Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (jul 1, 1770 – feb 1, 1834)

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Philosopher who theorized dialectics.

In its broadest terms, the HEgeelian dialectic states that human history develops according to a process in which one concept (thesis) inevitably gives rise to its opposite (antithesis), which then interacts with the thesis to produce a resolution (synthesis), which in turn becomes the thesis to begin the process anew. Nothing is static or unalterable, but all history is a process in a constant state of flux. The HEgelian dialectic hopes to show not merely that things change or how things change but why things change. For Heggel, "The history of the world is none other than the progress of the consciousness of Freedom." All significant historical change has contirbuted to this progress in the realization of human freedom, which Hegel called the progress of the "world soul". His system seemed to offer botht he authority of science and the consolations of reliigion. The legacy of this way of thinking about history, most notably in the writings of Karl Marx, has had enormous consequences for millions of people's lives for nearly two centuries.

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