Editing German philosophy (section)

====Hegel====
[[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]] is widely considered to be the greatest German idealist philosopher. According to Hegel’s system of objective or [[absolute idealism]], reality is self-movement, and its activity can be expressed only in thinking, in self-knowledge. It is internally contradictory, it [[Hegelian dialectic|moves and changes, passing into its opposite]].

Hegel presents the dialectical process of self-development in three main stages, which are ordered conceptually, not temporally. The first stage is logical, was describes the "pre-natural" structure being in the "element of pure thinking." At this stage, the "absolute idea" appears as a system of logical concepts and categories, as a system of logic. This part of Hegel's philosophical system is set forth in his ''[[The Science of Logic|Science of Logic]]''. At the second stage, the "idea" is considered "in its externality" as nature. Hegel expounded his doctrine of nature in The ''Philosophy of Nature''. The highest, third step in the self-development of the idea is spirit, which Hegel, for the most part, presents as it increasingly comes to know itself in history. Hegel reveals this stage of development of the "absolute idea" in his work ''Philosophy of Spirit'' from the ''[[Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences]]'' and in his lectures at the University of Berlin, many of which cover material not found in his published writings. The highest stage of spirit is presented as in the forms of [[art]], [[religion]], and [[philosophy]].

The main works of Hegel are ''[[Phenomenology of Spirit|The Phenomenology of Spirit]]'' (1807), ''[[The Science of Logic|Science of Logic]]'' (1812–1816), ''[[Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences]]'' (''Logic,'' ''Philosophy of Nature,'' ''Philosophy of Spirit'') (1817), ''[[Philosophy of Right|Elements of the Philosophy of Right]]'' (1821).