10d • General discussion
Hegels Dialectic and its potential
In my last post I mentioned the Hegelian dialectic in my explanation of his unifying philosophy. Specifically, I said that his overarching idea of the Absolute invites to engage with the world dialectically.
What that actually means is what I'll tackle here.
Hegel was a German philosopher, so his terms are quite technical and don't have EXACT English translations. So, for the sake of our discussion I'll use Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis and I'll use a coin to illustrate.
The Thesis is an initial idea we have of something. As a mother of a young child, I have been going through Identification books and there is a picture of a silver coin with someones profile on it. The Thesis might be coins are silver, used for money, and have the profile of a person on them.
The Antithesis is when the internal limitations of our idea, the contradictions, become evident. So far my Baby has only ever seen a picture of a coin: circular, silver, with a profile. Eventually, she will encounter a real coin, and that coin might be copper in color and have a relief of a wagon, but when she flips it over it will have a profile like she would normally expect. When we tell her this is a coin, she will be confused: her concept does not include copper and non-profile reliefs.
The Synthesis stage is where one is able to grasp the unity of opposition and overcome the previously limited concept. When we tell our daughter this is a coin, she will have to undergo a process of updating her initial concept to include what was 5 seconds ago contradictory to the concept of a coin. Her new understanding of what a coin is, is now more complete than it wasbeliefs. Coins have a heads and tails side, and they come in different colors.
Engaging in the dialectic is a practice in philosophy, and it can be applied to much more complex ideas in which we are experiencing the Antithesis phase.
Unlike the coin example, most of the concepts that matter to our lives are not so simply updated when contradictory information challenges our perspectives.
The most relevant example in my life right now is the concept of Christianity. I grew up going to church and I had an understanding of the criteria for being considered a Christian.
In my head, to be a Christian meant to believe in the divinity of Jesus and as a result to value and live by his life and teachings.
This is not the case for a number of strains of Christianity. Catholics require certain institutionalized sacraments, Southern Baptists have a near singular focus on accepting the death and resurrection, Christian Nationalists in the United States have integrated American patriotism in to demonstrating being "truly" saved.
Confronting these elements of the faith of self proclaimed Christians has forced my concept of the religion to evolve.
Naturally the cyclical challenge and change of my understanding also challenged and changed my conception of who I was and what I believed in relationship to that label.
In the real day to day practice of the dialectic, one can expect to find that updating foundational concepts cause instability in the concepts that lean on them.
In other words, engaging in the dialectic drives ones being and becoming in the world and shapes their understanding of reality and themselves.
The contradictory information in the concept I had of Christianity resulted in updates to my concept of self and my view of history. It has also granted me a deeper understanding of the people I used to look up to, who I used to look down on, and clarity on how my limited frameworks influenced by direction in life.
Each day we have the opportunity to notice confront, and integrate information that threaten to change our conceptual framework.... and if we are dedicated to learning, it is a challenge we are obliged to accept.
How, if at all, have you seen the dialectic shape your life?
What feelings come up for you when you consider potentially updating deeply rooted conepts?
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Hegels Dialectic and its potential
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