absent qualia See FUNCTIONALISM, PHILOSOPHY OF. MIN. absolute, the, term used by idealists to describe the one independent reality of which all things are an expression. Kant used the adjective ‘absolute’ to characterize what is unconditionally valid. He claimed that pure reason searched for absolute grounds of the understanding that were ideals only, but that practical reason postulated the real existence of such grounds as necessary for morality. This apparent inconsistency led his successors to attempt to systematize his view of reason. To do this, Schelling introduced the term ‘the Absolute’ for the unconditioned ground (and hence identity) of subject and object. Schelling was criticized by Hegel, who defined the Absolute as spirit: the logical necessity that embodies itself in the world in order to achieve self-knowledge and freedom during the course of history. Many prominent nineteenthcentury British and American idealists, including Bosanquet, Royce, and Bradley, defended the existence of a quasi-Hegelian absolute. See also HEGEL , IDEALISM , SCHELLIN. J.W.A.