Individual Education (Bildung) is an important theme in Hegel’s philosophy of spirit, symbolising the different levels and stages of individual freedom reached in the spiritual system. Individual education is embodied in the subjective spirit as the living individual of the natural soul, in the objective spirit as the political citizen and in the absolute spirit as the nation-state.In these sessions, the individual acquires the possibility of freedom in the subjective spirit, then the prescriptive nature of freedom in the objective spirit,and finally the infinite nature of freedom in the absolute spirit of education. In theoretical education, the theoretical spirit of the finite is reshaped and the theoretical spirit of the subjective without absolute essence is elevated to the spirit of subject-object unity as pure form. In practical education, the finite spirit of the individual needs to be raised to the universal spirit of the infinite, thus raising the finite free will of the individual to the absolutely infinite free spirit of the oneness of man and God. In this regard, individual education requires access to three different levels of perception experiencing artistic representations, religious beliefs and philosophical concepts, in other words, the individual as a subject of the absolute spirit shapes in himself the different manifestations of his spiritual freedom fixed in himself.

Siyuan Wang. The Infinity of Freedom——On Education of the Individual in Hegel’s Absolute Spirit. Academic Journal of Humanities & Social Sciences (2023) Vol. 6, Issue 3: 118-123. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJHSS.2023.060319.

[1] See Martin Loder, Die Existenz des Spekulativen: Untersuchungen zur neuplatonischen Seelenlehre und zu Hegels Philosophie des subjektiven Geistes, Herausgegeben von Jens Halfwassen, Dominik Perler und Michael Quante (Berlin/Boston, Walter de Gruyter GmbH, 2016), S.145-146.

[2] Karen NG, Life and spirit in Hegel’s Logic and Subjective Spirit, Hegel Bulletin(2016), 39/1, p.34.

[3] See Terry Pinkard, Hegel’s Naturalism: spirit, Nature and the Final Ends of Life (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), pp.27-30

[4] See Stephen Houlgate, An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History (Second Edition; Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell Pubilishing Ltd, 2005), pp. 172-174. .

[5] Robert Pippin, The Persistence of Subjectivity: On the Kantian Aftermath(New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005), pp.279-285.

[6] G.W.Hegel, Outlines of the Philosophy of Right, trans by T.M.Knox, ed by Stephen Houlgate (Oxford University Press, 2008), p.78.

[7] Peter C.Hodgson, Hegel and Christian Theology: A Reading of the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), pp.127-137.

[8] Nadine Mooren, Hegel und die Religion: Eine Untersuchung zum Verhältnis von Religion, Philosophie und Theologie in Hegels System”, in Michael Quante & Birgit Sandkaulen(eds.), Hegel-Studien Beiheft 66(Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 2018), S.125-131.

[9] Walter Jaeschke, Hegels Philosophie (Hamburg: Felix Meiner Verlag, 2019), S.277.

[10] Siyuan Wang. Poverty, Pandemic and the Way of Salvation: Based on the Investigation of the Three Governance Approaches in Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, in LOGOS & PNEUMA Chinese Journal of Theology (2022), 57, pp.297-298.

[11] Jürgen-Eckhardt Pleines, (ed.), Hegels Theorie der Bildung II Kommentare(Hildesheim/Zürich/

New York:Georg Olms Verlag, 1986).S.10-15.