Editing Absolute idealism (section)

{{Short description|Type of idealism in metaphysics}}
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{{Hegelianism}}
'''Absolute idealism''' is chiefly associated with [[Friedrich Schelling]] and [[G. W. F. Hegel]], both of whom were [[German idealist]] philosophers in the 19th century. The label has also been attached to others such as [[Josiah Royce]], an American philosopher who was greatly influenced by Hegel's work, and the [[British idealism|British idealists]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia | author=[[Brian Duignan]]|url = http://www.britannica.com/topic/Absolute-Idealism |title =Absolute Idealism |encyclopedia = [[ Encyclopaedia Britannica]] |date = October 30, 2018}}</ref><ref>The term ''{{lang|de|absoluter Idealismus}}'' occurs for the first time in Schelling's ''Ideen zu einer Philosophie der Natur als Einleitung in das Studium dieser Wissenschaft'' (''Ideas for a Philosophy of Nature: as Introduction to the Study of this Science''), Vol. 1, P. Krüll, 1803 [1797], p. 80.</ref> 

According to Hegel, [[being]] is ultimately comprehensible only as an all-inclusive whole (''[[Absolute (philosophy)|das Absolute]]''). Hegel asserted that in order for the thinking subject (human reason or consciousness) to be able to know its [[object (philosophy)|object]] (the world) at all, there must be in some sense an [[Identity (philosophy)|identity]] of thought and being. Otherwise, the subject would never have access to the object and we would have no certainty about any of our knowledge of the world. 

The absolute idealist position dominated philosophy in nineteenth-century Britain and Germany, while exerting significantly less influence in the [[United States]]. The absolute idealist position should be distinguished from the [[subjective idealism]] of [[George Berkeley|Berkeley]], the [[transcendental idealism]] of [[Immanuel Kant|Kant]], or the [[post-Kantian]] transcendental idealism (also known as "critical idealism")<ref>[[Frederick C. Beiser]], ''German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjectivism, 1781-1801'', Harvard University Press, 2002, p. 3.</ref> of [[J. G. Fichte|Fichte]] and of the early [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|Schelling]].<ref>Nectarios G. Limnatis, ''German Idealism and the Problem of Knowledge: Kant, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel'', Springer, 2008, pp. 138, 166, 177.<!--the term 'post-Kantian transcendental idealism' is used on page 177 as constrasting to 'absolute idealism'--></ref>{{Clarify|date=July 2023|reason=Distinction between early/late Schelling requires clarification.}}