Absolute spirit: The relevance of Hegel’s theory today

Abstract

The paper discusses two key Hegelian concepts: ‘the spirit’ and the remembrance of ‘the absolute.’ The explanation is performed in line with Robert Solomon’s interpretation of Hegel. Solomon writes: ‘[Hegel’s] philosophy is the philosophy of the imagination that encompasses everything: it is the absolute opposite of conceptual formalism.’ The paper argues that Hegel’s concept of ‘the spirit’ is not so much a bizarre conceptual formation of German idealism from two hundred years ago but rather a model of a specific world rich with objects. The absolute spirit commands philosophy, which is thinking rich with content, to demand its own place in the process of everyday cognition.