Hegelian Idealism - Essay Example

"the atoms that make a man are just atoms by themselves, with no inherent value. It is the whole that must be evaluated. 'Isolated moments' may be recorded accurately but these moments mean nothing without context." "This is the meaning of reality for Hegel that reality is the whole truth, grasped by our rational concepts. Reality is the absolute truth, it is the totality and synthesis of all partial and limited truth. Reality properly understood is the totality of truth of absolute mind. This breathtaking vision of absolute total reality is linked to the method by which it is known.

This is the famous method of dialectic" So the 'whole' is sovereign over the 'parts'. Through some self-reflection and through living socially we find that views are one-sided, slanted and so on capable of improvement. This produces an opposite. This is similar to Jungian Psychology which emphasizes the overcoming of opposites with a 'transcendent third'.1 In Hegelian terms Note that in Jungian Psychology there is also similarity with Hegelian philosophy in that Jungian Psychology emphasizes the evolution of consciousness, whereby the individual desires conscious growth and unconscious participation but that the slant is towards the former in general.

(see for example, the Jungian thinker, Eric Neumann's 'The origins and History of Consciousness' (1954)this is usually phrased thesis-antithesis-synthesis. The new point (the transcendent third) is the one which synthesizes"the two opposing philosophies into a more complete truth."(Lavine, 1985, p214)Note that Lavine said 'opposing philosophies'. Hegel emphasizes the collective over the individual. Indeed the individual needs a contributing idea to give his or her life meaning through contributing to the whole.

It is a very history based system in that it assumes that each historical generation learns from and improves the previous generations philosophy hence is coming closer to absolute truth.2EXISTENTIALISMExistentialism was around before the post-world war 2 period but it was in this aftermath of devastation that it reached its height in influence. This is mainly true when we look at French existentialism. Paul Sartre was the first to use the term 'existentialism'3 and other French philosophers such as Gabriel Marcel, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Simone de Beauvoir, and Albert Camus have all also been regarded as existentialists.

4 Existentialists are critical about scientism which they see as the dominant hegemonic culture that is indifferent or hostile to healthier and more meaningful worldviews. Existentialists tend to think that scientism creates a culture slanted towards meaninglessness and whereby therefore a whole host of negative substitutes to meaning will be lived-out instead such as addictions and obsessions