The Formation of Hegel''s concept of the Absolute ─ From The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate to Phenomenology of Spirit

• Main Authors: Hsuan-Li Wang, 王宣曆
• Other Authors: Ko-Chuan Chang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2003
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/25596278562842777794

碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 哲學研究所 === 91 === This thesis studies the formative process of Hegel''s concept of the Absolute, which germinates in his Frankfurt period (1797-1800) and comes to maturity in Phenomenology of Spirit (1806-7). Based primarily on The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate, The Difference Between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy, and Phenomenology of Spirit, I attempt to explicate the characteristics and the devel- opment of Hegel’s concept of the Absolute in his philosophizing during this period. Through the discussion on the modes of reconciliation (Versöhnung) in the love and the religion in The Spirit of Christianity and its Fate, we can find that the germ and the clues of the follow-on development of the concept of the Absolute have already appeared in Hegel’s early theological writings. On the other hand, in The Difference Between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy Hegel compared the explications of the Absolute in Fichte’s and Schelling’s system of philosophy, and pointed out that the systems of philosophy of Kant’s and Fichte’s still have the thinking mode of understanding and reflection, and for this reason fail both to grasp the Absolute as the Idea of true subject-object identity and to solve the theoretical dilemma caused by subject-object dichotomy in the fields of knowledge and practice. Only the philosophical speculation, which has sublated the reflective oppositions, can express the concept of the Absolute, grasp the absolute identity in the insight of the absolute substance, and attain the ideal end Kant and Fichte yearned for. However, in Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel no longer received the concept of the Absolute close to Shelling’s, as he did in The Difference Between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy; he now brought up the concept of absolute subject as the principle of the unity of opposites, and conceived the Absolute as Spirit, which reconciles with all beings in its dialectical movement; and after developing its own rich contents in the opposition and alienation, Spirit contains oppositions in the higher unity and harmony, and on this account arrives at the true reconciliation of opposites.