Continental Philosophy Essay
Abstract
Georg Hegel was born on August 27, 1770. He was one of the creators of German idealism.
Idealism “attempted to achieve a complete and unified conception of all reality” (Moore &
Bruder, 2005). Hegel’s theory of idealism revolved around thought. He claimed that thought
was infinite and everchanging.
Hegel was a very brilliant man with many brilliant yet difficult ideas. Idealism, infinite thought, reality, and Absolutism were some of his theories. His logic was mainly based on dialectical reasoning. To come to a conclusion using this type of logic, Hegel used thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. This was a transition of thought through contradiction and reconciliation. Some of his examples of this theory were being / non-being / becoming, subjective / objective / absolute, and symbolic / classical / romantic.
Hegel belittled traditional epistemological practices of objective from subjective and created his own theories. His triadic theory was a system used to find the relationship between thought and reality. In Hegel’s theory, a thesis or statement gets affirmed. Then the thesis is challenged by antithesis, which criticizes the thesis. This challenge creates a synthesis. This synthesis is superior to both thesis and antithesis as long as reality is involved. Many other philosophers believed that his work was difficult. This is because Hegel created a new style of logic which he termed speculative reasoning. Hegel’s speculative reason theory incorporated a large amount of doubt, which very few philosophers of this era used in their theories.
Most philosophers in this era did not agree with Hegel’s ideas. They thought he was a disgrace to philosophy because of his radical and difficult reasoning. Karl Marx refuted Hegel’s ideas and tried to base his own evolutionary theories on economics. Søren Kierkegaard also argued Hegel’s ideas. “Kierkegaard doubted Hegel's abstractions, arguing that...