Combining Philosophers

Ideas for John Buridan, Stephen Wolfram and Georg W.F.Hegel

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13 ideas

11. Knowledge Aims / C. Knowing Reality / 3. Idealism / d. Absolute idealism
Being is Thought [Hegel]
     Full Idea: Being is Thought.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], Pref 54)
     A reaction: You won't find a more succinct slogan for idealism than that. Speaking as what Tim Williamson (referring to himself) calls a 'rottweiler realist', I can't quite get the hang of Hegel's claim. What does he think thought is, if it isn't about the world?
Existence is just a set of relationships [Hegel]
     Full Idea: Everything that exists stands in correlation, and this correlation is the veritable nature of existence.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Logic (Encyclopedia I) [1817], p.235 (1892)), quoted by Michael Potter - The Rise of Analytic Philosophy 1879-1930 23 'Abs'
The 'absolute idea' is when all the contradictions are exhausted [Hegel, by Bowie]
     Full Idea: The point in philosophy at which the contradictions are exhausted is what Hegel means by the 'absolute idea'.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816]) by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 4 'Questions'
     A reaction: {Can't think of a response to this one)
The Absolute is not supposed to be comprehended, but felt and intuited [Hegel]
     Full Idea: The Absolute is not supposed to be comprehended, it is to be felt and intuited.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], Pref 06)
     A reaction: Hegel was a rather romantic philosopher. Where does the 'supposed' come from? If the Absolute is only felt and intuited, can the resulting apprehensions be reported to others? Is this, in fact, mysticism?
In the Absolute everything is the same [Hegel]
     Full Idea: In the Absolute everything is the same.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], Pref 16)
     A reaction: This is indistinguishable from the great spherical reality of Parmenides. It is not unreasonable to enquire about the epistemology of this claim. Is Hegel a seer, or can we all intuit this insight into reality?
Genuine idealism is seeing the ideal structure of the world [Hegel, by Houlgate]
     Full Idea: Genuine (as opposed to subjective) idealism, for Hegel, is the point of view that knows the world to have a rational, and therefore 'ideal', structure.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Phenomenology of Spirit [1807]) by Stephen Houlgate - An Introduction to Hegel 04 'The Unhappy'
     A reaction: Compare Leibniz, whose monad theory is said to be a sort of idealism, because it places ideas at the heart of reality. Is Plato also this sort of 'genuine' idealism? Do we need different terms for 'genuine' and 'subjective' idealism? And 'transcendental'?
Hegel, unlike Kant, said how things appear is the same as how things are [Hegel, by Moore,AW]
     Full Idea: Hegel rejected the fundamental Kantian distinction between how things knowably appear and how they unknowably are in themselves. This was anathema to him. For Hegel how things knowably appear is how they manifestly are.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816]) by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.2
     A reaction: We shouldn't assume that Hegel was therefore a realist, because Berkeley would agree with this idea. Hegel rejected transcendental idealism for this reason. Hegel wanted to get rid of the immanent/transcendent distinction
Hegel's non-subjective idealism is the unity of subjective and objective viewpoints [Hegel, by Pinkard]
     Full Idea: The unity of the two points of view (subjective and objective) constitutes Hegel's idealism. ...He kept emphasising that it was not 'subjective' idealism.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860 10
     A reaction: Subjective idealism denies the objective point of view. [**20th June 2019, 10:49 am. This is the 20,000th idea in the database. The project was begun in 1997, as organised notes to help with teaching. For the last ten years today has been my target**].
Hegel claimed his system was about the world, but it only mapped conceptual interdependence [Pinkard on Hegel]
     Full Idea: In the view of the later Schelling, although Hegel's system only really laid out the ways in which the senses of various concepts depended on each other, it claimed to be a system about the world itself.
     From: comment on Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816]) by Terry Pinkard - German Philosophy 1760-1860
     A reaction: I'm no expert, but I'm inclined to agree with Schelling. Since I am suspicious of the idea that each concept generates its own negation, I also doubt the accuracy of Hegel's map. I'm a hopeless case.
The Absolute is the primitive system of concepts which are actualised [Hegel, by Gardner]
     Full Idea: In Hegel the Absolute is the exhaustive, unconditioned and self-grounding system of concepts made concrete in actuality, the world of experience.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816]) by Sebastian Gardner - Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason 10 'Absolute'
     A reaction: If I collect multiple attempts to explain what the Absolute is, I may one day drift toward a hazy understanding of it. Right now this idea means nothing to me, but I pass it on. His notion of 'concept' seems a long way from the normal modern one.
Authentic thinking and reality have the same content [Hegel]
     Full Idea: Thinking in its immanent determination and the true nature of things form one and the same content.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816], p.45), quoted by Stephen Houlgate - Hegel p.101
     A reaction: This is not much use unless we have a crystal clear idea of 'immanent determination', because we need to eliminate errors.
The absolute idea is being, imperishable life, self-knowing truth, and all truth [Hegel]
     Full Idea: The absolute idea alone is being, imperishable life, self-knowing truth, and is all truth. ....All else is error, confusion, opinion, endeavour, caprice, and transitoriness.
     From: Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816], II.iii.3 p.824), quoted by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.4
     A reaction: Hegel sounding a bit too much like an over-excited preacher here. The absolute idea seems to be the unified totality of all truths about reality. For Hegel human self-awareness is a big part of that. The idea is being because there is only one substance.
The absolute idea is the great unity of the infinite system of concepts [Hegel, by Moore,AW]
     Full Idea: We can think of the absolute idea roughly as the entire infinite system of interrelated concepts, in their indissoluble unity, as exercised in the self-consciousness towards which the process [of thought] leads. It is the 'telos' of the process.
     From: report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816], II.iii.3 p.825) by A.W. Moore - The Evolution of Modern Metaphysics 07.4
     A reaction: This expounds the quotation in Idea 21975. Moore emphasises concepts, where Hegel emphasises the truth. The connection is in Idea 5644.