Enlightenment thought champions reason, empirical progress, and individual autonomy, viewing knowledge as a means to liberate and improve society. In contrast, Hegel’s absolute knowledge is not a static accumulation of truths but a dynamic, historical process in which contradictions are transcended. For Hegel, enlightenment is part of the dialectical unfolding of Geist, where reason becomes fully self-aware, integrating both subjective and objective truths. Essentially, while the Enlightenment emphasizes rational clarity and individual discovery, Hegel sees the culmination of knowledge as reaching a holistic, historically situated understanding in which differences between subject and object are reconciled.