Basic Concepts of Hegel’s Absolute Idealism

To repeat, Hegel’s philosophical system is one in which

everything is established in triadic units, and each triad finds its
specific relationship to the Absolute. Hegel’s system can be shown
in a “schema if trinities,” in which each trinity will have its thesis
(fixed position), its antithesis (negation), and its synthesis
(sublation or reconciliation). This Schema of triads represents
every possible way in which the mind of man can think of reality
so as to weave its particular factors or momentums into a unified
and integrated system. Each element in the triad is but a moment
or factor which finds its truth or value only when synthesized or
connected with the rest, the Absolute, the whole. Both reality and
mind are fundamentally characterized by contradictions and
antitheses. Consequently, the unfolding of reality as well as the
unfolding of logical thought entail these conflicting aspects which
we can describe as movement and change. Variant phenomena rise
up and perish, a process which in itself constitutes their reality.
The nature of truth is movement. Within the Absolute, all is
change and there is conflict between contradictory factors; yet,
within the Absolute, too, all is permanent, in the sense that it
forms an interrelated, logical whole.
The Absolute, identical with the divine Idea (similar to Plato’s
concept of the highest principle) or God, is outside of time and
therefore comprises the universe in its potential state, awaiting
further evolutionary development. The spirit or Mind (the Geist)
constitutes the divine Idea actualized through evolution, the
biological, social, and historical unfolding of the world. Thus it is
that the Mind, in its aspects both of freedom and of self-
consciousness, fulfills its own potentiality. For Hegel, as for Plato,
the Idea is creative since the rational is equated with the real. Just
as mechanical necessity is the true nature of matter, so freedom is
the essence of reason.

THE HEGELIAN SYSTEM

THE ABSOLUTE
(Idea, Reason, God, the Totality of Reality)

The triad of the Absolute

__________________________|_______________________________
 | | |
Thesis Antithesis Synthesis
| | |
Logic Nature Mind(Spirit)
(Idea-in-itself) (Idea-for-itself) (Idea-in-and-for-itself)
-or-
(Idea-outside-itself)
| | |
The Triad of Logic The Triad of Nature The Triad of Mind
| | |
(1)Thesis:Being (1)Thesis:Mechanics (1)Thesis:Subjective Mind
(2)Antithesis:Essence (2)Antithesis:Physics (The individual.Its subject
(3)Synethesis:Notion (3)Synthesis:Organics matter:anthropology,phe-
(Conception) nomoenology, psychology)
(2) Anthithesis:Objection Mind, (Society. Its subject matter: law, morality,history)
(3) Synthesis: Absolute Mind (The Idea realized. Its subject matter: art, religion,
philosophy)

Hegel’s Absolute Idea (God) assumes three forms: the Idea-in-

itself; the Idea-for-itself; and the Idea-and for-itself. Each of
these forms of the Absolute Idea has its own triadic stages or
aspects.