Hegelian

Hegelian refers to the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, a German idealist active in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, and to the subsequent tradition of thinkers who developed or adapted his system. Hegel's work posits that reality is rational and that history and thought unfold through a dialectical process aimed at the realization of the absolute.

Core ideas associated with Hegel include the dialectic, the movement of thought and history through opposing moments, and the notion of the Absolute or World Spirit (Geist) that comes to self-consciousness through development across cultures, institutions, and ideas. Knowledge and being are seen as dynamic and interrelated, with progress arising as contradictions are resolved in higher unity. The phrase thesis–antithesis–synthesis is commonly used to summarize the method, though it is a simplification of Hegel’s more complex logic.

Historically, Hegelianism spawned diverse currents. Right-Hegelians tended to emphasize religion, the state, and tradition, interpreting Hegel as endorsing established authority. Left-Hegelians critiqued religion and politics, and some, notably Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, recast the dialectic in materialist terms as a process driving social and economic change.

Influence and legacy of Hegelian ideas are broad, shaping later German philosophy, phenomenology, and sets of political and theological thought. Critics have challenged Hegel’s idealism, teleology, and determinism, while the dialectical approach continues to inform debates in philosophy, history, and social theory. In contemporary usage, “Hegelian” often designates a tendency to view development as the resolution of contradictions through higher synthesis.