Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Behold, your king!

Thinking hardly
or hardly thinking?
Philosophy

Major trains of thought

* Logic
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and the brain fart

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Come to think of it

* Religion
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v \- t \- e

“”He never quite got his hair under control.

—Alain de Botton[1]

“”Should you ever intend to dull the wits of a young man and to incapacitate his brains for any kind of thought whatever, then you cannot do better than give Hegel to read ... A guardian fearing that his ward might become too intelligent for his schemes might prevent this misfortune by innocently suggesting the reading of Hegel.

—Sir Karl Popper quoting Schopenhauer[2]

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a German philosophaster, whose influence has probably been strongest in metaphysics, philosophy of history, and political philosophy. He is considered the most important representative of German idealism (particularly absolute idealism), with his philosophy being a complex synthesis of Enlightenment rationalism and Romantic ideals, ultimately aiming for a systematic understanding of reality that transcends the limitations of both.[3][4] Which boils down to Hegel's philosophy being something of a clusterfuck, that tries to have it both ways by giving due weight to both rationalist and irrationalist ideas. This is further worsened by the fact that Hegel's work is considered one of the most abstract and hardest to decipher in philosophy, which is also notoriously dry and boring to read.[5]:619[6]:xiv[7]

His main works concern a woo-propagating idea known as "Geist", and a solid idea known as the Hegelian Dialectic. In his Science of logic he formulated a defense of the ontological argument and cosmological argument, arguing that since being and nothing are the same they therefore make these arguments valid. [8]

## Contents

* 1 Why is Hegel so hard to read?
* 2 Main ideas
* 2.1 The ~~Woo~~ World Spirit
* 2.2 The Hegelian Dialectic
* 2.3 Theology and “Absolute Spirit”
* 2.4 Ethics and Politics
* 2.5 Hegelian freedom
* 3 Legacy
* 3.1 Influence
* 3.1.1 Hegelian Dialectic
* 3.1.2 Marxism
* 3.1.3 Communitarianism
* 3.1.4 New-age philosophies
* 3.2 Non-fans
* 3.2.1 Arthur Schopenhauer
* 3.2.2 Irrationalist philosophers
* 3.2.3 Sir Karl Popper
* 3.2.4 Bertrand Russell
* 3.2.5 Other
* 4 See also
* 5 Notes
* 6 References

## Why is Hegel so hard to read?[edit]

“”Only one man has understood me... nor did he understand me either. (Als Hegel auf dem Todbette lag, sagte er: »Nur einer hat mich verstanden«, aber gleich darauf fügte er verdrießlich hinzu: »Und der hat mich auch nicht verstanden.«)

—G.W.F. Hegel[note 1]

Deciphering Hegel’s intent in his writing can be a maddening exercise. The factors for this can be dissected to him using a specialized and dynamic philosophical idiom, the complexity of his dialectical method, and the highly technical and dense nature of his writing style, which often uses specialized terminology and assumes that the reader has an extensive background knowledge in the history of philosophy.

## Main ideas[edit]

Depiction of Hegel witnessing the avatar of the "World Spirit" — then incarnated as Napoleon — invading his home city of Jena, Germany.

While Hegel's philosophy is a convoluted mess, a few key ideas can be discerned from it -- namely the concept of Spirit, the dialectic and the philosophy of history. Hegel's idealism posits that reality is fundamentally rational and spiritual. The world is not merely material, but an expression of an underlying, absolute spirit; and that this spirit develops and becomes self-aware through history. His work also includes a significant focus on ethics and politics, emphasizing the role of the state in realizing individual freedom.

### The ~~Woo~~ World Spirit[edit]

“”Hegel claimed that the Geist is developing toward an ever-expanding knowledge of itself. It's the same with rivers -- they become ever broader as they get nearer the sea. According to Hegel, history is the story of the Geist gradually coming to the consciousness of itself. Although the world has always existed, human culture and human development have made the Geist increasingly conscious of its intrinsic value.

—Sophie's World[10]

Introduced in Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit (Phänomenologie des Geistes), Geist (often translated as spirit or mind) refers to the self-conscious, evolving principle that underlies both individual human consciousness and the collective consciousness of a society or culture. It's not just a static concept - nor purely "spiritual" thing in the traditional sense - but rather a dynamic, evolving force that shapes and is shaped by history and human activity. [11]:57

The Weltgeist (World Spirit) is not a separate, supernatural entity, but rather a way of understanding history as a process of unfolding self-consciousness and self-realization for humanity. It is the collective, non-individual agency of understanding that operates within societies and cultures, particularly through their art, religion, and philosophy. The core difference between Geist and Weltgeist lies in their scope: Geist is a broader term encompassing spirit, mind, or intellect in a general sense, while Weltgeist specifically refers to the "world spirit" or collective consciousness shaping historical development, particularly within Hegelian philosophy. According to Hegel, great figures like Napoleon are unwittingly utilized by the Weltgeist through a "ruse of reason" to achieve its historical mission, and are ultimately subject to this teleological principle of history.

Hegel taught that history moved forward in something he called the 'Dialectic' (covered below), and that the Geist is the sum of human experience. As a tie-in to epistemology, Hegel wrote that truth was absolutely subjective and that there were no absolutes in any sense of the word when concerning truth. Something socially acceptable in one culture may be a taboo in another (think wearing shoes in the house), and a truth in one era may be a crime in another (think slavery).

### The Hegelian Dialectic[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Dialectics

The Hegelian Dialectic is Hegel's one solid idea. Hegel taught that it moved the Geist, and history, forward. In its simplest form, the Dialectic goes like this:

* The thesis starts us off.
* The antithesis is the opposite of the thesis.
* They fight, and their love-child is the synthesis.
* We start again with the synthesis
* The antisynthesis is the opposite of the synthesis.
* They clash, and form a new synthesis.

This is actually a solid observation made by Hegel about how history moves forward. Keep in mind though that the Dialectic is not a two-iteration process and will keep going until the Geist becomes self-realising. As an example of the Dialectic, think about the not-so-old sexual revolution in the 1960s. The thesis is the Victorian era of closet sexuality, where it was shunned and taboo. The antithesis is the sexual revolution of the 1960s in which sexuality came out of the closet and was a major theme of the era. History had one extreme, Victorianism, then moved to the other extreme, the 1960s, and finally we'll get a synthesis, something along the lines of a balance of sexuality in society.

“”The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy explains how this is all meant to work thusly, "A transcendental argument begins with uncontroversial facts of experience and tries to show that other conditions must be present—or are necessary—for those facts to be possible." In other words, it's a flexible mix of begging the question, arguing from arbitrary axioms, and mistaking the map for the territory. The goal of this is to skip the legwork and graduate directly to dispensing ultimate metaphysical truth. This all comes as no surprise, considering how much Hegel despised ambivalence, skepticism and uncertainty — and as such, he was more than willing to rely on other ways of knowing in order to be able to divine mystical truth with absolute certainty.

—The Good Reverend

Unfortunately, in Hegel's original writing, the description of the dialectic was deeply embedded with assumptions and conclusions of his World Spirit beliefs. Many modern philosophers have generated less bullshit-laden constructions of the idea. Please note that the terms used here are not anywhere found in Hegel's original work, and are terms later used by people trying to patch the holes in this sinking ship of an original idea.

### Theology and “Absolute Spirit”[edit]

Hegel was a theist, having identified himself as a orthodox Lutheran his whole life. However, his relationship to Christianity is complex and subject to ongoing scholarly debate. While he engaged with Christian themes throughout his philosophy, his reinterpretation of Christian doctrines like the Trinity, Creation, and Incarnation in a philosophical framework led to various interpretations of his stance. Interpretations range from him being a Christian apologist defending traditional doctrines to a philosopher whose work suggests a more pantheistic or even atheistic view of God, though he himself designated Christianity as the "consummate" or "revelatory" religion.

His work on the philosophy of religion is considered a philosophical theology that aims to understand God and re-evaluate theological doctrines with a more adequate conceptual framework. While did Hegel believe in "a God", his concept of "God" differed significantly from traditional interpretations. Hegel viewed God not as a separate, external being, but as a form of "geist" known as "the Absolute" (or "infinite Spirit"), that was the driving force behind the universe and human history. He understood "the Absolute" as the infinite Spirit responsible for the totality of reality - as immanent in the world, particularly in human reason and consciousness, rather than transcendent and separate.

### Ethics and Politics[edit]

Hegel's social and political philosophy emphasizes the importance of the state as the highest form of ethical life. He believed that individuals achieve their full potential within the context of a well-ordered state, which embodies the general will.

### Hegelian freedom[edit]

Hegel's concept of freedom is not simply the absence of external constraints, but rather the self-determination of reason and will. It involves recognizing oneself as part of a larger social and historical context and acting in accordance with universal ethical principles.

## Legacy[edit]

### Influence[edit]

#### Hegelian Dialectic[edit]

Hegel's dialectic significantly influenced philosophy, politics, and social thought by providing a framework for understanding historical development and change through the conflict and resolution of opposing ideas or forces (thesis, antithesis, synthesis). For instance, the The Hegelian Dialectic was used by Charles Darwin in his On the Origin of Species, where the organism (thesis) comes up against its environment (antithesis) and natural selection will shape the population to make organisms better suited for the environment (synthesis). The Dialectic is also used in the United States Congress, in which one part of the Congress (thesis) will create a bill, and the other part (antithesis) will make changes to the bill and the final bill (synthesis) is created by both houses.

#### Marxism[edit]

Hegel's philosophy is (along with French materialism and socialism and English economics) one of the three main sources of political economy and historical materialism developed by Karl Marx. Marx's thinking was particularly influenced by his engagement with Hegel's dialectic (Dialectic in Marx and Engels). The themes of domination and servitude in The Phenomenology of Spirit and "The System of Needs" were of particular importance to Marx. Building on this, Marx developed his materialist worldview, inverting Hegel's idealism, although he retained the dialectical method developed by Hegel.[12]

However Marx - influenced by Ludwig Feuerbach \- would move away from Hegel's idealist dialectic to materialism, which, in contrast to idealism, traces all ideas, concepts, thoughts, sensations, etc. back to modes of development of matter and to material practice.

Thus Marx would turn Hegelian dialectics "on its head": He takes as his starting point that objective reality can be explained by its material existence and its development, not as the realization of an absolute idea or as the product of human thought. Thus, he focuses his attention not on the development of the idea, but on the so-called "material relations," which must be recognized and thus made conscious in the form of economic laws. These determine social formations in their essential functions.

From this, a comprehensive critique of religion, law, and morality is derived. Marx understands the latter as products of the respective material conditions, to whose changes they are subordinate. Religion, law, and morality therefore do not have the universal validity they always claim. Marx understands the merely spiritual opposites in idealism as reflections and expressions of real, material opposites: These, too, are mutually dependent and in constant reciprocal movement.

The Hegelian Dialectic was used by Marx to help move his ideas about communism forward. Marx thought that the proletariat (thesis) would rise up to fight the bourgeoisie (antithesis), and at the end of the dialectic a perfectly classless society would be formed (final synthesis).

#### Communitarianism[edit]

Communitarian thinkers often see Hegel as a key influence in formulating the comprehensive account of a communitarian worldview. Hegel's influence is evident in his critique of liberal individualism and positing that individuals are inherently shaped by their communities and social institutions, with this perspective central to the communitarian belief that the good of the community is fundamental to the individual's well-being. His ideas on the importance of the social context and the Sittlichkeit (ethical order) are seen as precursors to modern communitarian thought, which emphasizes shared social goods and the formation of collective ethical standards.[13][14][15]

For Hegel - unlike with Liberal thinkers like Locke \- individual freedom and rights are universal values that are only truly actualized through participation in the larger social and political institutions of the state, which embodies the universal will, thus overcoming moral relativism.[16][17]

#### New-age philosophies[edit]

Hegel was adopted by some New Age thinkers, particularly in the late 20th century, for several reasons. One key aspect was his concept of "absolute idealism," which resonated with New Age themes of interconnectedness and the unity of all things. His ideas about history and the unfolding of consciousness also appealed to those seeking spiritual or personal transformation. [18] That is, the way they interpret the "Geist", is that they believe that eventually all of the human experiences will become part of the Spirit -- and that being New-Age-y and meditate-y help us get there faster to become part of the One.

### Non-fans[edit]

#### Arthur Schopenhauer[edit]

Philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer famously harbored an intense dislike towards Hegel. Indeed, Schopenhauer is about complete opposite of Hegel, as while Hegel was an abstract writer driven by idealism who defended rationalism, Schopenhauer was clear writer driven by hard cynicism and opted for irrationalism. Schopenhauer in so many words called him a bullshit artist:

“”If I were to say that the so-called philosophy of this fellow Hegel is a colossal piece of mystification which will yet provide posterity with an inexhaustible theme for laughter at our times, that it is a pseudo-philosophy paralyzing all mental powers, stifling all real thinking, and, by the most outrageous misuse of language, putting in its place the hollowest, most senseless, thoughtless, and, as is confirmed by its success, most stupefying verbiage, I should be quite right.

Further, if I were to say that this summus philosophus [...] scribbled nonsense quite unlike any mortal before him, so that whoever could read his most eulogized work, the so-called Phenomenology of the Mind, without feeling as if he were in a madhouse, would qualify as an inmate for Bedlam, I should be no less right.

—Arthur Schopenhauer, On the Basis of Morality. (1840).

#### Irrationalist philosophers[edit]

Despite Hegel being labelled as an irrationalist by some of his critics, just about every major irrationalist philosopher of the 19th and 20th century (other than it being just Schopenhauer that's foaming from the mouth) has expressed aversion towards Hegel.

Kierkegaard was critical of Hegel, particularly due to latter's its attempt to encompass all of reality within a logical framework. Kierkegaard found Hegel's system to be an overreach, neglecting the individual's subjective experience and reducing human existence to abstract concepts. He argued that Hegel's philosophy failed to account for the lived reality of human beings, their choices, and their unique relationship with faith and the divine.

While Max Stirner thought is considered to have roots in Hegelian philosophy, particularly the Young Hegelians, he ultimately critiqued and rejected core aspects of Hegel's system. Stirner's philosophy focuses his thought on the self, the unique, which has its value in itself. From this perspective, the Hegelian system is an alienation of the particular; Stirner therefore rejects the identification of the individual with the universal. Hegel himself had been critical of this core idea of Stirner's individualist philosophy, deeming that particular cannot be realized alone.

Friedrich Nietzsche was in a fundamental disagreement with Hegel's philosophy. He saw Hegel's philosophy as a manifestation of what he called "slave morality," which he believed stifled the human spirit and prevented individuals from embracing their true potential. That it was overly abstract, systematic, idealistic and life-denying; being detached from the dynamism and chaos of life and thus, ultimately harmful to the development of "strong individuals". Nietzsche himself favored a more existential and individualistic approach, contrasting with Hegel's focus on the "absolute knowledge" and historical progress. While Nietzsche acknowledged some superficial similarities with Hegel, particularly in concepts like "eternal recurrence" and "Amor Fati," his overall assessment of Hegel's philosophy was largely negative.[19]

#### Sir Karl Popper[edit]

Philosopher of science Karl Popper \- in his work The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) \- criticized Hegel as a totalitarian and one of the main ideologists of the “closed society.” Popper saw him as a proponent of irrational ideas and a historicist, criticizing his philosophy as promoting authoritarianism and relying on presuppositions that cannot be defended rationally. Popper's main issue with Hegel was his rejection of the idea of rational progress and his belief in the existence of trans-historical laws governing history, which Popper viewed as a form of historicism.

Agreeing with Schopenhauer, Popper notes that "there is so much philosophical writing (especially in the Hegelian school) which may justly be criticized as meaningless verbiage,"[20] and elsewhere as "bombastic and mystifying cant".[21] Popper moreover viewed Hegel's obscurantism as concealing an essential authoritarianism, in which the State and vast historical panoramas took precedence over mere individuals.[21]

Even earlier, in the short text "What is Dialectic?" (1937), he had delivered a deadly strike against the core of Hegel's philosophastery, the dialectic.

#### Bertrand Russell[edit]

Bertrand Russell called Hegel's philosophy "absurd" and deems that Hegel's followers would not recognize this, because Hegel's expressions were so obscure and vague that they must be considered profound. Russell summarizes Hegel's definition of the "absolute idea" as: "The absolute idea is pure thought about pure thought."

Russell further criticizes Hegel for not explaining why human history follows a purely logical "dialectical" process and why this process is limited to our planet and traditional history. He deems that both Karl Marx and the Nazis adopted Hegel's belief that history is a logical process working in their favor, and that since one is in league with cosmic forces, any means of coercion are justified against one's opponents. According to Hegel, a strong government, unlike democracy, can compel people to act for the common good.

Russell further mocked Hegel's conviction that the philosopher in his study could know more about the real world than the politician or natural scientist. Hegel allegedly published a proof that there must be exactly seven planets a week before the discovery of the eighth. In his lectures on the history of philosophy, Hegel, like Zarlino, wrongly assumed, more than two hundred years after the publication of the polemic Discorso intorno all'opere di messer Gioseffo Zarlino ("Discourse on the Works of Mr. Gioseffo Zarlino") by the music theorist Vincenzo Galilei, that the legend of Pythagoras in the smithy was based on physical and historical truths.

#### Other[edit]

George Santayana critiqued Hegel for his overly systematic and subjective philosophy, which he saw as an egotistical and "sinister" approach rooted in an overly ambitious pursuit of the absolute, rather than grounded in the experienced world. Santayana believed Hegel's dialectical method produced a powerful, yet confusing and "obfuscating" methodology that ultimately led to a premature and false intellectual closure, missing the nuance and shifts of real human experience. He argued for a more open, common-sense approach to philosophy, one that respected the limits of human knowledge and avoided the "willfulness in morals" and "subjectivity in thought" that characterized German philosophy, including Hegel's.

The well-known liberal philosopher Isaiah Berlin \- like Popper - viewed Hegel's philosophy as contributing to the intellectual roots of totalitarianism, primarily through his concept of "positive liberty" and his monistic worldview. Berlin argued that Hegel's idea of freedom, which emphasizes self-realization within a rational, historical order, could be twisted to justify authoritarian and even totalitarian regimes.[22]

Hegel is also target of right-wingers for having laid the groundwork for Marxism. This criticism stems from the fact that Hegel's philosophy, particularly his concept of the "state," is seen by some as a justification for authoritarianism, which is anathema to many red scare right-wingers.

## See also[edit]

* Dialectics -- find truth via reasoned argument in dialogue
* Historicism

## Notes[edit]

1. ↑ According to poet/essayist Heinrich Heine, Hegel said this while on his death bed.[9]

## References[edit]

1. ↑ G.W.F. Hegel, The Book of Life
2. ↑ Popper, K.R., 2011. "The Rise of Oracular Philosophy", chapter 12: "Hegel and The New Tribalism". In The Open Society and Its Enemies. Princeton University Press. p. 257.
3. ↑ Dobrowolski, Jacek. “Romantic Hegel.” Romantic Hegel.
4. ↑ Pinkard T. Romanticized Enlightenment? Enlightened Romanticism? Universalism and Particularism in Hegel’s Understanding of the Enlightenment. Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain. 1997;18(1):18-38. doi:10.1017/S0263523200001178
5. ↑ The Encyclopædia Britannica: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature; the R.S. Peale Reprint, with New Maps and Original American Articles.  (1892). Werner Company.
6. ↑ Stern, R. (2013). The Routledge Guidebook to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781136205354
7. ↑ A Commentary on Hegel's Philosophy of Mind. (2010). OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780191610332
8. ↑ https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/hl/hl083.htm#HL1_83
9. ↑ Heine, H. (1887). Zur Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland, Drittes Buch. O. Hendel.
10. ↑ Gaarder, Jostein. "Hegel." Sophie's World. Trans. Paulette Møller. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2007. 356-67. Print.
11. ↑ Seddone, G. (2022). Hegel's Theory of Self-conscious Life. Brill. ISBN 9789004527638
12. ↑ MacGregor, D. (2015). The Communist Ideal in Hegel and Marx (RLE Marxism). Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781317485131
13. ↑ Uysal, Ö.F. Revisiting communitarianism: neither liberal nor authoritarian. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 12, 1094 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-025-05506-3
14. ↑ Etzioni, Amitai (2015). "Communitarianism: political and social philosophy". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved August 6, 2025.
15. ↑ Burns, Tony (University of Nottingham), "Hegel and global politics: Communitarianism or cosmopolitanism?" September 2014, Journal of International Political Theory 10(3):325-344 DOI:10.1177/1755088214539409
16. ↑ Styhre, A. (2018). "Chapter 1: Governance varieties: Locke and Hegel’s philosophy of right and the roots of governance traditions". In The Unfinished Business of Governance. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. Retrieved Aug 9, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.4337/9781788113144.00007
17. ↑ Thorpe, Amelia and Cohen, Amy J. and Gershon, Ilana, After Hegel: Rethinking Personhood for the Collective (October 4, 2023). Forthcoming in Chris Bevan (ed), Handbook on Property Law & Theory (Edward Elgar 2024), UNSW Law Research Paper No. 23-24, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4592911 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4592911
18. ↑ Charlston, D. (2020). Translation and Hegel's Philosophy: A Transformative, Socio-narrative Approach to A.V. Miller’s Cold-War Retranslations. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781351723275
19. ↑ Houlgate S. Nietzsche’s view of Hegel. In: Hegel, Nietzsche and the Criticism of Metaphysics. Cambridge University Press; 1986:24-37.
20. ↑ Karl Popper, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (New York: Routledge, 1963), 94.
21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies, (Routledge), p. 28
22. ↑ Berlin, I. (2014). Freedom and Its Betrayal: Six Enemies of Human Liberty - Updated Edition. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9781400851430