March 22nd 2016 – Modphil

Schelling: Objective Idealism “ABSOLUTE”

- An eternal act of “Self reflection/knowledge”
- The “vanishing point” of all distinctions

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-

1831)
- Born Aug 27, in Stuttgart, Germany
- Graduated from university of Tubigen
(Theology)
- Influenced by Kant, Fichte, Schelling,
Political Theory, Theology, Science,
Goethe and Holderin, Ideals of the
French Revolution” (French
revolution paradoxes were important
in the unfolding/progressive
development of reality)
- “Late Bloomer”
- Envied by Schopenhauer

- Hegel’s philosophical thought wasn’t

fully developed
- Schopenhauer envied him because he
thinks that he can be as equal as Hegel
(whenever they crossed paths, Hegel
was always the winner) – he would
always schedule his big lectures the
 same time as Hegel’s different
venues—and more students would go
to Hegel’s
- Philosophies that happened after Kant
was not genuinely philosophy, it was
merely academic subjects (-
Schopenhauer)

G.W. F. Hegel
- writings: “Science of Logic”, “The
Philosophy of Nature”, “The philosophy
of the spirit” & “the phenomenology of
“the geist””.
- Theory of “Dialectics”

- Hegel’s concerns would not be about

the individual self, but what concerns
him is society (development)
- Phenomenology of the Geist-deals
with his epistemological theory and
the progressive development of
historical self consciousness

Hegel’s Central ideas

I. Criticism on Schelling’s Absolute –
According to Hegel, Schelling’s
absolute is a meaningless concept
 because it is an excess idea. When
Schelling says that the absolute is
the vanishing point of all
distinctions—the distinction
between day and night and the
movement of day to night and
night to day is done by the
absolute—but this is not the
reality. Reality to Hegel is the
distinctions and the unifications of
the distinctions. Reality is not a
metaphysical entity is what unites
distinctions—it’s the distinctions
itself. Schelling was not straight to
the point.
II. Hegel’s idea of Philosophy (p. 166-
167) – hegel’s idea of philosophy
is to overcome distinctions, you
must understand the distinctions
but you must also overcome them.
a. It is to reconcile oppositions
through the dialectical method
b. Hegel speaks about the “finite”
and the “Infinite” – both should
not be seen as separate, but the
finite is part of the infinite. He
wanted to overcome the
 oppositions of inifinity—the finite
beings are part of the infinite
reality
III. “The truth is the Whole!” – reality
to hegel should not be seen as a
disconnected or fragmented
fashion. TO his view, reality or
truth should be seen as a
systematic totality, wherein each
and every aspect of reality is
interrelated with the bigger
picture of life. TO understand
truth, you don’t understand the
parts—you need to understand
the whole system.
a. Reality is a system of causes and
effects. If you can understand the
ultimate causes of reality, you can
understand the world.
b. The truth is not the individual, the
truth is society. Without society,
individuality cannot be made
possible.
c. The self can only be a self only in
connecting with other selves. The
true individual is not the
 individual self, but is the society
(collective consciousness)
d. Our sense of authenticity in the
existential sense is not possible
IV. Reason = Reality: “What is real is
rational and What is rational is
real” – reason is not a method to
reality, but reason goes in
conjunction with reality
a. Reality to Hegel is a rational
structure, and the rational
structure about reality can be
known through the categories of
understanding (Kant)
b. Reality can be known through the
a priori structures, but the
difference is, Kant says the
categories of the mind do not have
correspondence to reality, but are
subjective that is imposed to
reality.
c. Hegel says otherwise—the
categories are not subjective
lenses, they have correspondence
with the external reality
d. What is thought in human reason
has a connection with life
 e. Our idea of scientific laws pertains
to the scientific features of the
natural world
f. “What is rational is real” – only
the rational exist, anything
intelligible, structural, is real.
i. Ex. Gravity is rational—it’s
real. But the idea that things
oppose reality—it does not
exist in life therefore it is not
real.
g. All forms of rationality is part of
the unfolding of reality
h. Rationality can only exist in
reference to irrationality

Hegel “The Geist” (Absolute Spirit/

“Reason”)
I. “Infinite Activity/Reason”
“Unfolds” – an infinite activity that
unfolds, ascends and advances
II. act of “Self Knowledge”
“ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE” –
regarded an eternal act of self
knowledge, or absolute
knowledge per se
 - the unfolding of absolute knowledge
is revealed through the finite
advancements of reality
- our quest about knowing of life is a
manifestation of the courst of reality

GWF Hegel’s
The phenomenology (appearance) of
“The Geist” p. 181-188 – progress of
consciousness in a dialectical form. 8 levels
of consciousness. The movement/transition
from one to another is brought about by
certain contradictions, which happen in
each stage. This is determined by the
conflict of each phase.
I. (Thesis) Empirical consciousness
– subject-object relationship, is
known through the faculty of
sense or sense-certainty. The
human mind is limited to the
limited objects of sense. Does not
deal with universals, it deals with
the particular things. It does not
see things as connected but as
fragmented.
a. Sense-certainty only tells us
about the truth in reference to the
 here and now. (We are sure that
the chalk exists now, but we are
unsure if it’ll exist in the future)
b. Scientific Understanding –
physical objects of sense operate
on the laws of science. (The
human mind says that this is a
chalk—but at the same time, we
become unaware of the unseen
forces that determine the chalk
which is gravity, torque, etc).
Objects operating on the laws of
nature. It is not limited to
particulars and can give us
universals or future occurences.

II. (Anti Thesis) Self Consciousness –

just like fichte, hegel says that
awareness of physical
bodies/non-ego, is a necessary
condition for self-realization.
a. Mastery over physical and
living objects / Desire – desire
according to hegel, follows the
format of “appropriation” or the
“possession of life” – making life
part of one’s own life. When you
 desire something, you try to make
it your own property.
b. “Struggle unto death” /
“Conflict” – hell is the other.
Human beings are in a state of
nature. You want to be free, but
there are people who hinder you
from that freedom. The person
becomes an object of your will.
c. “self consciousness in only
possible through another self-
consciousness” – you want to
annihilate the other person but
when you remove that person,
you become useless since theres
no opposing conflict
d. because of domination, there will
always be more powerful beings
e. “lord and Bondsman” (“Master
and Slave Relation”) –
MasterSlave. Social recognition
is only the development of the
master-slave relation.
f. According to hegel, the master and
slave relation is only temporal
because it will lead to a sense of
domination of the slave against
 the master. The slave, even if his
marginalized, he has the desire to
alleviate himself from the
imprisonment.
g. The master is only a slave in
reference to the master—the slave
develops a false sense of real, he
tries to achieve a sense of
empowerment when he realizes
the master is only a master in
reference to the slave. The master
is not higher than the slave’s
existence but is on equal footing.
Without the slave, the master
cannot be the dominant force.
h. The slave achieves a sense of
empowerment over the existence
of the master.
i. Aside from equal footing, the slave
can empower himself through his
predicaments—
LABOR/production. Hegel sees
the laboring of the slave as a way
of achieving domination over his
predicament. When the slaves
labors/produces things, the slave
realizes that he becomes the
 owner of the objects that he
produces. Even if he is dominated
by the master, he owns the things
he makes, and not the master. He
asserts ownership of the world—
which allows him to progress
further, aside from the master.
j. “Stoicism” – “the stoic
philosophy, as Hegel views it,
assets that in my thoughts I can be
independent and free, whether I
am an emperor or a slave.” –From
Lavine’s “Socrates to Sartre the
philosophic quest”.
k. Epictetus (50-130 AD, a stoic) – is
one who achieves freedom by
seeking refuge in one’s own
mind/one’s own thoughts/one’s
private proximity. Even if you are
chained in society, you can
achieve freedom by creating your
own thoughts on freedom. A stoic
would say that I can make myself
free, I am pretending that the
Master is something else that
gives me pleasure—from there,
life becomes beautiful.
l. “Moreover, a stoic believes that
through my rational
understanding of the laws
governing the universe and
human life and my acceptance of
these natural laws as necessary
and unavoidable, I can become
strong and self sufficient
untroubled by misfortune.” –From
Lavine’s “Socrates to Sartre the
philosophic quest” – it is made
powerful by human consensus.
m. A stoic is one who achieves
freedom by realizing that he is not
free. If you submit yourself to the
laws of nature, even though they
are painful—you can achieve
enlightenment and bliss by doing
so. It is a cowardice way of
thinking.
n. The problem with stoicism, it
creates a question and
contradiction presented into
questions (is the man free”, or is
he unfree?) – thus you make a
contradiction of freedom and
unfreedom.
o. “Scepticism” “Absolute
Negation” “Self-division” –
questions the reliability of
knowledge, an absolute negation.
This then, leads to a self-division
in human nature.
p. The certain and uncertain reality
leads to the distinction leads to a
false sense of self and a true sense
of self.
q. The abstract and physical is
advocated by the “unhappy
consciousness” or the religious
consciousness—“Self-alienation”
r. Skepticism will lead to a false sens
of self and a true sense of self (the
doubter)
s. “This conception of God, he
maintains, is really a projection of
one aspect of human nature. The
unhappy consciousness realizes is
that the spiritual qualities of God,
which it worships, are in fact
qualities of its own self. It is in this
sense that the unhappy
consciousness is an alienated
soul:…” –Peter Singe (Hegel: An
 Introduction) – the problem with
the religious consciousness, it
separates the man from himself
when he creates a concept of god
(he loses his nature when he
illustrates a supreme being) –
human beings want to be perfect,
but at times they are perfect,
sometimes they are powerful, and
not powerful, they can be wise
and unwise. When man worships
or creates the Christian god—man
transfers all his positive attributes
and is linked with the Christian
god—God becomes perfect,
powerful and wise. Man, then,
retains within himself the
negative features (unwise,
imperfect, weak). God is perfect—
man is not. In that way—man
alienates himself when he
worships god.
t. Christian god—is a way of
isolating man’s essential
attributes from his ownself, and
leads to alienation.
III. (Synthesis) reason
- gradual development of
consciousness
-