Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Portrait by Jakob Schlesinger dated 1831, the year of Hegel's death
Born	August 27, 1770 Stuttgart, Duchy of Württemberg
Died	November 14, 1831(1831-11-14) (aged 61) Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia
Residence	Germany
Nationality	German
Education	Gymnasium illustre zu Stuttgart Tübinger Stift, University of Tübingen (MA, 1790) University of Jena (PhD, 1801)
Era	19th-century philosophy
Region	Western philosophy
School	Continental philosophy German idealism Objective idealism Absolute idealism Hegelianism Historicism Naturphilosophie
Institutions	University of Jena (1801–06) University of Heidelberg (1816–18) University of Berlin (1818–31)
Academic advisors	Johann Friedrich LeBret ()
Main interests	Metaphysics Epistemology Naturphilosophie Philosophy of history Political philosophy Logic Aesthetics
Notable ideas	Absolute idealism Hegelian dialectic Master–slave dialectic Aufheben ("sublation") Geist ("mind/spirit") Sittlichkeit ("ethical order") Alienation Dialectical phenomenology The three of the concept: universality, particularity, and individuality (Allgemeinheit, Besonderheit, Einzelheit) Abstract particularity The abstract–concrete distinction "The true is the whole" Rationality alone is real Panlogism Distinction between critical Verstandesmetaphysik (metaphysics of Understanding) and speculative Vernunftsmetaphysik (metaphysics of Reason) Positive freedom The civil society/state distinction Volksgeist
Influences Aristotle Böhme Fichte Heraclitus Herder Kant Rousseau Spinoza Schelling Schiller
Influenced Adorno Barth Bauer Bosanquet Bradley Brandom de Beauvoir Butler Chalybäus Croce Derrida Engels Feuerbach Fischer Fukuyama Gentile Hyppolite Kaufmann Kierkegaard Kojève Küng Lukács Marcuse Marx McDowell Pippin Rose Rosenkranz Russon Sartre Singer Strauss Taylor Žižek
Signature

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (/ˈheɪɡəl/;German: [ˈɡeːɔɐ̯k ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfʁiːdʁɪç ˈheːɡəl]; August 27, 1770 – November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher and an important figure of German idealism. He achieved wide renown in his day and, while primarily influential within the continental tradition of philosophy, has become increasingly influential in the analytic tradition as well. Although Hegel remains a divisive figure, his canonical stature within Western philosophy is universally recognized.

Hegel's principal achievement is his development of a distinctive articulation of idealism sometimes termed "absolute idealism", in which the dualisms of, for instance, mind and nature and subject and object are overcome. His philosophy of spirit conceptually integrates psychology, the state, history, art, religion, and philosophy. His account of the master–slave dialectic has been highly influential, especially in 20th-century France. Of special importance is his concept of spirit (Geist: sometimes also translated as "mind") as the historical manifestation of the logical concept and the "sublation" (Aufhebung: integration without elimination or reduction) of seemingly contradictory or opposing factors; examples include the apparent opposition between nature and freedom and between immanence and transcendence. Hegel has been seen in the 20th century as the originator of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis triad; however, as an explicit phrase, it originated with Johann Gottlieb Fichte.