Hegel: Absolute Idealism and The Dialectic 

The script to this video is part of the Philosophy Vibe "Philosophy of Perception" eBook, available on Amazon: US: www.amazon.com/dp/B088QPL6P4 UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088QPL6P4 Canada: www.amazon.ca/dp/B088QPL6P4 India: www.amazon.in/dp/B088QPL6P4 Australia: www.amazon.com.au/dp/B088QPL6P4 Germany: www.amazon.de/dp/B088QPL6P4 It is also part of the Metaphysics Paperback Anthology: US: www.amazon.com/dp/B092H5MGF9 UK: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B092H5MGF9 Canada: www.amazon.ca/dp/B092H5MGF9

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I'm taking a class on hegel's logic with no prior knowledge on hegel so this was very helpful!

"It blends the metaphysical with social" great line, and its the single word about hegel; keep it up guys @philosophy vibe

Guys you're doing an amazing job. To be able to get such quality summaries of complicated concepts is truly a blessing for students. Thanks bunches

It is irony that this channel is also pursuing dialectic evolutive method to unfold concepts and maybe hence it is because of this people are able to understand the concepts compartive to other channels Maybe Hegel is onto something or maybe not only through debate can we know 😉

In regards to free will vs the spirit one could argue wether free will actually is real to begin with but the more interesting argument I think is to argue that the free will of the individual is no different from the free will of the spirit itself, its only a difference of perspective

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You guys are my favorite channel on RU-vid and really helped me get into philosophy and unravel some of the more confusing but more beautiful ideas and arguments. Keep up the good work! Cheers!

I love the discussion about problems with Hegels theory. Concerning the point at 10:52 I believe it depends on your own perception of yourself if u feel insignificant or even more important as part of one absolute collective. A person who feels insignificant in their own way is going to feel of no account for the collective as a whole but a person who knows their strengths and worth is going to partake in the collective development. Regardless of the individual perception we can still be one community connected by the same ideas/ same spirit and still feel lonely and separated.

You guys are awesome! This level of objective discussion is well paced and to the point. It leaves the viewer feeling like there’s no bias at all. Something lacking in almost any other form of media

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I just found this after looking for info on Hegel which I can use in discussions with a friend who is pretty knowledgeable. I’m not well versed in philosophy but I still feel like I have a pretty decent understanding now that I have watched this. Thanks!

astonished after watching your videos. Great explanation with full concept clarity. Thank You

Great video. Thank you for posting.

What a great little video. Nicely done.

This is so enlightening.

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Nice video. Summarized nicely. Regarding the critique of the dialectic and its apparent assumption of continual forward progress despite our experiencing many examples in history of devastation or reversals of progress; the reversals are simply the antithesis of prior thesis’ of a given people and their culture. Hegel’s Absolute Idealism works on the individual and collective level. The challenge with seeing the validity of the dialectic’s progressive nature on the collective level is a function of the scope or framework of space and time within which a person analyzes the event in question. This brings us to the importance of one’s concept of the universe, its nature, and the purpose of it.

1) I think there can still be free will, cause we are just part of the Absolute (in substance or emanation), but not the Absolute itself. Even if all of us achieve the Absolute, it just means we know all things, it doesn't mean we become the absolute, and lose our free will. 2) I don't think he left the external world untouched, he shifted it inward and called it the spirit and the Absolute. 3) I think the reason the dialectic doesn't always bring us to the absolute truth is because it needs to be done with purposeful and sincere effort, it won't be automatic.

I just finished studying Hegel and am going to write a research paper comparing faulty self-actualization to real-world public figures of the modern era to show how timeless his ideas are. One thing that I find interesting is the idea that society sometimes steps back disproves the idea that it is always moving forward. However, every time society took a massive step back, it also tended to take a massive leap forward afterwards, so I feel like the steps back are more part of the dialectical process than a refutation of it, but I'm open to understanding that this is probably surface level.

Excellent distillation of a complex topic into concise, accessible yet informative terms. I'm currently wrestling with a topic to chose for my UG dissertation and am now gravitating towards Hegel's theory of Asbolute Idealism as a result of this vid.

very beautifully explained the complicated concept of Hegel's idealism, in a dialogue form things are better comprehended, good job

Thankyou so much, merci beaucoup. Fantastic video. I've been struggling to understand Hegel and Idealism. This is a brilliant explanation. Bravo, bravo.

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Nicely done! Good job!

Great video! I feel like I understand Hegel way better now

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Very creative way of explain a philosophical point and it’s flaws in a dialectical way! Bravo! Bravo 👏

great video, thanks a lot

great informative video, thank you so much :) keep it up!

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Good job. Thanks

Fantastic video. This deserves way more views.

I think Hegel can and should be compartmentalized into a political philosophy as a golden mean between Locke and Rousseau. I personally believe in the existence of the external natural world, but I also believe that you can't rule out its non existence. So actually I'm agnostic towards skepticism. In this way, Absolute Idealism can be interpreted as an agnostic view of skepticism that irrespectively acknowledges the universal reality of multiple minds and interactions.

Good video and thumbnails complex arguments and ideas. I'd suggest something that takes this a bit farther. John Boyd's paper, Destruction and Creation which brings more contemporary thought into the dialectic. He uses Gödel, Heisenberg, and the second law of thermodynamics as a way to cast doubt on both the ideal and real world's while goal setting insures our individual free will gets counted.

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I agree with the argument against Hegel’s dialectic. I understood the Thesis to be the ideal rather than moving toward the ideal with Synthesis. Hegel’s dialectic’s movement seems to me similar to Baudrillard’s progression of simulacra.

I don't think the importance of the dialectic could ever be stressed enough because the evolution of ideas through criticism and the field of discourse is responsible for all types of progress including technological, social and moral. However, the idea of the absolute spirit seems not only unrealistic but also kind of dangerous since it gives off very dystopian vibes. The idea that all people will come together and agree on one common interpretation of reality is not only very farfetched but if achieved, might inevitably become the only socially acceptable viewpoint and anything outside of that could be punished or scoffed at severely. But that's just my way of looking at it. Love these insightful videos :)

Thank you! Great discussion especially in its part on the dialectic. I wrestle a lot with the Absolute and the narrative of progress/improvement. I suspect this is a profound illusion that most humans are prone to but why should that be the case? Why do we need to operate in the world under the, let's call it, belief in improvement? Can't we just say that the dialectic leads us to a more complex understanding of an issue (the thesis)? I call that understanding "a higher degree of complexity" but I understand if you call it "truth" too. What I don't understand is how we get from "complexity" to "improvement." There is some great leap there I am totally missing. Does Hegel conflate complexity with progress? I see today this pervasive fascination with complexity, depth, diverse views, multiperspectivism, pluralism and they are all regarded as indicators of "progressive thinking" and "progressive politics." How does this happen? Am I out of my mind if I don't share this fascination?

nice video! A question. Is the absolute then what is reached through dialectic, meaning it is there and we sort of excavate it through the dialectic, or is it something that is created through this thesis antithesis synthesis?

Just my key points for notes dont mind me xd 2:13 3:08 the spirit 3:59 4:54 5:30 6:27 6:56 self actualization 8:05 8:49 9:50 10:58 11:17 12:15 12:29 Dialectic is good yes except for when it starts with a bad idea and continues with bad perceptions. Proven by history

Great video! As a suggestion, you should do a video on Marx's historical materialism/dialectical materialism, given that it was more or less the same philosophy as Hegel's but completely flipped from an idealist point of thought to a materialist one.

I'm confused, maybe you could help clear it up? I've heard some say that Hegel conceived of dialectics in terms of "thesis, antithesis, synthesis", yet others claim that Hegel only ever mentioned this model once, and to critique it. Why the discrepancy, and what did Hegel really believe?

Thank you! This is very informative. Speaking of Hegel, would you care to make a video on dialectical materialism and Marxism?

Great video, thank you very much , note to self(nts) watched all of it 13:29

The only thing that would've made this video better that I can think of immediately is defining spirit not through the English word, which does the origin injustice. But through the German "Geist", before proceeding to talk about spirit. Otherwise it doesn't capture the ideas quite so well. Edit: 11:10 the 2 arent mutually exclusive. You can have free will whilst participating in the greater movement of Geist. Everyone's expression of free will synthesises and forms the Geist.

The spiritual and physical interact through the human interface in our case

By Jove, the chap on the left is hilarious, but quite endearing.

10:23 it would only be a probably if the whole is already the whole. Hegel could be saying that we are developing towards becoming the whole, rather than the whole being itself in itself.

Amazing

The free will is not a pre-defined object. It is not a ready made thing out there. Everyone's free will is determined by their closeness to the absolute. The more you are conscious and aware of your sipirt and the collective spirit the more free will you have. Free will is governed by the principals of dialects.

I wish popular promoters of the dialectic would stop using the abstract notion of thesis-antithesis-synthesis when describing Hegel's use of the dialectic. You could perhaps apply such abstract notion to Plato's Dialogues but Hegel was at pains to point out that the movement springs from the content of the categories being analysed and not the introduction of further categories which themselves would need explaining. Hegel is hard to understand athough the hint that you can only understand him via the original german does not explain why the same caveat is not used for say Kant or Nietzsche. There are good english translations out there and he is worth the time and the effort.

Danke schon!

The “thesis-antithesis-synthesis” model is not really that indicative of the actual definition of the dialectic given in Phenomenology of Spirit. That model is originally due to Fichte, but a better description might be something like “abstract-negative-concrete”, which at least incorporates the process of sublation

Is Absolute Idealism and Speculative Idealism same?

This video presents a common misrepresentation of Hegel as a philosopher of the absolute. The dialectic is a thought of constant repeating thesis-antithesis-thesis-antithesis etc., Hegel didn't write about synthesis in his dialectic. Hegel was really interested in events like the French revolution because of how good intentions can have disastrous effects, not that it was a good step in creating a perfect society of synthesis. (Which makes it interesting that they mention historic events like this one as a way of criticising Hegel, not confirming his ideas.) Hegel formalized a system of anti-formalism, in other words, he "absolutised" a system of the anti-absolute. He's a materialist thinker at heart.(See Julian De Medeiros' videos on Hegel for more)

(1) It's probably closer to pan-en-theism not pantheism (and yes, that makes a difference). But, this is a good historical critique as many in Hegel's own day called him a pantheist. (2) Hegel isn't clearly a monist as the beginning is the triad of Being - Nothing - Becoming. If we do want to keep it a monism, it's at least a developing monism (as an acorn and oak tree would be "monist" as both having the same DNA). (3) Hegel's idea of freedom (and all Enlightenment freedom) isn't what you stated in the video. Freedom for Hegel is an interesting combination of following our conscience (your idea of freedom in video) and submitting to reason (not addressed). The slave becomes free as they learn how to work where the master didn't (reason). Ultimately this culminates in the Prussian government which takes the wild freedom of the French Revolution and the structured reason of the German protestant mind and infuses it into the State. (4) Of course the dialectic doesn't always reach the Absolute Truth and Hegel says as much (he shows the regression in his chapter on the French Revolution). The problem here is in viewing the dialectic as a thing and forgetting the Owl of Minerva only flies at night. Through history there is just people following their own desires, wants, etc. but somehow looking back after it is all over we can see that the Absolute sneakily was directing the process (again, Hegel always keeps both sides - our experience and the Absolute). Your very critiques of earlier history actually shows he is right... Enjoyed the effort. An interesting introductory video.

Hegel never said "thesis-antythesis-synthesis", he was literally against it. Main thing related is just adding Fichte and Shelling metaphysics to form Absolute Idealism

It is very simple to explain being apart of the whole and having free will Have you ever made a mistake? You fail and then learn and succeed. Questions are asked and solved. Justice prevails in whatever new form it is. Issues are to be sorted out. It is all self solving. Evolution solves issues for the next generation. This is a mind coming to know itself as so a human does as they grow. Many people do not understand themselves until much later in life. No child understands why they are the way they are. You learn who you are through others and the lessons you learn. A self solving singular entity will know itself through a near infinity of circumstance and experience through lifetimes and life forms. Expressing it's unconscious as matter.

Guy on the left suuuure seems confident denying hegalian dialectic while he, himself, participates in that dialectic.

Very lucid explanation. My friend once said philosophy is so tuff we cannot understand at one go . Then I replied, No I don't think so coz philosophy vibes made philosophy easy .

Tomorrow I have an exam, You are helping me a lot

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I am a Hegel fan, so I disagree with the shaven guy. But I like the educational content here.

Can anyone explain what the Noumena is

Note: Hegel has never ever used thesis-antithesis-synthesis. Probably the most misread philosopher ever

What is spirit ?

I see…. I understand…. Right…. Remarkable…

I stopped at thesis, antithesis and synthesis

The first person proposed thesis of Hegel. The other who raised doubts is Anti Thesis.

Here's an experiment in Hegelian Dialectic. Put two sticks of chewing gum in your mouth, and chew until it's at a proper chewing consistency. That's ‘thesis’. Now place a pad of butter in your mouth and chew it into the gum. That's ‘antithesis’. Now do what any sane person would do, spit that Hegelian dialect crap out!

So what us absolute idealism

Problem (thesis), reaction (anti-thesis), solution (synthesis) -- the time dependent Hegelian dialectic. The Hegelian dialectic is dual if it is dependent & independent of time (both at the same time). Thesis is dual to anti-thesis creates the converging thesis or synthesis -- the time independent Hegelian dialectic. Dyads or zygons are yokes that connect two similar things -- The ancient Greek philosophers -- Isomorphism or duality! Duality creates reality! "Always two there are" -- Yoda.

Here is a simple example. Suppose we wanted to find the answer to what's 2+2 and our ancestors came up with 3, and then 5 but it never made sense or made our life better.. But then thanks to some gifted minds of our generation we found the exact right answer and it was 4 and it helped mathematics grow and evolve and other branches of science as a consequence and we had the modern world, which was based on the foundations of the truth that will never be destroyed. Everyone accepts this as a fact, which means we all worship this common god (2 +2 =4). Universe is made up of inherent truths and its our quest to find the truth. This whole truth about everything is the thing that unites us. So be very wary of what you believe in. Life and death

Isn't Hegel's "absolute spirit" limited to the beliefs of his protestant Christianity? And isn't the whole point of Christianity to teach that "absolute knowledge" only comes through the biblical teachings? That's not my take, but I read he was a devout Lutheran...

Sorry to be harsh, but I think this video displays a very limited understanding of Hegel. Especially the whole "how can one be free and yet fully determined?" is kind of a beginner problem, and somehow the video spends several minutes discussing it as if it was a legit rebuttal of Hegel, somehow. I'm not going to demonstrate the whole thing here of course, but Hegel's says that "freedom is the understanding of necessity" (= freedom is when you know the laws of nature/determinism, so that you can actually submit to them in the particular way required to reach your ends). I would say that video might be very misleading for beginners. I recommend anyone to actually read Hegel (or at least, people who know about Hegel), instead of this wikipedia-level sort of take.

I disagree that it can't be both, reality/the absolute spirit are paradoxical I think.

You could probably condense everything he wrote down to around 4 pages.

Thank you very much Great summary

good

I seee…

👍🙂👍

U guys reject the dialect, but you guys are doing a great job at it and are definitely approaching the truth thru it!😂

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i see

We just finished Kant in my philosophy class then my professor introduced Hegel and I've never been more confused 🤣 It's not even "confusing", just straight up incomprehensible and ABSTRACT

Hmmmm

It was going good until it got to "thesis, antithesis, synthesis". Hegel did not use this mechanic, this was developed by Fichte.

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The criticism of presenting Hegel's philosophy as positing a problem against free will seems to be an appeal to consequences and an appeal to emotion fallacy. Further the existence of free will is by no means self evident.