What is dialectical idealism?

Dialectic Idealism is accredited to the German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). The Hegelian dialectic is a three stage model of development that can be applied to various disciplines in our understanding of the world/reality. The first stage is the thesis, followed by reaction to it, its counter argument, or opposite, the antithesis. From this tension between the two arises a third possibility, the synthesis, which is a new and many times better option than either the thesis or antithesis, being the integration of the two previous two stages. The synthesis is also many times greater than simply the sum of the thesis and antithesis.

Thus Hegel believed that everything in history develops through a process of change, the dialectic. The thesis has internal contradictions and inner conflicts that causes the antithesis to arise, causing on its part the synthesis to be formed. Reality is not static or fixed, but is in a constant historical process of change and development.

This tendency and approach can also be observed in Holism; Holism being the tendency in nature, the cosmos and reality in general, to form wholes that are greater than the sum of its parts.

These ideas can be applied to various fields of study, including physics, cosmology, history, politics, economy, philosophy, the Social Sciences and theology.