or it is the theory of progress or self-actualization of Spirit. If any one thing actualizes itself as a certain stage of thought, everything real is rational (as an essential moment of Reason), and if the World Process attains its highest in Philosophy and Philosophy attains the System of the Absolute in Idealism, then what is Rational obtains the actualized form in the Absolute Idealism through the various stages of development. For Hegel, therefore, reality is understood as the Absolute unfolding dialectically in a process of self-development. As the Absolute undergoes this development, it manifests itself both in nature and in human history. Nature is Absolute Thought or Being objectifying itself in material form. Finite minds and human history are the process of the Absolute manifesting itself namely, spirit or consciousness. In The Phenomenology of Mind Hegel traced the stages of this manifestation from the simplest level of consciousness, through self-consciousness, to the advent of reason. So what is real is rational and what is rational is real.

Answer : One of the earliest forms of employing the dialectical method was the Dialogues of Greek philosopher Plato in which the author sought to study truth through discussion in the form of questions and answers. The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, thought of dialectic as the search for the philosophic basis of science, and he frequently used the term as a synonym for the science of logic.

Hegel’s aim was to set forth a philosophical system so comprehensive that it would encompass the ideas of his predecessors and create a conceptual framework in terms of which both the past and future could be philosophically understood. Such an aim would require nothing short of a full account of reality itself. Thus, Hegel conceived the subject matter of philosophy to be reality as a whole. This reality, or the total developmental process of everything that is, he referred to as the Absolute, or Absolute Spirit. According to Hegel, the task of philosophy is to chart the development of Absolute Spirit. This involves

making clear the internal rational structure of the Absolute;

demonstrating the manner in which the Absolute manifests itself in nature and human history; and

explicating the teleological nature of the Absolute, that is, showing the end or purpose toward which the Absolute is directed.

”Hegel, following the ancient Greek philosopher Parmenides, argued that “what is rational is real and what is real is rational.” This must be understood in terms of Hegel’s further claim that the Absolute must ultimately be regarded as pure Thought, or Spirit, or Mind, in the process of self-development. Traditionally, this dimension of Hegel’s thought has been analyzed in terms of the categories of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. Although Hegel tended to avoid these terms, they are helpful in understanding his concept of the dialectic. The thesis, then, might be an idea or a historical movement.

Such an idea or movement contains within itself incompleteness that gives rise to opposition, or an antithesis, a conflicting idea or movement. As a result of the conflict a third point of view arises, a synthesis, which overcomes the conflict by reconciling at a higher level the truth contained in both the thesis and antithesis. This synthesis becomes a new thesis that generates another antithesis, giving rise to a new synthesis, and in such a fashion the process of intellectual or historical development is continually generated”.

Hegel believed that the evolution of ideas occurs through a dialectical process-that is, a concept gives rise to its opposite, and as a result of this conflict, a new and third view, the synthesis, arises. This synthesis is at a higher level of truth than the first two views. Hegel’s work is based on the idealistic concept of a universal mind that, through evolution, seeks to arrive at the highest level of self-awareness and freedom.