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Hegelian

Hegelian

1 9.9
A person who follows the ideas of the thinker Hegel
  • noun
  • /hɪˈɡeɪliən/
  • Formal
: hegeliano
  • Many scholars consider themselves Hegelians because they believe in the importance of dialectical reasoning.
  • young Hegelians
  • Hegelian Marxism

And then we've got people like Schopenhauer and we've got these, you know, post Hegelians who are sort of in his shadow.

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Examples

  • Marx maintained that the young Hegelians actually supported the existing social order, even as they appeared to criticize it.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Thus, Captain Kirk is a closet Hegelian, as is former President George Bush.

    Academic text (2000)
  • Oh my God, maybe you became a closet Hegelian.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • Thus, in a very real sense, we are all Hegelians.

    Academic text (2000)
  • But I, I am a Hegelian and I understand that quantitative decline at a certain point becomes a qualitative shift.

  • For Hegelians, to be spirited is to act humanly or historically.

    Academic text (1996)
  • Spiritedness, for Hegelians, is the source of political distinctions, those between master and slave or ruler and ruled.

    Academic text (1996)
  • The Hegelian uses nationalist constitutionalism against reactionary, localist populism in the service of democracy properly understood.

    Academic text (1998)
  • However, whereas the Hegelians regard secularization as the idea's perfection, Tocqueville regards it as partly an error or distortion.

    Academic text (1992)
  • As a Hegelian, she often discusses the implications of Hegel's philosophy in contemporary politics.

Surface Forms

Hegelian singular
Hegelians plural

Morphology

Hegelian = Hegel (transparent) = Hegel + ian

Formed by the productive adjectival/nominative suffix '-ian' on the name 'Hegel' to denote relation or a follower; this is a clear, regular formation.

Etymology

Hegelian comes from the name Hegel and the ending -ian, which marks a 'follower' or someone 'connected to' a person, like Newtonian or Shakespearean. So a Hegelian is a person who follows or supports the ideas of the German philosopher Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.