Notes on the basics of Hegel

Notes on Hegel

“The truth is the whole”. Dialectics takes on several different meanings in philosophy. To look at a proposition, a thesis, and to find its opposite, the antithesis, and to combine them to create a brand-new idea, the synthesis, therefore the truth is the whole, a dynamic thinking. Truth is not found in isolated concepts or ideas, but in their relation to the broader context of reality or history. This idea is central to his dialectical method. Hegel's philosophy, dialectics is a method for resolving contradictions or oppositions within concepts or ideas. It involves a process of negation, sublation, and synthesis that is more complex than just finding an opposite and combining it. Hegel believed that history is the story of the geist, or absolute spirit, moving through human affairs and what mankind has become made aware of. The spirit is not a passive observer of history, but an active force that drives its development for self-expression or freedom. Hegel beings with the thesis of pure being, which he then negates to arrive at the concept of non-being which is the same as everything. By definition, nothing is that of which nothing can be added to or taken away from because if one could add something to nothing it would not be nothing anymore and if one could take something away from nothing, it would not be nothing in the first place. Everything is out of which nothing can added to or taken away from as well. If you add something to everything then it was not everything and if you take something away from everything then it will not be everything anymore. The synthesis between nothing and everything is something as it is not nothing but it is not everything either, Hegel would say that the truth is the whole. This is how he sees the spirit of God moving, from absolute non-being into everything one knows and experiences. It begins with God’s spirit entering creation and unfolding through human events. Desire comes from the vastness of the empty and comes into the earliest civilizations. The geist continues to manifest itself until it reaches the Greek materialists who confused the physical and material world with God, however they had certain virtues that made them admirable. When the fullness of time had come, Christ enters creation as the manifestation of geist in the flesh. The first time in cosmic history God can know himself is accomplished through the incarnation. Ever since then, any person who partook in Christ could participate in the movement of the spirit throughout human history leading into German romanticism i.e. those who claim that there is a world beyond the physical material reality. Christianity is too wrapped in metaphor such that transcendental philosophy is necessary to truly describe reality. Once humans truly realize themselves and unite with God then it loops back into the geist that is moving through history. However, he also recognized that history is full of contradictions and conflicts that must be resolved through the dialectical method. Hegel believed that the ultimate reality or truth of the universe is the Absolute, which is a self-contained and self-determining system of thought. The Absolute is not a personal God or a transcendent reality beyond the world, but rather the highest expression of human reason and consciousness.

In religion, Hegel used dialectics as a method to understand the evolution of human consciousness and the development of religious belief systems. Hegel believed that religious beliefs and practices evolved over time through a dialectical process of conflict and resolution, resulting in increasingly complex and comprehensive religious systems. According to Hegel, the religious consciousness begins with a primitive, subjective understanding of the divine as separate from human existence. This is the initial thesis. As human consciousness develops, it begins to recognize the contradictions and limitations of this subjective understanding, leading to the emergence of an antithesis. The antithesis represents a more objective and rational understanding of the divine, in which the divine is seen as immanent within human existence. Through the dialectical process, these two contradictory positions are synthesized into a higher level of understanding, which Hegel called Absolute Spirit. The Absolute Spirit is a comprehensive understanding of the divine that incorporates both the subjective and objective aspects of religious consciousness, transcending and reconciling their contradictions. Hegel saw Christianity as the highest expression of this dialectical process of religious development, as it synthesized the subjective and objective aspects of religious consciousness in the figure of Christ. Hegel applied his dialectical method to the concept of the Trinity in Christian theology. According to Hegel, the concept of the Trinity embodies a dialectical tension between the unity and diversity of the divine. The Trinity, as traditionally understood in Christianity, is the belief in one God who exists in three distinct co-equal and co-eternal persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Hegel argued that the Father represents the thesis of the Trinity, embodying the unity of God. The Son represents the antithesis, embodying the diversity of God as a distinct person. The Holy Spirit represents the synthesis, reconciling two in a higher level of understanding and represents the community of believers, which embodies the reconciliation of the unity and diversity of God within human consciousness. However, this view of the Trinity is expressed in its economy rather than ontologically. 

    Hegel used dialectics as a method to understand the development of history and the evolution of human societies. He believed that historical progress, just like religion, was driven by a dialectical process of conflict, resolution, and synthesis between opposing forces or ideas. One of Hegel's most famous examples of dialectics in history is his theory of the Master-Slave dialectic. According to Hegel, the development of human consciousness and self-awareness begins with a conflict between two individuals in a master-slave relationship. The master has power over the slave and views the slave as an object, while the slave recognizes the power of the master and sees the master as a subject. Through the conflict between the master and slave, a resolution is achieved when the slave rebels against the master and gains their own freedom. In this rebellion, either the slave defeats the master or vice versa, either they both destroy each other, either the slave subdues the master or vice versa i.e. things stay the same, or it can result in a mutual understanding which the geist aims for. This process of conflict, resolution, and synthesis between the master and slave leads to a new synthesis, in which both the master and the slave gain a new sense of self-awareness and recognition of each other's humanity as the master recognizes his equal. This new synthesis then becomes a new thesis, leading to further conflicts and resolutions in the ongoing evolution of human societies. Hegel saw this Master-Slave dialectic as a fundamental example of the dialectical process that drives historical progress. History is a bloody affair but it builds upon the previous event and therefore the master will recognize the freedom of the slave inevitably and thus calls for the development of ethics through the recognition of both their humanities. While there is no absolute ethics throughout human history due to the constant change of ideas and culture, the ethics that a community adopts is not arbitrary, it is based on the successes and failures of earlier system, the synthesis is the geist moving throughout and progressing humanity. Therefore, the ethics that a community adopts is the right ethics as it is the best of what is available at the time. A community cannot exist without mutual understanding and the manifestation of the state is the manifestation of heaven on earth. Therefore the one who creates the community or the state is the hero and the citizens are to live an ethical and participatory living to all the duties involved i.e. being a parent, spouse, or a neighbor. To live outside the community, or only for themselves, is a victim. Then perhaps the thesis is the hero, the antithesis is the victim, and the synthesis is the citizen of the community.  Law and order are a manifestation of humanity in the historical progress. Just as a seed grows into a plant and the plant becomes a flower that produces a fruit, it is only at the end of the process that one can know what the entire process of necessary unfolding entails. The purpose of the geist is to negate the uncivilized culture and simplicity of individuality to move forward into a new reality or synthesis. Therefore, the geist, despite being a destructive force, creates as well and progress through history. Philosophy is means to understand this, the laws that govern the development of thought itself. Unlike Kant where there is a distinction between the phenomenological world created through one’s senses and the noumenal world outside the cave of Plato, the Absolute Spirit of Hegel reveals the noumenal world through the phenomenological. It was important for Hegel to not to solely look at the fruits of history but also the method to how the fruits were produced which is beyond just the seed as well. Therefore, humanity is imperfect but on the path to become more perfect which is teleological, this is history through the spirit, which is done for each individual. Therefore, the movement of the geist involves the collectivity of humanity, each human individually to become perfect for all of humanity to become perfect. The geist manifests itself through art, literature, religion, economy, and through human interactions such as friendship and family. However, one needs to understand the spirit as well. The community begins with the individual who then forms the family then forms a community then finally a nation but the previous steps are not forgotten as they are the necessary ongoing steps to creating the perfect state which is the ultimate culmination of the spirit. 

    Kant’s idealist philosophy held that there were innate ideas i.e. pure concepts of the understanding i.e. categories that were based on the logical functions of judgment. He also believed in synthetic a priori truths or laws of the understanding, things one uses as a part of their conceptualization of the world to construct the objects of experience. The objects of experience are things that one construct through their own mental activity such as receiving information from sensibility but it gets processed in a multi-stage method into objects one synthesizes. Therefore one can know things about something a prior i.e. without experience by understanding the process of synthesis. Kant depicts a thought as occurring within a mind that receives information from sensibility about the thing itself, the noumenal, and the sensibility comes through the perception to the mental concepts that are derived from experience or a priori. The mind projects this object of experience rather than the noumenal itself i.e. only an appearance that is constructed or phenomenon, the product of mental activity. An analogy for this is a projector. The mind is the projector and the information that comes into the projector, perhaps a file, is the noumenal. It gives information about what is it to be projected. It projects it onto the screen of experience. One can know something a priori about the thing that is projected by knowing something about the projector. Knowing the information about the projector and the things on the screen, what can one say about the file itself? There is no guarantee that the file obeys the laws of the projector. For example, if the projector is black and white, it does not mean that the file is also black and white or have any color at all, it could be all zeros and ones but. There is no guarantee that what is being projected is similar to the actual file. Hegel objects to this by asserting that one cannot say for certain that the noumenal is causing one to perceive things in a certain way or if it even exists. Therefore, take the noumenal out of the equation. For the a priori knowledge, that is only truth if everyone throughout existence shares the same a prior knowledge. However, how can one know if that is true? Why should one except for all humans to construct the world in the same way in all times, circumstances, and cultures? Rather, philosophy is its own time raised to the level of thought,

    “As for the individual, everyone is a son of his time; so philosophy also is its time apprehended in             thoughts. It is just as foolish to fancy that any philosophy can transcend its present world, as that an         individual could leap out of his time or jump over Rhodes”. 

There is no categorical imperative. However, Hegel is not an absolute relativist. His dialectical method describes the ways of how cultures progress, the movement of the geist. If there is reason to think that humanity will eventually attain absolute knowledge of the world, it must be because there is an understanding of the dynamic. It is not about the world but about the thinking and ideas about the world. In other words, Hegel’s dialectics is a theory of how theories change. 

It is not that sensibility does its job then followed by understanding. Ideas, sensations, and perceptions are all happening at the same time. There is no divide between concepts and percepts. Concepts shape the way one perceives the world and the perceptions are already thoroughly conceptual. If the concepts are not present, the world will not be perceived. Therefore, there is no given pre-conceptual portion of experience that one could isolate to be called sensation.