Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770-14 November 1831) was a German philosopher and an important figure in German idealism.
Biography[]
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart, Württemberg on 27 August 1770, and he was schooled at Tubingen and Jena. Hegel became a university lecturer and professor at Jena, Heidelberg, and Berlin, and he saw himself as an heir to the views of Immanuel Kant. Hegel created "absolute idealism", believing that existence is an all-inclusive whole, a view that either opposed or expanded upon Kant's views. He believed that natural things are less real (as they are not self-determining) than spiritual things, and argued that materialism was wrong, leading to his student Karl Marx borrowing some of Hegel's views to found Marxism. Subject and object were both said to have spirit, meaning that they were identical. Hegel's ideologies generally consisted of man demanding infinity and seeking to become God, therefore being a religion of self-worship. Hegel died in 1831.