Hegel is a philosopher of awe-inspiring, monumental ambition . His philosophy aims to incorporate the history of all previous philosophies. He conceives of this entire history as a process of completion, as all of existence, indeed the cosmos itself, evolves to full self-consciousness. There is no room in Hegel's philosophy for a God outside or beyond the universe. His system presents itself not only as the self-consciousness of the cosmos, as Absolute Knowledge, but at the same time as an expression of the thoughts of God. I believe that in the course of my own development as a philosopher, I have recapitulated and given expression to the "autobiography" of the Absolute.