HEGEL ON IDEALISM, KNOWLEDGE & REALITY

Hegel rejected the distinction commonly drawn between knowledge and reality. Knowledge is reality and reality is knowledge, for if the two were separate reality would be unknowable and knowledge would be illusory. In Hegel’s famous words, the real is rational. Truth, according to Hegel means coherence, i.e. a judgement is true in so far as it is consistent with other judgements, and more true the wider the range of judgements with which it is consistent. The only judgement which is wholly true is therefore a judgement asserting everything about everything,’ for only such a judgement embodies, and is thus consistent with, the numerous judgements which, viewed from a narrower perspective, appear to be in some measure inconsistent with each other.