Hegel's Thoughts on Thinking: Generalization and Ideas

“An idea is always a generalization, and generalization is a property of thinking. To generalize means to think.”

— Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

(Source: Ludvig von Mises Institute Canada)

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel's Biography

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, (born Aug. 27, 1770, Stuttgart, Württemberg [Germany]—died Nov. 14, 1831, Berlin), German philosopher who developed a dialectical scheme that emphasized the progress of history and of ideas from thesis to antithesis and thence to a synthesis.

Hegel was the last of the great philosophical system builders of modern times. His work, following upon that of Immanuel Kant, Johann Gottlieb Fichte, and Friedrich Schelling, thus marks the pinnacle of classical German philosophy. As an absolute idealist inspired by Christian insights and grounded in his mastery of a fantastic fund of concrete knowledge, Hegel found a place for everything—logical, natural, human, and divine—in a dialectical scheme that repeatedly swung from thesis to antithesis and back again to a higher and richer synthesis. His influence has been as fertile in the reactions that he precipitated—in Søren Kierkegaard, the Danish existentialist; in the Marxists, who turned to social action; in the logical positivists; and in G.E. Moore and Bertrand Russell, both pioneering figures in British analytic philosophy—as in his positive impact.

(Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)