Absolute Idealism

Absolute Idealism

      a philosophical theory chiefly associated with G.W.F. Hegel and Friedrich Schelling, both German idealist philosophers of the 19th century, Josiah Royce (Royce, Josiah), an American philosopher, and others, but, in its essentials, the product of Hegel. Absolute Idealism can generally be characterized as including the following principles: (1) the common everyday world of things and embodied minds is not the world as it really is but merely as it appears in terms of uncriticized categories; (2) the best reflection of the world is not found in physical and mathematical categories but in terms of a self-conscious mind; and (3) thought is the relation of each particular experience with the infinite whole of which it is an expression, rather than the imposition of ready-made forms upon given material.

      Idealism for Hegel meant that the finite world is a reflection of mind, which alone is truly real. He held that limited being (that which comes to be and passes away) presupposes infinite unlimited being, within which the finite is a dependent element. In this view, truth becomes the relationship of harmony or coherence between thoughts, rather than a correspondence between thoughts and external realities. As one proceeds from the confusing world of sense experience to the more complex and coherent categories of science, the Absolute Idea, of which all other abstract ideas are merely a part, is approached. Hegel also held that this increasing clarity is evident in the fact that later philosophy presupposes and advances from earlier philosophy, ultimately approaching that to which all things are related and which is nevertheless self-contained—i.e., the Absolute Idea.

      Schelling, though similar to Hegel in that he also believed in the Absolute Idea, differed from him in identifying the Absolute as the undifferentiated, or featureless, unity of opposites. Thus, in the state of intellectual intuition, subject and object, being opposites, are lost in the anonymity of the Absolute. Hegel attacked this position in his Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807; Phenomenology of Mind).

      Royce proposed that human minds are fragments of the Absolute, yet somehow remain separate selves and persons. He held that individual selves (as parts of the Absolute) are able, through the fundamental virtue of loyalty, to seek their ever increasing and ever widening meaning and identify with it, thus approaching the Absolute.

      Hegel's Idealism formed the basis of the Absolute Idealism of many philosophers (including F.H. Bradley and Bernard Bosanquet), who made Absolute Idealism a dominant philosophy of the 19th century.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Absolute idealism — Part of a series on …   Wikipedia

  • absolute idealism — 19th century version of idealism in which the world is equated with objective or absolute thought, rather than with the personal flux of experience, as in subjective idealism. The doctrine is the descendent of several ancestors, including the… …   Philosophy dictionary

  • absolute idealism — noun : the Hegelian philosophy of the absolute mind or any one of a group of metaphysical idealisms deriving primarily from Hegel which affirm that fundamental reality is an all embracing spiritual unity see idealism; compare hegelianism * * *… …   Useful english dictionary

  • ABSOLUTE IDEALISM —    a philosophical tradition usually associated with HEGEL which stresses that all REALITY is an idea of GOD or the ABSOLUTE …   Concise dictionary of Religion

  • absolute idealism —  Абсолютный идеализм …   Вестминстерский словарь теологических терминов

  • absolute idealist — absolute idealism …   Philosophy dictionary

  • absolute idealists — absolute idealism …   Philosophy dictionary

  • idealism —    Idealism about something in philosophy is the doctrine that it is ideal , that is, mind dependent. There are three main forms of idealism: (1) subjective idealism, which holds that what we think of as physical things exist only because they… …   Christian Philosophy

  • Idealism (italian) and after — Italian idealism and after Gentile, Croce and others Giacomo Rinaldi INTRODUCTION The history of twentieth century Italian philosophy is strongly influenced both by the peculiar character of its evolution in the preceding century and by… …   History of philosophy

  • Idealism — The 20th century British scientist Sir James Jeans wrote that the Universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine This article is about the philosophical notion of idealism. For other uses, see Idealism… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”