Hegel makes the impulse of the absolute mind a gradual and self-determined process, by which the Absolute lifts itself from mere possibility and actuality to conscious, free, and necessary possession. However, it is just in this finite view that the ethical, esthetic, and religious character of Hegel's philosophy man ifests itself. In the finite consciousness there is a separation of the natural, the actual, and the em pirical from the spiritual, the free, and the necessary. In the unity reached by overcoming this divoroe ment of the finite from the infinite lies religious blessedness, perfect beauty, and moral freedom. Every phase and stage of this inner teleological development is necessary to the life of the Absolute, and all variety in finite experience is preserved in the higher unity.
Nothing is lost.
Instead of being an undifferentiated substance, or a qualityless neutrum, the Absolute is the living, vital reality that manifests itself in human experience. This This document is from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library at Calvin College. Last updated on June 13, 2000.