Hegel: Radical Materialist or Radical Mystic?

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

BSc Biochemistry (Kings College London), MA Islamic Studies (Islamic College of London) United Kingsom.

Abstract

A Hegel has been subjected to a variety of incompatible interpretations in recent times, from absolute idealism to realism, from pro-metaphysical to sans metaphysical. One of the more eccentric Hegelian thinkers is Slavoj Žižek, who believes that Hegel must be read as a radical materialist to clear the path to true human liberation. Žižek’s highly controversial interpretations of Hegel have gained a celebrity level of exposure and popularity and are mixed with Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalytic themes and post-Marxist anti-capitalist political-social ruminations. This paper will traverse themes in Hegel’s early religious writings through to the Phenomenology of Spirit to critically assess Žižek’s claims. It will support his assertion that Hegel was not an absolute idealist but will reject the claim that Hegel was a materialist. Not only was Hegel strongly opposed to materialism and rejected its most basic assumptions, but his dialectic evolves beyond this into a form of radical mysticism. Hegel considered naïve traditional empiricism, rationalism, and mysticism to be unfit for a new urban landscape in which science and technology were flourishing at an accelerating rate. He also wanted to defend philosophy and religion as independent fields which addressed truth, higher reality, and the greatest consciousness that the human mind could reach in the journey to surpassing its limitations. 

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References

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations
Volume 19, Issue 53 - Serial Number 53
Articles
Issue 53, Winter 2026
December 2025
Pages 129-148

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