German philosopher. Hegel was the founder of modern idealism and
developed the notion that consciousness and material objects are in fact
unified. In Phenomenology of Spirit ([1807] 1977), he sought to develop a
rational system that would substitute for traditional Christianity by
interpreting the entire process of human history, and indeed the universe
itself, in terms of the progress of absolute Mind towards self-realisation. In
his view, history is, in essence, a march of the human spirit towards a
determinant end-point.