Open Totality of Hegel's Absolute (original) (raw)
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Hegel's Absolute as Negativity
The Quarterly Journal of Philosophical Investigations, 2021
The relation of the many and the one, difference and identity, multiplicity and unity, particularity and universality, and finally that of negativity and negativity of negativity through reason and history is the core of Hegelian Absolute which is still an inevitable philosophical source to deal with most of the contemporary ontological problems. The article's claim consists of two parts: Absolute is internally a retrospective totality of the System, on the one hand, and it is intertwined with a prospective negativity in a reciprocal relationship, on the other hand. Therefore, Absolute would be an absolute totality and an ongoing openness to the future at the same time. This article explains how Hegel's articulation of the absoluteness is still a challenging ontological problem since it would simultaneously include both totality and negativity.
Hegel and the Spiritual Evolution of Absolute Subject
Ethics in Progress, 2021
The article interprets the methodological potential of Hegel’s speculative dialectics as a possible course of spiritual evolution of the Absolute subject. The intention is towards the method, first through the very construction of the “idea of freedom” from the point of view of Logic; second, through the constitutive function of freedom and the transition of the subjective spirit into the objective spirit; third, through the unfolding of mediation in the realms of the objective spirit. This essentially substantial methodologization dissolves the theoretical space of the idea of the mediating function of freedom as an ontological principle of ethical life. In line with the paradigm of such a course, the text considers a project of speculative ethics, a project within the framework of which the methodological and ontological sublation of spiritual evolution takes place.
An Investigation into the Systematic Meaning of Sensuous-Certainty in Hegel
Ex Animo, 2021
The quintessential characterization of Hegel's philosophy is that of a circle. In the context of his Phenomenology of Spirit, this means a kind of unity or semblance thereof between sensuous-certainty and absolute knowing. In this paper, I demonstrate the aforementioned unity through a reading of the section on sensuouscertainty, one which is mediated by the work of Jean Hyppolite and Jay Bernstein. Through this approach, I highlight several issues of metaphysical importance, viz., space, time, object, and subject, at the beginning of Hegel's text, as well as delineating an underlying ethical matter of responsibility vis-à-vis the capacity to remember.
The paper aims to focus on the subchapter on World History, both from Hegel’s Philosophy of Right and from the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, which marks the transition from the objective to the absolute Spirit within the frame of the Hegelian system. The threefold goal of the paper will be, a) to show the immanent connection between World History and the Hegelian Conception of objective Spirit and, thus, the necessity of human history within the Hegelian System; b) to elaborate on the crucial position of World History in the architectonic of the Hegelian system and, c) to bring into light and evaluate the latent tension between Hegel’s undertaking to reconstruct in a logical and necessary way the development of a subject so full of contingencies and randomness such as human history. In concrete the paper firstly will focus on the reason why World History, to wit the perpetual change and struggle between peoples and states is necessary according to Hegel. It will be argued that this perpetual struggle is not a mere given from Hegel, but intrinsically intertwined with the Hegelian understanding of objective Spirit as the perpetual activity of realizing itself. Secondly it will be shown that the reason for the transition from World History to the Absolute Spirit depends on Hegel’s view that the agents (states or world individuals) of world history are not conscious of their specific part within the development of world history. This function of self-awareness of the underlying logic of each historical phase is ascribed to Art, Religion and, ultimately, Philosophy. It is only within these realms, as the paper will further argue, that Spirit according to Hegel reaches its ultimate goal, to wit the consciousness of its freedom and its overpowering of its natural and historical limitations. Furthermore it is this function of the Absolute Spirit that sheds light to the specific systematic position of World History: World History creates the rational historical reality within which the (absolute) Spirit can recognize itself as free. In the concluding part of the paper I will try to show that the Hegelian conception of World History is ultimately not free from internal contradictions, the first of them being the aspect of necessity within his conception of world history, which actually revokes the character of world history as history completely. Furthermore Hegel’s categorization of World History shows itself as well to be problematic: Hegel’s logical argument regarding the reason of history is the perpetual self-realizing nature of Spirit’s activity. But since this activity is being retained in the final epoch of history (the Germanic World), the necessary development of history shows itself not to be justifiable from a systematic point of view. In a word, since the end of history preserves the main aspect of the Spirit, the rise and fall of states for the sake of the perpetuation of the Spirit ́s self-realizing activity, the existence of historical development of the four main worlds (Oriental, Greek, Roman and Germanic world) in the Hegelian narration of history is from a logical point of view not necessary anymore. To conclude, the paper aims to throw light into internal connections between Hegel’s understanding – and of his systematic use of World History, while hinting at the same moment at the internal limits of the Hegelian approach.
The Evolution of Consciousness and the Hegelian Dialectic in "Phenomenology of Spirit" G.W.F. Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit" is a seminal work in Western philosophy, exploring the evolution of consciousness and self-consciousness through various stages, culminating in the realization of absolute knowing. This text is crucial for understanding Hegel's philosophical system and his concept of the dialectic. In this essay, we will examine key ideas from the books of author D.P. Verene, as well as look at the main concepts surrounding Hegelian philosophy, including the notion of Geist, the master-slave dialectic, the Hegelian dialectic, and the transition to Absolute Spirit, demonstrating how these concepts contribute to a comprehensive understanding of human consciousness and historical development, leading finally to the development of self-consciousness and the realization of the Absolute.