Idealism is one of the directions in the development of philosophical thought. This flow was initially not uniform. In the course of the formation of philosophical views, two independent branches took shape - subjective and objective idealism. The first put human sensations at the forefront, declaring them to be the source of reality. And the representatives of objective idealism considered the divine principle, spirit or world consciousness to be the fundamental principle of everything.
The birth of objective idealism
Representatives of different schools of objective idealism pointed to various reasons for the emergence and development of reality. Religious philosophers placed God or the divine principle at the center of the world. Other thinkers called the world will the primary cause of everything. The German philosopher Hegel, who most consistently and fully developed his theory of idealism, believed that the fundamental principle of reality is the absolute spirit.
The beginning of objective idealism was laid by the Greek philosophers Pythagoras and Plato. They and their direct followers did not deny the existence of the material world, but believed that it obeys the principles and laws of the ideal world. Material, objective reality was declared to be a reflection of the processes that took place in the all-embracing realm of the ideal. All the variety of things is generated by the ideal beginning, Plato believed. Objects and bodily forms are transient; they arise and perish. Only the idea remains unchanged, eternal and unchanging.
Objective idealism is also presented in the religious and philosophical views of the ancient Indians. Eastern philosophers considered matter only a veil, under which the divine principle is hidden. These views are reflected in a vivid and imaginative form in the religious books of the Indians, in particular in the Upanishads.
Further development of objective idealism
Much later, the concepts of objective idealism were developed by the European philosophers Leibniz, Schelling and Hegel. In particular, Schelling in his works already relied on the data of natural sciences, considering the processes taking place in the world in dynamics. But, being an adherent of objective idealism, the philosopher strove to spiritualize all matter.
The great German philosopher Hegel made the most significant contribution not only to the development of idealism, but also to the formation of the dialectical method. Hegel recognized that the absolute spirit, which the philosopher put in the place of God, is primary in relation to matter. The thinker assigned a secondary role to matter, subordinating it to ideal forms of being.
The position of objective idealism was most clearly reflected in the works of Hegel "Philosophy of Nature" and "Science of Logic". The thinker endows the absolute spirit with all the attributes of the divine principle, giving it also the property of endless development. Describing the laws of the development of the spirit, Hegel relied on the concept of contradiction, which in his concept took the form of a driving force for the development of an ideal principle.
