Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Hegel was a German philosopher who lived from 1770 to 1831 and is often credited as the culmination of the German idealist movement that began with Kant. 

Hegel had a belief in the unreality of separate parts. He felt that nothing was completely real except the 'whole' and saw everything as a complex system that could only be considered when seen as a whole. He felt that 'whatever is, is right'. Hegel refers to the whole as the 'absolute' and considers it spiritual. As a result of this it appears that God is the absolute, a pure being.

Hegel's view on spirituality is an interesting one, that comes from his idea of the 'dialectic'. Hegel believed that everything had a thesis (a proposition) and an antithesis (contradictions to this). The result of these two ideas led to the Synthesis - a combination of opposing points of view that in turn created a new idea. When linking this to his idea of spirituality, Hegel believed that we as humans moved towards the 'absolute, pure being' (God) through a series of dialectic transitions. He referred to these periods of transition as 'geists' and suggested that these were guided by an external force rather than through our own actions. Hegel believed that we will become an absolute being once we have self knowledge of our spirit.

Hegel's political views were also based upon his dialectic theory. He thought that world history repeated the transitions of the dialectic and that it too was guided by a geist in moving towards an eventual end. Using War, for example helps to explain Hegel's theory. If we consider one nation as the thesis and one as the antithesis, the result of the conflict would be the synthesis - and this is how change occurs throughout history.

 Hegel was a great lover of change however there does appear to be some contradictions in his own political beliefs. In his later life he was very pro-German, however he was also a great supporter of Napoleon and was said to have welcomed his defeat of the Prussian army.

Hegel's glorification of the state in his later life could also be seen as a contradiction. He felt he was a great lover of change and freedom, however he also felt that there was more freedom to be found in a monarchist rule than in a democracy. This would suggest that he was both a lover of freedom and obeying the law, Bertrand Russell describes this contradiction perfectly by arguing that what Hegel really believed in was 'the freedom to obey'.

Hegel's theory leads nicely on to my next History and Context of Journalism study - that of Karl Marx. Marx's relationship with Hegel's theories appears to be an interesting on, with Marx dismissing Hegel's views on the hidden geists as idealist nonsense,  but appearing to agree with Hegel's theory of the dialectic as a process to drive change and he perhaps applied this theory in a much more realistic and empirical way than the ideals of Hegel .