The Absolute from Ground to Limit: A Historical Reconstruction of Its Function

This article presents a historical-philosophical reconstruction of the function of the Absolute in Western thought. Its aim is not to provide an exhaustive history of doctrines of the Absolute, nor to revive a traditional metaphysics of ultimate ground. Instead, it asks what work the concept of the Absolute has performed across different epochs, and why this function persists even when the word “Absolute” itself becomes philosophically suspect. The main thesis is that the history of the Absolute can be read as a gradual shift in emphasis: from its primary role as ground — in figures such as the One, the Good, God, substance, and system — through the problem of the unpredicable and the critique of totality, to its contemporary significance as the limit of theoretical, ontological, and meaningful closure. The article traces this transformation through ancient philosophy, apophatic theology, medieval metaphysics, early modern rationalism, Kant, German Idealism, absolute idealism, twentieth-century philosophy of language and being, and contemporary forms of final-theory thinking. It argues that the Absolute is neither the final object of thought, nor a final theory, nor a completed system. Rather, it is the structural limit at which every claim to final totalisation encounters its own impossibility. The conclusion is that the contemporary significance of the Absolute lies not in completing thought, but in preventing thought from falsely completing itself. The Absolute preserves thought’s orientation toward unity, ground, and meaning, while disciplining it against premature capture, ontological inflation, and illegitimate totalisation.