15d • General discussion
Modern Dissatisfaction and Hegel
Hegel, who lived 1770-1831, is notoriously one of the most difficult philosophers to read. Likely, this is because his philosophy aimed to unify what seemed inherently incompatible.
So why did I choose to write about Hegel today? Because we are living, at least I am living, in a world with so much contradiction and tension that it is disorienting.
On our day to day there are people purporting to have the truth about this or that, they all contradict each other, the figures themselves seem hypocritical, and it contributes to the flurry already plaguing our mental space.
Hegel's philosophy stands out to me today because the distress we are feeling in the face of contradiction and confusion supports the notion of our minds being unified with the world we are observing.
Hegel wrote with the intent to unify everything in to the Absolute, attempting to solve the one-many problem that stretches back to Plato.
The essence of the One-many problem is this:
Ideals, or perfection, are the concepts and structures which govern Reality, logic, and our perception. While the material/distinct world must participate in this One-logic, often referred to as God, to carry out its distinction. For example a tree is a tree because it fits in to the definition we have for tree... the definition is conceptual and categorical, but the material tree depends on that immaterial category for us to perceive it as a tree.
You may have heard of Kant's concept of apriori knowledge, a truth that is known through pure reason, by existing within the immutable logic of Reality.
For Kant, it is this apriori structure which makes experience possible but is distinct from knowledge which is a posteriori and requires experience to attain. Returning to the tree example, the a priori knowledge is that the tree can be categorized, while the actual categorization of the tree requires a posteriori knowledge of the object through experience.
Where Kant sees the attainment of knowledge as a stepwise process with distinct aspects and knowable knowledge as limited/discrete, Hegel's philosophy seeks to overcome those limits, identifying the logic of the universe as all encompassing rather than fragmented.
Where Kant would require inquiry for the sake of pinning down one thing on itself, Hegel's dialectic allows us to grapple with reality as it presents itself so that we may understand it as it IS.
Where Kant's outlook necessitates a process of collecting stagnant facts of the world out there, Hegel encourages us to be dialectically engaged with the world because Truth encompasses ourselves AND what we are perceiving as separate from us. Furthermore, Hegel rejects the notion that the facts "out there" are stagnant, and instead posits that history and the spirit evolve in relationship to each other.
Hegel assures us that our discombobulation is not a flaw due to inadequate fact gathering, but rather an invitation to dialectical practice where the self and the world can be understood in the contex of the mileu we find ourselves in.
In many ways, I see a kinship between C. Wright Mills and Hegel: the Sociological Imagination and Hegels Dialectic each ask the subject to expand their perspective in order to better know themselves, to better know themselves in order to expand their perspective.
This process of regularly zooming in and out has great potential for grounding us in our lives. It helps us consider where we are, how we got here, and where we want to go: as individuals and as communities.
Have you structured your thought more like Kant in the past?
Do you think we have a cultural bias to think in the Kantian framework?
Do you see value in the dialectical approach of Hegel? For yourself and society at large?
I'm so excited to hear what you think!
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Modern Dissatisfaction and Hegel
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