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{{Short description|Concept of an ultimate being in philosophy}}
{{About|the concept in Hegelian philosophy|the doctrine of absolute truth|Universality (philosophy)|other uses|Absolute (disambiguation)}}
{{Too few opinions|date=August 2021}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2019}}

In [[philosophy]], the '''Absolute''' is the term used for the ultimate or most [[supreme being]], usually conceived as either encompassing "the sum of all being, [[potentiality and actuality|actual and potential]]",<ref name="CathEncy"/> or otherwise [[Transcendence (philosophy)|transcending]] the concept of "[[being]]" altogether. While the general concept of a supreme being has been present since ancient times, the exact term "Absolute" was first introduced by [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]], and features prominently in the work of many of his followers. In [[Absolute idealism]] and [[British idealism]], it serves as a concept for the "unconditioned reality which is either the spiritual ground of all being or the whole of things considered as a spiritual unity".<ref name=sprigge>{{cite book|last=Sprigge|first=T. L. S.|title=Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy|publisher=Taylor and Francis|doi=10.4324/9780415249126-N001-1|url= https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/thematic/absolute-the/v-1|year=1998}}</ref>

==History==
{{Main|Absolute idealism}}
{{See also|God|Ultimate reality|Nondualism}}

The concept of "the absolute" was introduced in [[modern philosophy]] by [[Hegel]], defined as "the sum of all being, actual and potential".<ref name="Copleston1963">{{cite book|author=Frederick Charles Copleston|title=History of Philosophy: Fichte to Nietzsche|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P1Ai7PB_FZsC |year=1963|publisher=Paulist Press|isbn=978-0-8091-0071-2|pages=166–180}}</ref><ref name="CathEncy">{{CathEncy|wstitle=The Absolute}} See for the development of Hegel's idea of "the absolute." Charles Edward Andrew Lincoln IV, ''Hegelian Dialectical Analysis of U.S. Voting Laws'', 42 U. Dayton L. Rev. 87 (2017). See Lincoln, Charles [https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Dialectical_Path_of_Law/J-2FzgEACAAJ?hl=en The Dialectical Path of Law], 2021 Rowman & Littlefield.</ref> For Hegel, as understood by [[Martin Heidegger]], the Absolute is "the spirit, that which is present to itself in the certainty of unconditional self-knowing".<ref name="Heidegger2002">{{cite book|author=Martin Heidegger|title=Heidegger: Off the Beaten Track|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QImd2ARqQPMC |year=2002|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-80507-0|pages=97–98}}</ref> As Hegel is understood by [[Frederick Copleston]], "Logic studies the Absolute 'in itself'; the philosophy of Nature studies the Absolute 'for itself'; and the philosophy of Spirit studies the Absolute 'in and for itself'."<ref name="Copleston2003">{{cite book|author=Frederick Charles Copleston|title=18th and 19th Century German Philosophy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RjWCTI0OFbgC&pg=PA173|year=2003|publisher=A&C Black|isbn=978-0-8264-6901-4|pages=173–174}}</ref> The concept is also found in the works of [[Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling|F. W. J. Schelling]], and was anticipated by [[Johann Gottlieb Fichte]].<ref name=sprigge/> In English philosophy, [[F. H. Bradley]] has distinguished the concept of Absolute from [[God]], while [[Josiah Royce]], founder of the [[American idealism]] school of philosophy, has equated them.<ref name=sprigge/>

==Indian religions==
The concept of the Absolute has been used to interpret the early texts of the [[Indian religions]] such as those attributed to [[Yajnavalkya]], [[Nagarjuna]] and [[Adi Shankara]].<ref>{{cite book|author=Hajime Nakamura|title=The Ways of Thinking of Eastern Peoples: India-China-Tibet-Japan|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=sePiBcehtYcC |year=1964|publisher=University of Hawaii Press|isbn=978-0-8248-0078-9|pages=53–57}}, Quote: "Thus the ultimate Absolute presumed by the Indians is not a personal god but an impersonal and metaphysical Principle. Here we can see the impersonal character of the Absolute in Indian thought. The inclination of grasping Absolute negatively necessarily leads (as Hegel would say) to the negation of the negative expression itself."</ref>

In [[Jainism]], Absolute Knowledge or ''Kewalya Gnan'', is said to be attained by the [[Arihant (Jainism)|Arihant]]as and [[Tirthankara]]s, who reflects in their knowing the 360 degrees of the truth and events of [[time|past, present and future]]. All 24 Tirthankaras and many others are Kewalya Gnani or Carriers of Absolute Knowledge.

According to Takeshi Umehara, some ancient texts of [[Buddhism]] state that the "truly Absolute and the truly Free must be nothingness",<ref>{{cite journal | last=Umehara | first=Takeshi | title=Heidegger and Buddhism | journal=Philosophy East and West | volume=20 | issue=3 | year=1970 | doi=10.2307/1398308 | pages=271–281| jstor=1398308 }}</ref> the "void".<ref>{{cite journal | last1=Orru | first1=Marco | last2=Wang | first2=Amy | title=Durkheim, Religion, and Buddhism | journal=Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion | volume=31 | issue=1 | year=1992 | doi=10.2307/1386831 | pages=47–61| jstor=1386831 }}</ref> Yet, the early Buddhist scholar [[Nagarjuna]], states Paul Williams, does not present "emptiness" as some kind of Absolute, rather it is "the very absence (a pure non-existence) of inherent existence" in [[Mādhyamaka]] school of the Buddhist philosophy.<ref>{{cite book|last=Williams |first= Paul|title= Buddhist Thought: A Complete Introduction to the Indian Tradition|year= 2002| pages= 146–148}}</ref>

According to Glyn Richards, the early texts of [[Hinduism]] state that the [[Brahman]] or the nondual Brahman–[[Atman (Hinduism)|Atman]] is the Absolute.<ref>{{cite book | last=Richards | first=Glyn | title=Studies in Religion | chapter=Modern Hinduism | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan | year=1995 | isbn=978-1-349-24149-1 | doi=10.1007/978-1-349-24147-7_9 | pages=117–127}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Chaudhuri | first=Haridas | title=The Concept of Brahman in Hindu Philosophy | journal=Philosophy East and West | volume=4 | issue=1 | year=1954 | doi=10.2307/1396951 | pages=47–66| jstor=1396951 }}, Quote: "The Self or Atman is the Absolute viewed from the subjective standpoint (arkara), or a real mode of existence of the Absolute."</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last=Simoni-Wastila | first=Henry | title=Māyā and radical particularity: Can particular persons be one with Brahman? | journal=International Journal of Hindu Studies | publisher=Springer | volume=6 | issue=1 | year=2002 | doi=10.1007/s11407-002-0009-5 | pages=1–18| s2cid=144665828 }}</ref>

The term has also been adopted by [[Aldous Huxley]] in his [[perennial philosophy]] to interpret various religious traditions, including Indian religions,<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Perennial Philosophy|last=Huxley|first=Aldous|date=2009-01-01|publisher=Harper Perennial Modern Classics|isbn=9780061724947|location=New York|language=English}}</ref> and influenced other strands of [[nondualism|nondualistic]] and [[New Age]] thought.

==See also==
{{Portal|Philosophy}}

{{div col|colwidth=15em}}
* [[Absolute idealism]]
* [[Absolute Infinite]]
* [[Adi-Buddha]]
* [[Ātman (Buddhism)]]
* [[Ātman (Hinduism)]]—[[Paramatman]]
* [[Being]]
* [[Brahman]]—[[Para Brahman]]—[[Nirguna Brahman]]
* [[Buddhahood]]
* [[Buddha-nature]]
* [[Chaos (mythology)|Chaos]]
* [[Conceptions of God]]—[[Existence of God]]—[[Names of God]]
* [[Dharmakāya]]
* [[Dialectical monism]]—[[Neutral monism]]
* [[Eternal Buddha]]
* [[God]]—[[Godhead (disambiguation)|Godhead]]—[[God the Father]]
* [[Henology]]
* [[Henosis]]
* [[Indeterminacy (philosophy)|Indeterminacy]]
* [[Intrinsic value (ethics)|Intrinsic value]]
* [[Meaning of life]]
* [[Monad (philosophy)|Monad]]—[[Monism]]—[[Henology|The One]]
* [[Mysticism]]
* [[Non-absolutism]]
* [[Logos]]—[[Nous]]—[[Reason]]
* [[Pantheism]]—[[Cosmos]]—[[Panentheism]]
* [[Pleroma]]
* [[Reality]]
* [[Reality in Buddhism]]
* [[Sacred]]
* [[Śūnyatā]]
* [[Supreme Being]]
* [[Universality (philosophy)]]
* [[Tian]]
* [[Tao]]
* [[Wusheng Laomu]]{{div col end}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Clear}}
{{Theology}}
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[[Category:Concepts in ancient Greek metaphysics]]
[[Category:Concepts in metaphysics]]
[[Category:Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]]
[[Category:History of philosophy]]
[[Category:History of religion]]
[[Category:Idealism]]
[[Category:Jain philosophy]]
[[Category:Metaphysical theories]]
[[Category:Metaphysics]]
[[Category:Monism]]
[[Category:Names of God in Hinduism]]
[[Category:Nondualism]]
[[Category:Ontology]]
[[Category:Panentheism]]
[[Category:Pantheism]]
[[Category:Perennial philosophy]]
[[Category:Philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Religious philosophical concepts]]
[[Category:Singular God| ]]
[[Category:Superlatives in religion]]
[[Category:Transtheism]]
[[Category:Universalism]]

Absolute philosophy - Revision history

UpdateBot at 19:01, 15 February 2022