The influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology, to political philosophy, the philosophy of history, philosophy of art, philosophy of religion, and the history of philosophy. His sweeping system of absolute idealism sought to show how reality, history, and human consciousness unfold through a dialectical movement in which contradictions are overcome in higher unities. His major works—Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Science of Logic (1812–1816), and Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1820)—trace the development of spirit as it comes to know itself through history, culminating in his famous claim that world history is the progress of freedom.
