Hegel

American  

[hey-guhl] / ˈheɪ gəl /

noun

1. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich 1770–1831, German philosopher.

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Hegel British  

/ hɪˈɡeɪlɪən, ˈheɪɡəl, heɪˈɡiː- /

noun

1. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich (ɡeˈɔrk ˈvɪlhɛlm ˈfriːdrɪç). 1770–1831, German philosopher, who created a fundamentally influential system of thought. His view of man's mind as the highest expression of the Absolute is expounded in The Phenomenology of Mind (1807). He developed his concept of dialectic, in which the contradiction between a proposition (thesis) and its antithesis is resolved at a higher level of truth (synthesis), in Science of Logic (1812–16)

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Other Word Forms

• Hegelian
  adjective
• Hegelianism
  noun

Example Sentences

Hegel was a metaphysician whose insistence that Geist, or spirit, pervades the historical process and moves it to some grand culmination is difficult to distinguish from New Age mysticism, and hence charlatanism.

From Salon • Mar. 28, 2026

Plato and Hegel, in case you were wondering.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 9, 2026

The conflict between right and wrong is far less compelling, as Hegel understood, than the collision of sides with competing claims to legitimacy.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 4, 2024

"These findings provide rare insight into the clandestine cyber operations that traditionally remain concealed from public scrutiny or are simply never caught by such victims," Hegel said.

From Reuters • Aug. 7, 2023

In his conversations, he appears to be more a philosopher than someone with a medical and psychological background, quoting Hegel as much as Freud, Plato as much as Jung.

From "Endgame" by Frank Brady