Hegel's principle of the identity of thinking and being essay. The principle of the identity of thinking and being

Another line of early Greek philosophy was mainly associated with the development of the doctrine of the relationship between being and thinking. There were many options for the points of “intersection” of being and thinking, as well as views denying this relationship (Pythagoras saw such a coincidence in numbers, Heraclitus in words, etc.). The most thorough of them was the doctrine of being of Parmenides. The influence of Parmenides on subsequent philosophy turned out to be so significant that it gave Hegel grounds to characterize his work as the beginning of philosophy in the proper sense of the word.

Parmenides introduces the category of “being” into philosophical use, transferring metaphysical reasoning from the plane of consideration of the physical essence of things to the plane of studying their ideal essence. Thus, philosophy is given the character of ultimate knowledge, which can only be self-knowledge and self-justification of the human mind. Thanks to its universal concepts, among which, as Hegel believed, the historically and logically initial category is the category of being, reason is capable of cognizing in things and in itself that which is inaccessible to sensory experience. Being is always there, always exists, it is indivisible and motionless, it is complete. It is not God or matter, and certainly not any specific physical substrate. This is something that becomes accessible to our thinking only as a result of mental efforts, in the process of philosophizing.

Thus, the philosopher poses the problem of the identity of being and thinking, being and thoughts about being. First, he examines the logical possibilities of the relationship between the categories of being and non-being, revealing a number of paradoxes; he designates them as “traps” on the path of truth, once in which the mind begins to go in the wrong direction.

If we recognize non-existence, then it necessarily exists. If this is so, then being and non-being turn out to be identical, but this is an apparent contradiction. If being and non-being are not identical, then being exists and non-being does not exist. But how then to think about something that does not exist? And Parmenides comes to the conclusion that it is impossible to think like that. The judgment about the existence of non-existence (non-existent) is fundamentally false for him. But this, in turn, gives rise to a number of other questions: where does being come from? Where does it disappear to? How to explain the fact that existence can pass into non-existence? To answer these questions, Parmenides is forced to talk about the impossibility of mental expression of non-existence. But in this case, this problem moves to a different plane and is solved as a problem of the relationship between being and thinking.

Thinking and being, according to Parmenides, coincide, therefore “thinking and being are one and the same” or “the thought of an object and the object of thought are one and the same.”

Parmenides connects with being the reality of the existence of the world, which is at the same time truly existing knowledge. As a result, we are presented with the first option for solving one of the fundamental questions of ontology - the problem of being and thinking, and therefore the knowability of the world. At the same time, Parmenides presents his views as if he foresaw the arguments of his future critics, who attributed to him a simplified understanding of knowledge as a simple coincidence of being and thinking. He distinguishes between the simple identity of true knowledge and being and “identity with difference” when there is no complete coincidence between them. And this, in turn, means that knowledge also carries in itself the properties of the knowing subject, reflecting the specifics of the latter’s thinking. The immobility of being is a consequence of logical reasoning, in which there should be no place for contradictory statements.

Polemicizing with Heraclitus, who absolutized the universality of movement in the doctrine of the eternal variability of the Cosmos, Parmenides separates what actually exists, given primarily in the flow of sensory sensations, and the thought of existence as such, i.e., of being. He believes that Space, as something real, was and is, but it can either exist in the future or disappear. The concept of true being is inseparable from true thinking, therefore it is incompatible with ideas about the past or future. The true content of thought does not depend on subjective acts of thinking unfolding in time. As we see, this is actually a metaphysical approach to the problem, and not a “physical” concept, which is essentially the Cosmos of Heraclitus and other representatives of the Milesian school.

Zeno, developing the views of Parmenides on the impossibility of movement and the divisibility of being, acts not as an opponent of dialectics, according to the popular belief of some philosophers, but, on the contrary, as one of the inventors of dialectics, according to Aristotle.

Socrates translates the problem of being and thinking into the plane of understanding the essence of morality, believing that philosophers should not study natural phenomena. He believes that truth and goodness coincide. Therefore, if we cognize something and as a result receive true knowledge about it, then our human qualities are necessarily transformed. In other words, a person becomes qualitatively different. If we know the truth about goodness, goodness, justice, then we thereby become fair, kind and respectable.

The objections that were raised against this thesis were due to the fact that there are many examples when the information received about goodness does not make a person good. Socrates rejected these arguments, arguing that the information received turned out to be unreliable, as if non-substantial in the true sense, that is, it did not acquire the character of true knowledge for a specific person.

Good can only be realized on a conscious basis, that is, when we know the relevant truths and can use them to distinguish, for example, good from evil. Of course, people can perform good deeds without true knowledge about them, but in this case they will be of a random, unconscious nature, and therefore will not have a deep moral meaning. Thus, Socrates transfers moral issues into the sphere of ontology. It follows that ethical principles are embedded in the very structure of existence. Thinking is not opposed to being, but coincides with it even when interpreting externally subjective moral problems.

In Plato's philosophy, existence appears before us in the form of two different, but in a certain way interconnected worlds. The first world is the world of individual objects perceived and known by man through the senses. However, all the richness of existence cannot be reduced to it. There is also a second world - the world of true existence, which is a set of ideas or essences, the embodiment of which is the entire diversity of the world. The process of cognition, according to Plato, is a process of intellectual ascent to truly existing types of being, coinciding with ideas at various levels.

Plato's ideas are not simply substantialized and immobile generic concepts opposed to fluid sensory reality. The idea of ​​a thing is its unique ideal principle of structure, by understanding which one can construct the thing itself. True being in Plato, like in Parmenides, coincides with true knowledge. But for him it represents a process of continuous creation of the world.

Plato substantiates the need for metaphysics as unpremised knowledge. Analyzing the features of mathematics, he comes to the conclusion that the method of deduction, on which it relies even within itself, is insufficient. It turns out that the starting points of mathematics, from which the justification is further developed deductively, are themselves insufficiently justified or cannot be justified at all: there are no justified principles in the foundation of exact knowledge, which means that these are in many ways just hypotheses that may turn out to be unreliable. Plato even doubts whether mathematics should be considered a science. There must be, he believes, a special discipline that can establish the truth of premises, relying on knowledge that is beyond deductive methods of reasoning, in a broader modern sense - beyond the sciences. This also corresponds to various cognitive abilities. The basis of mathematics, according to Plato, is the ability to reason - reason (dianoia), and the basis of metaphysics is dialectical reason (nous or noesis) as the gift of comprehension of principles. Consequently, philosophy as a discipline and dialectics as a method are the foundation that precedes any knowledge.

Aristotle, polemicizing with Plato, believes that dialectics cannot be the pinnacle of knowledge, since it does not give answers to questions, but only questions. But on what foundations is this approach based? And Aristotle comes to the conclusion that at the basis of unpremised knowledge of the universal and essence there must be some absolute premise, absolute truth, otherwise any philosophizing may turn out to be false.

According to Aristotle, the primordial metaphysical absolute is being. Being is a special concept that is not generic. This means that it cannot be subsumed under a more general one in the same way as all other concepts. Therefore, accepting the thesis of Parmenides, who identifies being and the thought of being, he clarifies this position, saying that being in itself is only an abstraction, a potential, conceivable being, but in reality there is always the existence of something, i.e. the existence of concrete objects. Consequently, the relationship between being and thinking is the relationship between a specific object and thoughts about this object. The world represents the real existence of individual, material and spiritual, objects and phenomena, while being is an abstraction that underlies the solution of general questions about the world. Being is the fundamental principle of explanation. It is enduring, just as nature itself is enduring, and the existence of things and objects in the world is transitory. Being simply is, exists. The universality of existence is manifested through the individual existence of specific objects. This, according to Aristotle, is the fundamental law of existence or “the beginning of all axioms.”

From this law directly follows Aristotle’s position on the incompatibility of the existence and non-existence of an object, as well as the impossibility of the simultaneous presence and absence of any opposing properties. This provision has an ontological meaning and is applicable to all phenomena of the world. Since the justification for this position is purely logical in nature, it is examined by logic. Therefore, from Aristotle’s point of view, ontology and logic are two aspects of the same science - metaphysics. Here Aristotle outlines the principle of a purely logical approach to the problems of metaphysics and the interpretation of metaphysical categories, which will subsequently be adopted by medieval scholasticism and will receive a completed form in Hegel’s panlogism. It is no coincidence that Hegel so loved not only Plato for his dialectics, but also Aristotle for his ontological approach to logic.

Aristotle believes that Parmenides interprets being too unambiguously, and this concept can have several meanings, as, indeed, any concept. Being, on the one hand, can mean that which exists, i.e., the multitude of existing things, and on the other hand, that to which everything is involved, i.e., existence as such. Parmenides' mistake, which led him to a metaphysical interpretation of being outside formation and development, was that he reduced being only to being as such, i.e. to existence in pure form without noticing the possibility of things being. According to Aristotle, being has many meanings. But then, how can it be the subject of strict science? And in order to save the situation, Aristotle develops a system of certain provisions with the help of which he explains being, the main one of which is the concept of essence, or substance.

Essence can be distinguished into at least three kinds: these are essences to which concrete sensible things are reducible (physics); entities to which the abstractions of mathematics are reducible; and finally, the essences that exist outside of sensuality and abstraction are the essences of divine existence, or supersensible substance. These three main parts make up philosophy.

Thus, absolute knowledge is, according to Aristotle, a first principle or a system of first principles, which is the first philosophy, or metaphysics. Principles cannot be proven or deduced from anything, that is why they are beginnings. In this sense, indeed, metaphysics is a kind of metascience that substantiates the principles not of individual sciences, but scientific knowledge in general, not individual knowledge, but knowledge as such, not the truth of physics or mathematics, but truth in general. And in this sense, the reasoning of the ancient Greek philosopher is surprisingly modern.

According to Aristotle, metaphysics is identical to the science of being, or ontology, acting as a special science about supersensible principles and principles of being.

The structure of philosophy, according to Aristotle, is schematically as follows (see diagram on p. 446).

The first philosophy, or theology (metaphysics), deals with the supernatural world. The subject of philosophy is supersensible entities that are unchangeable and absolute. It is in this sense that philosophy acts as the first philosophy, that is, going ahead of physics.

The subject of metaphysics, according to Aristotle, consists of: 1) the study of causes, the first, or higher, principles; 2) knowledge of “being, insofar as it is being”; 3) knowledge about the substance; 4) knowledge of God and supersensible substance.

However, where does the term “theology” come from here and in what sense does Aristotle use the concept of God?

Logic or analytics (as a thinking tool)

First philosophy, or theology (metaphysics): being, categories of being, substance, supersensible substance

Theoretical Philosophy / Practical Philosophy

Physics (or ontology or second philosophy) / Ethics

Cosmology/Politics

Psychology/Rhetoric

Zoology / Poetics (rhetoric + poetics) / Poetics

The fact is that if we are looking for the first causes and higher principles, then we must inevitably come to the primary essence, which is supernatural in nature. Aristotle's God is primarily a supersensible and immovable entity, and he cannot be confused with God in the religious sense. God is a kind of prime mover, the first cause. We can say that this is an absolute mind, cleared of specific properties. Only philosophy can study such a god, which already gives it the right to exist.

In the above diagram, it is also necessary to clarify the term “physics”. When we use the term “physics”, then for the modern reader the image of one of the modern sciences, based on a wealth of theoretical and practical material. This is a science in which the most important principle is the empirical testability of theories. Specific physical laws are not the object of philosophy. But in ancient times everything looked different. Physics in the Aristotelian sense did not have a specific scientific basis and sufficient empirical material and was built as a philosophical speculative discipline, representing a system of views and hypotheses about natural existence. And today, a whole series of problems relating to universal natural physical laws are not the subject of physics alone as a science, but also represent an object of philosophical research proper, that is, they belong to the sphere of philosophy, or more precisely, to the philosophy of nature. Here the problem of movement is explored, forms of movement, phenomena of space and time, finite and infinite, types of determination, etc. are highlighted. Metaphysics, or philosophy, cognizes not only divine existence, but also natural world, i.e., it answers the question of what being in itself is.

To summarize, we can say that in the era of antiquity the classical idea of ​​the metaphysical (premise-free) nature of philosophy was formed, at the center of which is ontology as the doctrine of being.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1770–1831

The philosophy of G. W. F. Hegel is characterized as objective idealism, metaphysics and dialectics. The main works of G. Hegel are “Phenomenology of Spirit”, “Science of Logic”, “Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences”, “Philosophy of Law”.

Hegel's teaching based on the principle of identity of thinking and being. As the essence and origin of the world, Hegel recognizes the World Mind (Absolute Idea, Spirit), which is true being. In his teaching about the World Mind and dialectics as a way of developing the World Mind, there is a similarity with Eastern philosophy.

So in the ancient Indian religious and philosophical teachings Vedanta (Upanishads) speaks of one of the forms of incarnation of Brahman in the form of Ishvar, the supreme ruler real world, creator, ruler and destroyer of the world. In the transcendental world, Ishvara turns into a qualityless god of nirguna-brahman. Ishvara appears not only as the creative principle of the diverse world, but also as a source of awareness of the reality of the world. Vedanta also points to three immanent aspects of the god Ishvara. The first is the undifferentiated, unmanifested energy of Maya (potency, possibility, cause, seed) - this creative force exists before the actual creation of the world (for Hegel it is world Logic). The second aspect of Ishvara-brahman is the energy of finely differentiated maya, manifested in the germination of a seed (for Hegel this is nature). The third aspect is fully differentiated maya, energy manifested in all the fullness and diversity of the plant and the world (for Hegel this is the embodiment of the Spirit). All these aspects of brahman are different from pure consciousness - parabrahman. Ishvara orders and organizes the world with the help of wisdom, desire and will (in Hegel - with the help of the dialectics of the World Mind).

Hegel's philosophy states principle of consistency (systems approach) in the interpretation of the world process. Hegel created a model metaphysical system of the world, wherein Absolute idea (world logic), being a genuine being, embodies itself in all forms of other existence: nature, society and human thinking. The world mind is eternal and unchanging, eternally reproducing the ways of its existence, alienating itself into otherness and through human knowledge returning again to itself in the form of the Spirit. And so its eternal movement in a circle continues. The world mind controls people, their thinking and activities, manifests itself in people’s delusions, wars and disasters, in various qualitative states of the world. His main goal is to self-realize himself in self-knowledge (the logic of world development).

However, Hegel’s teaching contains a contradiction: the metaphysical system of the world mind contradicts dialectical method of thinking world mind. Genuine subject Hegel considers the world mind to be the world's mind. According to the dialectical method, it is impossible to recognize anything as eternal and unchangeable. The Absolute Idea itself is “pure thinking”, world logic, but it exists only in a contradictory (self-destructive) state, everything in the world is torn into opposites, such as good and evil, life and death, love and hate, attraction and repulsion etc. The struggle of opposites is present in the world as the Law of the world mind, even in those events where the struggle has not yet fully manifested itself. World logic manifests itself in the form of leaps, revolutions, birth and death, transitions from “quantity” to a new “quality”. The logic of the world mind is also embodied in the form of a “triad” (three stages of the evolution of the system) of ascension to a new round of “future”; the meaning of such ascension is in the dialectical negation of everything that is obsolete, outdated and the concentration of life’s efforts on the synthesis of everything that is viable. This contradicted Hegel’s own statement about the eternity of the Absolute. The contradictory way of existence of the world mind gives rise to a contradictory process of a person’s cognition of his culture (reflection).

Hegel’s phenomenology* is a way for a person to comprehend “pure thinking”, the world mind and the forms of its manifestation. Hegel introduces operating principle into knowledge of the world (in an abstract-spiritual form). Phenomenology of spirit is the formation of scientific and philosophical knowledge in three forms of Spirit:

Subjective Spirit;

Objective Spirit;

Absolute Spirit.

*Phenomenology– method of analysis of pure consciousness, a priori (pre-experimental) structures human existence(everyday life). Everyday, according to Husserl, is the atmosphere, the soil for pure (transcendental) consciousness. In existentialism, the method of phenomenology is used to identify the a priori structures of human existence.

Subjective Spirit is a person’s knowledge about himself in the form of anthropology, phenomenology and psychology. Objective Spirit- this is a person’s knowledge about the social order - law, morality and morality (and its norms in the family, civil society and public administration). Absolute Spirit- this is the knowledge of humanity about the world mind - religion, philosophy, art. Metaphysical model of the world Hegel contrasted the way of its existence - the dialectical self-development of the world mind in the culture of mankind in the form of concepts, sciences, ideas, master and slave self-awareness. He represented the history of mankind as a movement of the spirit towards liberation from all forms of slavish and alienated consciousness.

Hegel formulated a new type of logic - dialectical logic. Unlike formal logic, dialectical logic allowed contradictions in thinking. Being both logic and theory of knowledge, Hegel's dialectic was built on the principle of identifying triads(thesis, antithesis and synthesis). This is the path from abstract categories that are poor in content to concrete and rich in content categories. For example, the category of “being” contains its opposite – “nothing”; the synthesis of categories reveals another category – “becoming” (this is the first triad in the dialectics of spirit). The category “becoming”, in turn, can also be presented as a unity of opposites – “emergence” and “destruction”; their synthesis is achieved in the category “ existence"(this is the second triad).

Hegel formulated three laws of dialectics world mind (including nature, society and human thinking):

- law of identity of logical and historical(unity and struggle of opposites), according to this law, everything that the world mind “conceived” is embodied in the history of mankind. Everything that is real is reasonable, and everything that is reasonable is real. According to this law, identity and difference, unity and struggle exist as a single whole;

- law of transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones and vice versa, according to this law, any system has quantitative and qualitative properties, exceeding the “measure” of the permissible quantity leads the system to a “leap” into a qualitatively new state (for example, when water boils, it turns into steam, and when the temperature and pressure are unacceptable, a person will die);

- law of negation of negation helps Hegel explain the repetition in the development of the world mind and the history of peoples; according to this law, the system in its development goes through three stages - thesis (affirmation of something), antithesis (the first negation of what was affirmed at the first stage) and synthesis (or removal of contradiction between affirmation and the first negation, this is the stage of the second negation and the beginning of a new cycle. As an example, Hegel cited the evolution of the grain: the planting of the grain is the thesis, the antithesis is the appearance of the stem, the stem denies the mother grain, then comes the third stage - the ripening of a new grain, in which the resources of the mother grain and its own development are synthesized, the new grain denies the stem, having fallen into the ground it begins a new cycle - it germinates, etc. The repetition of cycles is expressed in the formal side of development, but the content of the system is each time new, dialectically transformed.

Hegel reveals the content of the laws of dialectics through categories:

Quantity is a property of an object that can be measured and designated by a number;

Quality is an essential property;

Measure – interval of stable existence of the system;

A jump is a transition of a system to a qualitatively new state;

Identity, difference, opposition, contradiction, thesis, antithesis, synthesis, dialectical negation and others. Hegel called speculative, reasonable, positive dialectics the highest level of the dialectical method, i.e. fusion, identification and sublation of opposites.

1. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel(1770 - 1831) - professor at Heidelberg and then Berlin universities, was one of the most authoritative philosophers of his time both in Germany and in Europe, a prominent representative of German classical idealism.

Hegel's main service to philosophy lies in the fact that he was put forward and developed in detail:

The theory of objective idealism (the core concept of which is the absolute idea - the World Spirit);

Dialectics as a universal philosophical method.

TO the most important philosophical works Hegel relate:

"Phenomenology of Spirit";

"Science of Logic";

"Philosophy of Law".

2. The main idea of ​​ontology (the doctrine of being) of Hegel - identification of being and thinking. IN As a result of this identification, Hegel derives a special philosophical concept- absolute idea.

Absolute idea- This:

the only true reality that exists;

The root cause of the entire surrounding world, its objects and phenomena;

A world spirit with self-awareness and the ability to create.

The next key ontological concept of Hegel's philosophy is alienation.

The absolute spirit, about which nothing definite can be said, alienates itself in the form of:

The surrounding world;

Nature;

Human;

And then, after alienation through human thinking and activity, the natural course of history returns to itself again: that is, the cycle of the Absolute spirit occurs according to the scheme: World (Absolute) spirit - alienation - the surrounding world and man - human thinking and activity - realization by the spirit of itself yourself through human thinking and activity - the return of the Absolute spirit to itself. Self alienation includes:

Creation of matter from air;

Complex relationships between an object (the surrounding world) and a subject (a person) - through human activity, the World Spirit objectifies itself;

Distortion, a person’s misunderstanding of the world around them.

Human plays a special role in Hegel’s ontology (being). He - bearer of an absolute idea. The consciousness of each person is a particle of the World Spirit. It is in man that the abstract and impersonal world spirit acquires will, personality, character, individuality. Thus, man is the “ultimate spirit” of the World Spirit.

Through man the World Spirit:

Manifests itself in the form of words, speech, language, gestures;

Moves purposefully and naturally - actions, human actions, the course of history;

Knows himself through cognitive activity person;

Creates - in the form of the results of material and spiritual culture created by man.

3. Hegel's historical service to philosophy lies in the fact that he was the first to clearly formulate the concept of dialectics.

Dialectics, according to Hegel, - the fundamental law of the development and existence of the World Spirit and the surrounding world created by it. The meaning of dialectics is that:

everything - the World Spirit, the “ultimate spirit” - man, objects and phenomena of the surrounding world, processes - contains opposite principles (for example, day and night, heat and cold, youth and old age, wealth and poverty, black and white, war and peace, etc.);

These principles (sides of a single being and the World Spirit) are in conflict with each other, but, at the same time, they are united in essence and interact;

The unity and struggle of opposites is the basis for the development and existence of everything in the world (that is, the basis for universal existence and development).

Development comes from the abstract to the concrete and has the following mechanism:

there is a certain thesis(statement, form of being);

This thesis is always antithesis- its opposite;

As a result interaction of two opposing theses it turns out synthesis- a new statement, which, in turn, becomes a thesis, but for more high level development;

This process happens again and again, and each time, as a result of the synthesis of opposing theses, a thesis of a higher and higher level is formed.

For example:

As the very first thesis, from which universal development begins, Hegel singles out the thesis of “being” (that is, that which exists). Its antithesis is “non-existence” (“absolute nothingness”). Being and non-being provide a synthesis - “becoming”, which is a new thesis. Further development continues in an ascending line according to the indicated scheme.

According to Hegel, contradiction is not evil, but good. It is the contradictions that are driving force progress. Without contradictions, their unity and struggle, development is impossible. 4. In your research Hegel seeks to understand:

Philosophy of nature;

Philosophy of spirit;

Philosophy of history;

And that means their essence.

Nature (the world around us) Hegel understands how otherness of ideas(that is, the antithesis of an idea, another form of existence of an idea). Spirit, according to Hegel, has three varieties:

Subjective spirit;

Objective spirit;

Absolute spirit.

Subjective Spirit- soul, consciousness of an individual person (the so-called “spirit for itself”).

Objective Spirit- the next level of spirit, “the spirit of society as a whole.” The expression of the objects of the new spirit is law - the order of relationships between people, given from above, originally existing as an idea (since freedom is inherent in man himself). Law is the realized idea of ​​freedom. Others along with the right expression objective spirit are morality, civil society, and the state.

Absolute Spirit- the highest manifestation of the spirit, the eternally valid truth. The expressions of the Absolute Spirit are:

Art;

Religion;

Philosophy.

Art- direct reflection by a person of an absolute idea. Among people, according to Hegel, only talented and brilliant people can “see” and reflect the absolute idea; because of this, they are creators of art.

Religion- the antithesis of art. If art is an absolute idea, "seen" brilliant people, then religion is an absolute idea revealed to man by God in the form of revelation.

Philosophy- a synthesis of art and religion, the highest level of development and understanding of the absolute idea. This is knowledge given by God and at the same time understood by brilliant people - philosophers. Philosophy is the complete disclosure of all truths, the Absolute Spirit’s knowledge of itself (“the world captured by thought” - according to Hegel), the connection of the beginning of the absolute idea with its end, the highest knowledge.

According to Hegel subject of philosophy should be wider than is traditionally accepted, and should include:

philosophy of nature;

Anthropology;

Psychology;

Philosophy of the state;

Philosophy of civil society;

Philosophy of law;

Philosophy of history;

Dialectics - as the truth of universal laws and principles. Story, according to Hegel, the process of self-realization of the Absolute

spirit. Since the Absolute Spirit includes the idea of ​​freedom, all history is a process of man gaining more and more freedom. In this regard, Hegel divides the entire history of mankind into three great eras:

Eastern;

Antique-medieval;

German.

Eastern era(era Ancient Egypt, China, etc.) - a period of history when in society only one person is aware of himself, enjoys freedom and all the benefits of life - the pharaoh, Chinese emperor, etc., and everyone else is his slaves and servants.

Antique-medieval era- a period when a group of people began to recognize themselves (the head of state, entourage, military leaders, aristocracy, feudal lords), but the bulk of them were suppressed and not free, they depended on the “elite” and served them.

Germanic era- an era contemporary to Hegel, when everyone is self-aware and free.

5. We can also highlight the following Hegel's socio-political views:

the state is the form of existence of God in the world (in its strength and “capabilities” God incarnate);

Law is the actual existence (embodiment) of freedom;

General interests are higher than private ones, and an individual, his interests can be sacrificed to the common good;

Wealth and poverty are natural and inevitable, this is a given reality that must be put up with;

Contradictions and conflicts in society are not evil, but good, the engine of progress;

contradictions and conflicts between states, wars are the engine of progress on a world-historical scale;

“eternal peace” will lead to decay and moral decay; regular wars, on the contrary, purify the spirit of a nation. One of Hegel's most important philosophical conclusions about being and

consciousness that there is no contradiction between being (matter) and idea (consciousness, mind). Reason, consciousness, idea has being, and being has consciousness. Everything that is reasonable is real, and everything that is real is reasonable.

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G. Hegel provides an impressive model of existence in all its manifestations, levels and stages of development. He is the one who designs dialectics as a system, formulating the basic laws and categories of dialectics in relation to the development of the absolute idea. At the same time, Hegel is aware of the fact that the description of the development of the absolute idea is not an end in itself philosophical research.
Considering the relationship between idea and reality, Hegel poses the problem of the very essence transition from ideal (logical) to real, from the absolute idea to nature. The absolute idea must “break out” of absoluteness, that is, it must leave itself and enter other spheres. Nature turns out to be only one of these spheres and, accordingly, a stage of the internal development of an idea, its other existence or its other embodiment.
The basis of dialectics as a special model of a philosophical approach to the world are the basic laws of dialectics identified by Hegel: “the law of the negation of negation”, “the law of the transition of quantity into quality”, “the law of unity and struggle of opposites”. These laws do not exist in isolation from each other, but are implemented as components of a single general development process. Any object, phenomenon represents a certain quality, the unity of its sides, which, as a result of the quantitative accumulation of contradictory tendencies and properties within this quality, come into conflict, and the development of the object is carried out through the negation of this quality, but with the preservation of some properties in the resulting new quality. “The bud disappears when the flower opens, and one might say that it is refuted by the flower; in the same way, when the fruit appears, the flower is recognized as the false existence of the plant, and the fruit appears as its truth instead of the flower. These forms not only differ from each other, but also displace each other as incompatible. However, their fluid nature makes them at the same time moments of organic unity, in which they not only do not contradict each other, but one is as necessary as the other; and only this identical necessity constitutes the life of the whole.” The laws of dialectics are closely interconnected, being sides of the same development process, characterizing it from different sides.
The laws of dialectics form a kind of conceptual framework that allows you to look at the world dialectically, describe it with the help of these laws, without allowing any processes or phenomena of the world to be absolutized, and consider the latter as a developing object. As a result, Hegel manages to create a grandiose philosophical system of the entire spiritual culture of mankind, considering its individual stages as a process of formation of the spirit. This is a kind of ladder along the steps of which humanity has walked and along which every person can walk, joining the global culture and at the same time passing through all stages of the development of the world spirit. At the top of this ladder, the absolute identity of thinking and being is achieved, after which pure thinking begins, that is, the sphere of logic.

Hegel and Schelling: the beginning

Hegel does not recognize Schelling’s idea that the first principle should be thought of as the absolute identity of the objective and the subjective. This is due to the fact that with such an identity any possible difference between them disappears, which is impossible for Hegel.

Definition 1

Difference and Identity- these are two dialectical opposites that are inseparable from each other.

The original identity, which forms the substantial basis of all things, according to Hegel, is the identity of being and thinking. It is in this identity that the difference between the subjective and the objective is immediately visible.

Note 1

However, this difference exists only in thinking. According to Hegel, thinking is a subjective human activity, which is also an objective essence independent of man, which is the fundamental principle, the primary source of everything that really exists.

Hegel believes that thinking “alienates” its being through nature, matter, which are the otherness of this truly existential thinking, which is the Absolute Idea.

Being

Hegel views thinking and being as products and conditions for the existence of the absolute idea. Being is dynamic, as a result of which the absolute idea is the developing content of the integral world process.

Absolute must be understood as a prerequisite and as a result of everything that exists. This is the highest stage of development of all existence. Thus, the absolute spirit is human history, humanity, which constitutes the highest stage of development of the absolute idea.

Being is nothing more than an integral part of the absolute idea, which lies in the harmonious and ideal essence - the absolute spirit. These two concepts are interrelated and give rise to each other. Subjective and objective are two sides of the same process - being, which is holistic in philosophical tradition Hegel.

Thinking

Thinking is a reflection of objective reality. In addition, since this is an objective reality, we can talk about a reasonable and rational view of the world. Nevertheless, Hegel identifies the reflection of reality and what is reflected - objective reality.

The identity of the diverse world of phenomena with the world mind is a thinking process that contains the entire content of the diversity of reality, which is called the absolute idea. On the one hand, this concept is entirely filled with historical reality and natural reality, and on the other hand, it turns out to be a completely refined idea of ​​​​the Divine.

Note 2

The main mental form is the concept. Since Hegel makes the Absolute out of thinking, he thus deifies the concept. According to his teaching, the concept is the beginning of any life and is an eternal creative form.

Hegel is a prominent representative of the philosophy of anti-materialism. He believes that being is the embodiment of a concept, thinking, idea.

Thus, the end product of Hegel's philosophical tradition is the idealistic identification of being and thinking. All processes will come down to the thought process. Real story comes down to the history of knowledge, and the deepening and growth of knowledge about the world order is the development of reality itself.

Hegel rejects Schelling's assertion that the first principle must be conceived as the absolute identity of the subjective and objective, excluding any difference between them. Identity and difference are dialectical opposites, inseparable from each other.

The initial identity that forms the substantial basis of the world is, according to Hegel, the identity of thinking and being, in which, however, there is initially a difference between the objective and the subjective, but this difference itself exists only in thinking. Thinking, according to Hegel, is not only a subjective, human activity, but also an objective essence independent of man, the fundamental principle, the primary source of everything that exists.

Thinking, Hegel claims, “alienates” its existence in the form of matter, nature, which is the “other being” of this objectively existing thinking, which Hegel calls the absolute idea. From this point of view, reason is not a specific feature of a person, but the fundamental principle of the world, from which it follows that the world is fundamentally logical, exists and develops according to laws internal to thinking and reason. Thus, thinking and reason are considered by Hegel as the absolute essence of nature, man, and world history, independent of man and humanity. Hegel seeks to prove that thinking, as a substantial essence, is not located outside the world, but in it itself, as its internal content, manifested in all the diversity of phenomena of reality.

Trying to consistently implement the principle of the identity of thinking and being, Hegel considers thinking (the absolute idea) not as a fixed, unchanging primary essence, but as a continuously developing process of cognition, ascending from one stage to another, higher one. Because of this, the absolute idea is not only the beginning, but also the developing content of the entire world process. This is the meaning of Hegel’s well-known position that the absolute must be understood not only as a prerequisite for everything that exists, but also as its result, i.e. the highest stage of its development. This highest stage of development of the “absolute idea” is the “absolute spirit” - humanity, human history.

Thinking, compared to sensory perceptions, is the highest form of knowledge of the external world. We cannot sensually perceive something that no longer exists (the past), something that does not yet exist (the future). Sensory perceptions are directly related to objects, objects that affect our senses; science discovers, reveals phenomena that we do not see, do not hear, do not touch. However, no matter how great the importance of thinking, no matter how limitless the possibilities of theoretical knowledge, thinking is based on the data of sensory experience and is impossible without it. Hegel, due to his characteristic idealistic underestimation of sensory data, did not see the deep dialectical unity of the rational and empirical, did not understand how thinking draws its content from sensory perceptions of the external world. The content of thinking (the content of science), according to Hegel, is the content inherent in it alone (thinking alone); it is not received from the outside, but is generated by thinking. Knowledge, from this point of view, is not the discovery of what exists outside of us, outside of thinking; this is the discovery, awareness of the content of thinking, science. It turns out, therefore, that thinking and science cognize their own content and knowledge turns out to be self-consciousness of the spirit. Ultimately, Hegel comes to the fantastic conclusion that human thinking is only one of the manifestations of some absolute thinking that exists outside of man - an absolute idea, i.e. God. The rational, the divine, the actual, the necessary coincide with each other, according to the teachings of Hegel. From this follows one of the most important theses of Hegelian philosophy: everything that is real is rational, everything that is rational is real.

Thinking reflects objective reality, and since it correctly reflects it, we can talk about a reasonable view of the world. But Hegel identifies the reflection of reality (reason) and what is reflected - objective reality. This identity of the world mind with the diverse world of phenomena, this process of thinking, contains all the diversity of reality, and is called the “absolute idea”, on the one hand, it is filled with completely real natural and historical content, and on the other hand, it turns out to be a refined idea of ​​God .

The main form of thinking is the concept. Since Hegel absolutizes thinking, he inevitably deifies the concept. It, according to his teaching, “is the beginning of all life” and is “an endless creative form that contains within itself the entirety of all content and at the same time serves as its source.” Speaking against the materialist doctrine of the concept as the highest form of reflection of objective reality, Hegel turns the real relationship between thinking and being on its head: it is not thinking, he says, that reflects being, but being is the embodiment of thinking, concept, idea. (1.27)

So, the starting point of the Hegelian philosophical system is the idealistic identification of thinking and being, the reduction of all processes to the process of thinking. Real history is reduced to the history of knowledge, and the growth and deepening of knowledge about the world is considered as the development of reality itself. Hegel deifies the process of knowledge carried out by humanity, passing it off as divine self-knowledge, as well as humanity’s knowledge of God and thereby itself.