Welcome to this lecture on Aspects of Western
Philosophy, Module 24 and also Lecture number 24. This lecture is going to be on the philosophy
of one of the very important thinkers of western philosophy - Hegel. And we would focus on the following topics
in this lecture. We will first of all see the concept of Geist
or spirit, mind it is translated in various ways. Then we will concentrate on this method of
dialectics or rather we would conclude this lecture with that in between
we will discuss the concepts of being, nonbeing, and becoming; they are all inter connected
notions in Hegelian philosophy. Well, when we talk about the importance of
a philosopher in the history of philosophy, normally we consider two criteria; number
one, the contributions he or she had made to
the history of philosophy, and number two the contemporary relevance of these thinkers. So, in that sense we can see that you know
many of this traditional or even ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle are
still very important, because even today there thoughts inspire us, inspire philosophers. But when you try to understand when you try
to evaluate Hegel in the light of this criteria, I would rather say that both of them, I mean
if you consider both the aspects like the contributions to the history of philosophy,
history of thought, and history of human intellectual history, we can put it in that way the
entire human intellectual history own lot to Hegelian philosophy; Hegel as inspired
thinkers from all aspects, all intellectual disciplines. And of course, the contemporary relevance
of Hegel, there is many philosophers in the contemporary world, go back to Hegel’s thought
notable philosopher Charles Taylor and many others. And as per as Indian philosophical tradition
is concerned, there is a tendency among some Indian philosophers to
compare the Hegelian system of absolute idealism with Vedanta. So, in that sense Hegel is a very important
thinker for us and we will start with concept of Geist or absolute or spirit. But before that let us see some basic details
about Hegel, he was born on august 27th, 1770 and his association
with Friedrich Holderlin very important poet, German poet and Schelling
led him to read and spend more time on the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant. So, this association with these two great
thinkers played a very important role in Hegel’s
philosophy, and in Hegel’s intellectual development. Then he publishes first major philosophical
work, the phenomenology of spirit in 1807, there are many other works he published during
his life time, I am not going to mention about all of them, but the attempt is to understand
how a philosopher such a great thinker like Hegel as actually started his philosophical
carrier and probably in next the lecture, we will concentrate on this whole idea of
phenomenology of spirit. And we talk about the philosophical sources
of Hegel; the French Rationalism of course, is played a very important role and then comes
the British Empiricism like all thinkers of modern enlightenment philosophy or post enlightenment
thought. Hegel was also
influenced by the two Greek traditions of rationalism and empiricism and also Kant
Kant’s Transcendental Philosophy. A Kant being a German it was quire natural
that Kant would have influenced Hegelian philosophy, Hegel’s intellectual growth
in a significant manner. But whether very
interesting influence or Hegelian philosophy is Romanticism, which is a little (Refer
Time: 04:25) but at the same time we can see that you know Hegel’s attempt to totalize
everything or to develop a philosophy a totalizing theoretical frame work owes a lot to
romantic approach or romanticism. And another important contribution probability
or influence of romanticism is visible in Hegel’s attempt to spiritualize philosophy,
which is little against the kind of prevailing systems or prevailing approaches to philosophy
in the enlightenment age, because enlightenment always try to see nature as
material, but we can see that Hegel was trying to spiritualize it. So, we can see in Hegel’s philosophy all
this trends, the rationalism, empiricism, transcendentalism or critical
philosophy of Immanuel Kant, then romanticism, all this you know intellectual
developments converged in a unique manner in Hegelian system up of thought. Now, when we talk about Hegel’s task as
a philosopher, he was trying to formulate a
philosophical theory that will reach to infinity. This again a very interesting aspect
because when you talk about infinity, particularly the back drop of enlightenment
philosophy, the critical philosophy of Immanuel Kant, we have already examined in
detail that when Kant discussed the critical of pure reason, he drew a very clear line,
he said that it is impossible to think this side
of the line. You can be here, but never try to stretch
it and try to apply the categories of human thinking or rational categories to your understanding
of god or infinite reality or anything. So, in that sense enlightenment philosophy
drew a very clear line between finite and infinity; something which is finite,
something which human beings with their finite minds can understand and there is in
infinite reality which we can never probably comprehended. So, this line is something which Hegel was
trying to cross, then again formulated a totalizing philosophy that comprehends all
reality, when you talk about all reality I mean
it includes all aspects of reality or phases of reality, not just one. For instance for
enlightenment reality is constitutive of the material domain, rather ultimate real is
something which is unknowable according to Cancion philosophy, and the phenomenal
reality is something which is confined to the domains of perception concepts. So, it is
basically talks about scientific understanding, but for Hegel history is equally important like physics. So, in one sense we can say that Hegel is
historizing philosophy or rather he is a historian of philosophy, he is definitely
not the first historian of philosophy or first philosopher of history, but Hegel’s contributions
in this domain this area is phenomenal. So, in that sense we have to understand this
particular stand point that trying to develop formulate a totalizing philosophy that comprehends
all reality, the historical, physiological, creative philosophical, scientific
physical all aspects of reality into one system. A philosophy that accounts for all human experience,
the totalizing philosophy that incorporates all knowledge and wisdom
present in science history, religion, politics art and literature are all synthesized in
the unique manner in Hegelian system. So, in that sense there are some philosophers
them historians of philosophy would say that Hegel was the most perfect philosopher,
because everything converges into Hegelian system. And the influence of the romanticism is quite
visible as per as this aspect is concerned. We will have a brief look at what romanticism
is to understand to appreciate Hegelian philosophy in a more compressive
manner. It is a new movement in the realms
of literature, philosophy and arts, there are romantic poets, romantic artist who adopted
a kind of very unique and very different approach
to in nature. The relationship between man and nature, the
importance they have given to experiencing nature, the importance they have
given to emotions say for example, people like words worth. The important given to emotions, passions,
the passionate and experiential way in which you relate yourself with nature, all this
things were emphasize by to the romantic thinkers and artist. They advocated by artists and intellectuals
who rejected the enlightenment philosophy, dominated by reason,
logic and mathematics, as we have already seen enlightenment philosophy was
dominated by these aspects, reason, logic for
instance we have seen it Immanuel Kant, used literature to express the inner world of
human feelings. So, that is what I meant the world of feelings
emotions and passions where highlighted by these thinkers. They protest against the domination of science
in culture, highlighted the inability of science in exhausting, the
complexities of human experience; for instance how do you experience a flower, the beauty
of a flower its more than just having a perception concepts as Kant has mentioned
about it. There is something more than that
you experience is at part of an environment or being part of that experience. All these things are emphasized by these romantic
thinkers, it misses the totality of experiences and the feelings associated with
it and to understand the world not science but experience as it is lived. So, there is a concept of lived experiences,
which is emphasized by them and naturally there conception of reality is also drastically
different from the enlightenment conception where reality is material as I have already
mentioned, reality is spiritual nature is spiritualized by the romanticism, which you
can see patterned Hegel also. And nature is
not like Newton’s mechanical world but it is a living spirit which Hegel finds in the
conception of Geist or spirit in Hegel. The will is important and not reason because
for the enlightenment reason was the major tool
for understanding the world, but for these romanticism it is the will which plays an
important role, which does justice to the non
rational aspects of human life. The idea of polarity human thought and feeling
are characterized by a polarity, there is a
two sidedness which again figures in Hegelian philosophy in the form of in the form of contradictions,
we will see it later. And again in the pursuit of the
infinite: never get confined to one mode of thought, which is again a Hegelian. Hegel
observes these insides because for Hegel also the whole alone is true truth is the whole,
not one particular concept is only a partial truth; it can never represent the whole of
truth. The whole of truth cannot be representing
that by one concept of one mode of thinking. So, this is again Hegelian and never be static. With this understanding in the back ground,
let us come to a examine some of the important features of Hegelian philosophy,
it is an observation by Bertrand Russell says that Hegel’s philosophy is very difficult,
he is I should say the hardest to understand of
all great philosophers, probably that is truth to some extent to a philosopher like Bertrand
Russell, who subscribes to the analytic tradition of philosophy the he is more Kantian in that way, he is more mathematical in that
way, example Russell we would see later in the
in the course of this lecture series that would be appreciating more a mathematical
a scientific approach to philosophy which Hegel
is not subscribing to. Hegel’s central thought is as I already
mentioned only the whole is real, a totalizing approach this is visible in the concept of
the Geist or spirit, being the central concept which unifies everything. So, Hegel was trying to formulate a concept
which could successfully comprehend all aspects of reality
and unifies everything that can be understood and that concept is the concept
if Geist or spirit. All partial facts are
abstractions they have brought into connection with the whole in order to gain validity. So, this is again very important Hegelian
notion, that taking thinks in isolation is to
abstract them isolate them from the whole the picture of reality; reality is constituted
of the whole reality is whole, the self subsistence
of finite things is an illusion nothing can exists in isolation everything is necessarily
connected with the rest. So, this is the essence of the Hegelian philosophy
in one sense and here Russell’s face one again Hegel seeks to demonstrate nothing
exits independently of relationships against separateness, influence of mysticism
is visible in this context. This is according to Bertrand Russell, he
interestingly says that here as per as this aspect
of Hegelian philosophy is concerned is influenced by is early mistake affiliations
because Hegel started his carrier with I mean he joined a monastery and from there he learnt theology and philosophy. So, this early affiliation with mysticism
would have prompted into conceive thinks in this way
this is Russell’s opinion. Now let us come to
Hegel’s concept of reality, as I mentioned here the stress is on the whole: the complex
system comparable to an organism: against Spinoza for whom a substance is a simple or
reality is a simple substance. So, here on the one hand we can see that Hegel
was also emphasizing like Spinoza did; for Spinoza also there is only one substance
one reality that is the substance and for Hegel also there is kind of I mean he two
points to a notion of reality and notion of absolute, spirit or mind which is universal,
but the difference is that here the reference is
to a complex system which is comparable to an organism as per as a Hegelian system is
concerned. Separate things are not an illusion: according
to Hegel, each has a greater or lesser degree of reality which is not the case with
Spinoza and many others, those who are monist. But for Hegel the separate things the individual
things are not illusions and again the reality of separate things consist in
them being an aspect of the whole. So, at the
same time Hegel emphasizes on the importance of the whole. So, the individual gains its meaning and its
significance only in connection with its being meaning full part of the whole, the whole
is the absolute. So, there are concepts, these
are the some of the concepts very important concepts which Hegel introduces in his philosophy, the concept of absolute; absolute
mind, spirit, Geist and there are several terms which Hegel uses in this context. And again this reality for Hegel again its
very interesting to note this difference, the
difference between the conceptions of reality advocated by Hegel and how he as
formulated it as oppose to the enlightenment conception. In enlightenment conception
for example, the Kantian view of reality the phenomenal world is a world of causing
effect, though this is something which the mind attributes to the world that is true
we are the lawgivers according to a Kant, but at
the same time it is governed by a cause effect relationship, the phenomenal world is governed
by a cause effect relationship which to some extent Hegel also accept but he makes
a major deviation here. He says that it is governed by the principle
of teleological causality. So, here is very
close to Aristotle. Aristotle also has a conception of theology
that everything as a purpose, a higher purpose to be realized and
there are two principles which are relevant in Aristotelian philosophy, at potentiality
and actuality and in the process of change according to Aristotle every change is evolution
we have already seen it in one of our previous lectures. Since every change is an evolution, in the
process of evolution what happens is that an object realizes, materializes
its potentialities or actualizes the potentialities. So, here again something like that we can
see that everything progresses to words what the absolute according to Hegel. So, governed by the principle of teleological
causality and not just mechanical efficient causality,
the meaning of each stage is realized in the whole which is rational. And again a revision of the conception of
rationality which is advocated by the modern philosophers by a
large and particularly the enlightenment thinkers like Kant, to overcome Kantian separation
of noumena and phenomena. Because if you approach reality with the Kantian
model, then it is impossible to know the noumena there is a clear separation as
I have already mentioned a line is gone between noumena and phenomena, something which
you can know and the reality which you can never know that is because Kant and
the enlightenment philosophers advocated a very peculiar conception of rationality
by means of which reality is comprehended. This rationality has two aspects I have already
mentioned it in the my previous lectures the percepts and concepts, with the interaction
of these two reality the phenomenal world is revealed, but something which lies beyond
that the nominal reality can never be known, but Hegel was consciously making an
attempt to overcome this dichotomy to know noumena and that is why the principle
of teleological causality is important in Hegelian system, its identification spirit
as activity. So, reality it is being identified as a spiritual
phenomena as an activity not as a static thing, but as an activity which comprehends
everything even the comprehending mind even the mind which understands it. So, also part of that. So, it encompasses everything
the conception of reality and then again there we can see Aristotle’s influence where
identification of the fully substantial being with spirit which is in essence is activity. So,
here also we can see that reality or the absolute or the spirit the absolute mind is
conceived as an activity, as a process which progressively takes us to the reason to the
infinity. Again things have meaning, the process is
rational there is a rational order. So, this is
another important feature of Hegelian thought, that he says that this process by means of
which reality excess, reality itself is a process it is not a static entity. But it is a process a dynamic process, but
this process has a meaning it is teleological and
also it is a rational process, it is a process of rational: unfolding we can mentioned in
that way. The whole is like an organism that is rational
purposive and with full meaning. Again the Kantian approach is not suitable
to know it, because the Kantian approach will never accept this comprehensive perspective,
for Kant there is always a separation the subject in object are different for Kant. For Hegel the subject and object can never
be different both are comprehended or both are encompassed by the single reality called
the absolute, then again Kantian rationality is insufficient in knowing this process because
Kantian rationality employs the 12 categories of understanding which limits everything
to a certain structure which is provided by the mind transcendental a perception,
which is not acceptable for Hegel. Now let us come to the Kantian problem because
we have being discussing about Kant and Kantian model of rationality a lot. Let us see what happens here, the ego, the
mind, because we have already seen that Kant was I mean it is being stated that Kant is
initiating a kind of Copernican revolution in
philosophy and this Copernican revolution consists in placing the subject, the mind,
the ego at the center of the knowing activity. As I have already mentioned in this lecture
sometime back that we are the low givers of the universe; this is the Kantian position. Now, what is this ego, the law giver? Ego or mind according to Kant is the condition
of the possibility of things appearing to the
subject. So, this is the Kantian position it is a
precond that is why it is called transcendental critical philosophy because it talks about
the condition of the possibility of things appearing to the subject and again ego is
an abstract account of the forms of thought or
categories of understanding. So, Kantian ego can be understood in terms
of this, an abstract account of the forms of
thought or categories of understanding, there are 12 categories of understanding
according to Kant. So, Kantian ego can be equated with that the
empirically ego can be equated with that and again reason for in
that frame work is a faculty of the soul or ego
constituted of a combination of principles forms or rules according to which we think. So, these qualities, quantity, modality and
relations, these 12 categories would enable to
us to think in a particular way. So, the world as such can never be known but
we understand by attributing certain principles
and loves from our side to it, that is the Kantian peculiarity. And mind is separated from the world as I
mentioned mind is the lawgiver of the world. So, it is not only epistemologically different
from the world, but is also under logically different from the world,
forms of thought mind from what they are forms of the world. So, Kantian philosophy introduces several
such categories, there is the mind the domain of the ego, the lawgiver, the forms of thought,
then there is a world the phenomenal world what we know and there is a nominal
domain of reality which will never know. So, these are all various aspects of Kantian
philosophical systems. And again the problem is that there is a gap
between mind and the world, there is a gap between the mind and the world here which
can be better articulated by separating the phenomena with the noumena. The noumena reality is constitutive of higher
realties which can never be known and the phenomenal
reality is something which is spatial temporally given to us which we experience. So, this gap between noumena and phenomena
is actually the gap between mind and the world and the problem of the noumena or things
in themselves which can never known, things in themselves can never be known again
problem of antinomies which we have already discussed when we try to apply this
categories of understanding to the nominal world or entities in the nominal world reality
as such say for example, when we try to understand the soul about which we do not
have percepts. But we try to categorized it without having
percepts, we are ultimately bound to end up with antinomies where you have certain contradictory
statements which apparently both of them seen to be equally valid. And now Hegel’s phenomenology of spirit
attempts to give an alternate account of this relationship
and show how that this gap can be overcome. So, this is what ultimately tries to say the
phenomenology of the mind or phenomenology of spirit, which basically talks about the
evolution of the human mind from through several stages to the ultimate stage where
it reaches the absolute or which there it realizes
in the absolute. So, this process will examine in detail in
next lecture. So, it is here with this work Hegel tries
to overcome the distinction between nominal or
phenomenal realities. And when we talk about Kantian philosophy
Hegelian thought. Kant we had seen already that was influenced
by the physical sciences and thinking is confined to the scientific
level that is why he has this model of thinking which is constitutive of percepts and concepts. Then again contradictions in thinking are
inevitable at this level because you have you
are limited to the perception concepts and when you are trying to apply this to a world
which is apparently not limited or not confined to any of this constraints, then you are
bound to end up in contradictions. Hegel on the other hand adopts the approach
of historian this is what I mentioned earlier
that there is an approach of an historian historical approach in philosophy, thinking
as an activity of spirit or reason and not confined to the scientific level and he rises
above contradictions to their synthesis. So,
that we will see in the later part of this lectures, the concept of synthesis which is
the culmination of dialectical process. Now, Hegels view of reason we can see that
reason is the law according to which being is produced constituted and unfolding, he
has a very an extremely comprehensive concept of rationality or reason, where it
is a low according to which being is produced the entire reality is not different from reason. So, rational and real are one and the same. So, later on Hegel would proclaim real is
rational and rational is real. It is constituted and unfolded in reason and
both subjective faculty and objective reality are constitutive
of this reason, see this is again a very important deviation from the enlightenment
conception. In the enlightenment conception we have seen that there is a subject and the
object they are different from each other and
they are constitutive of different realities; on teleological different. a epistemologically
different but in Hegelian system both the subjective and the objective faculties are
constitutive by reason. See reason according to Hegel, is a subjective
faculty as the essence and norm of our thinking or our thought, the way in which
we think what are our thinking itself is and on
the other side it is an objective reality as the essence and law of the evolution of
things. We have seen this all notion of categories
of thinking, when we have discussed Kantian philosophy and Hegel also was interested in
this idea of categories, the categories of human thinking, but the major difference is
that for Hegel these categories of thinking are not just subjective elements of our thinking
as Kant it is not just subjective elements. But these categories of thinking are according
to him the categories of reason itself and reason according to him as I already mentioned
encompasses comprehends everything, it involves everything. So, in that sense they are the basic law of
the universe of reality as such, are also modes of being of the things
themselves. So, the categories of thinking are
not only the subjective elements which we posses, but are also the modes of being. So,
he is anthologizing them in one sense we can say. Not empty frames, the categories are
not just empty frames which receive their concerns sorry which receive their contents
from without but are substantial forms that give themselves their own content. See for instance in Kant, this categories
are empty frames and Kant himself says that percepts without concepts are blind and concepts
without percepts are empty. So, these
categories remain empty if they are not provided with percepts from without, but for
Hegel they are not so without by their substantial forms, the categories of thinking are
substantial forms that give themselves their own content. Both the forms which mould my thought and
the stages of eternal creation, the categories and here we can see that there are certain
very clear objections waste against Kant’s idea
of pure concepts in limiting the number of concepts, Kant as said that it is 12 and Hegel
opposes this conception in limiting them to the use of sensory experience Kant would
say that sorry Hegel would say that, the categories of thinking should be employed in
order to know the whole of reality and then again in limiting the knowledge gained by
the categories to the status of appearance, the division can maintains between phenomena
and noumena. Phenomenal realities the only reality which
we can know with the help of these categories and according to Kant these
categories, these phenomenal reality the phenomenal realities are mere appearance,
reality as such can never be known. So, in that sense Kant has confined limited
what we experience to the domain of mere appearances and you opposes the deduction
of categories in terms of empirical enumeration of pure categories. So, here again we can see categories of thinking
there is a distinction are not separate from but are intimately connected with each
other even in Kant and he attempted an a priori deduction of the categories, an empirical
enumeration of pure concepts which Hegel opposes. For Hegel these categories of thinking are
transformation of one and the same fundamental category, the idea of being. Because for Hegelian philosophy in the true
sense of the term there is only one reality which encompasses everything that is the idea
of being and not just empirical enumerations but real deduction which Hegel
aims it and in order to deduce them in the real sense, Hegel wants us to just leave them
just allow them to unfold and observe what is happening, this point onwards we can try
to understand what constitutes Hegel’s method. Number one, Hegel was trying to build upon
Kant, he retains Kant’s idea of the primacy concepts have our sense impressions. Concepts are important in Kant for Hegel also
concepts are retain their primacy our sense impressions but in a very significantly
different way. Again to build upon the Romantics: extend
the use of rational concepts to understand the vast variety of experience
and knowledge in psychology religion, history, culture, literature and art. So, here we can see a emerging of Kantianism
with romanticism; the Kantian categories which are rational and the romantic approach
of reality as a whole, to which incorporates all aspects of reality, psychology, religion,
history, culture literature and art. And again to construct a new theory of reality
a new metaphysics; so, in this context we can examine the metaphysical task of Hegel. It is to bring the vast reaches of the human
spirit into unification in one theory. So, everything that human spirit endeavors
to or everything that the human spirit covers in
encompasses to bring them into one theory. To bring together the totality of concepts
used in the vast stretches of all knowledge, all
the arts in sciences, religion, political thought and history, which we have already
seen the totalizing tendency in Hegelian philosophy. All these aspects of reality are brought
under the concept of absolute Spirit, the Geist which is rational. So, in that sense the concept of Geist or
spirit or even we can even translate it as mind,
because the German word Geist means spirit, mind or soul and for both spirit and mind
Germans use the word Geist. And for Hegel it is both rational and rationally
comprehensible. We can also understand it for Kant there is
an important difference here for Kant it belongs to the domain of ideas
which we can never understand, but here it is
both rational and rationally comprehensible, in logical structure, in natural science and
in historical progress. So, it is the Geist is manifested in all the
aspects of life, in logical structures, in natural
sciences and also in the process of history, the same spirit, the same Geist is manifested. To show that thought and the matter of thought
are not separate the separation was made by all a epistemologist subject and object,
the epistemological traditions both rationalism and empiricism emphasize on this distinction,
but Hegel was trying to sort of overcome this, to show that thought and the matter
of thought are not separate, forms of thought arise historically through the interaction
of subject and object. So, again this interactive aspect is emphasize
by Hegel because he is approaching philosophy from the perspective of a historian,
reality as a whole including nature, humanity, history is shaped by and is a manifestation
of Geist, mind or spirit. So,
everything every reality every aspect of reality, every spirit of reality is nothing but a
manifestation of Geist or spirit. It exhibits self consciousness or self articulation,
and the manifestation of the self- consciousness of
Geist: in psychology history, religion, drama, art and philosophy. So everything, every human endeavor, the manifestation
of this spirit is visible according to Hegel. And in this context he proclaims that, the
real is rational and the rational is real. The
absolute spirit or god is the ultimate reality. Reality is a complex totality of rational
concepts constituting absolute spirit or god. Again the real is the rational and the rational is real. The totality of thought is absolute and infinite
unlike the finite minds of human beings. Geist is the objective mind. So, here he makes a distinction between the
objective mind and the finite subjective minds of we human beings. Or minds are finite, which tries to understand
the infinite mind, and this understanding is possible because
our finite the so called finite mind is nothing but a manifestation of that universal
mind. We are now going to discuss that aspect in
the next lecture, when we discuss the phenomenology was spirit. But the point here to be noted is that reality
is a complex totality of rational concepts constituting
absolute spirit of or god. So, there is nothing
else but only these rational structures. And here there is a very interesting code
from Alfred Webbers books, we he says high court; according to Hegel, the common source
of the ego and of nature does not transcend reality. So, in one sense he advocates a kind of immanent,
which is Aristotelian, it is imminent in it. Mind and nature are not aspects of the absolute,
or a kind of screen, behind which an in different
and lifeless God lies concealed, but its successive modes. The absolute is not immovable, but active
it is not the principle of nature and of mind, but is itself successively
nature and mind. The succession, this
process this perpetual generation of things, is the absolute itself. So, everything is included under the notion
of absolute. So, let us discuss Hegel’s absolute idealism
in this context. Reality according to Hegel is
rational, conceptual totality and an integrated and total structure of conceptual truths. So,
it is the totality of the conceptual truth reveals itself in all areas of human experience
and knowledge which I have already mentioned any
aspect of human life, you take any aspect any sphere any domain of human life
in all such aspects you know you can see the manifestation of this absolute. Reality is rational; the vast structure of
rational concepts that include all areas and again the real
is rational, but not different from what is existent. Naturally there could be we can ask the question
all that exist in front of us: the events, historical events, the material things, how
can you say that there are rational? What is he
says what Hegel says that, when you say real is rational and rational is real; the ratio
real is rational but not different from what is
existent. He only says that the rational is the
existent object more deeply understood, the rational structures need to be understood
for that you have to really go to the depth. So, a deeper understanding of reality reveals
the rational structures of it, again the deeper understanding of the vast realms of physical
and organic nature and of society, of history, of psychology, of everything reveals
the rational structures. Rational concepts
are not independent or transcendental apart from the concrete world like Plato for
example, for Plato the rational ideas on independent of it, but for him it is not so. So,
here you can see an aspect of Aristrotinilism, rational concepts constitute their rational
core of the world of things. Reality is knowable; its rational structures
are knowable. Since human reason and reality
share the same rational structure our finite man can know the infinite reality. This is
against the Kantian idea, the Kantian separation between noumena and phenomena. The
absolute mind incorporates all differences. So, in that sense the absolute mind is a unity
in diversity, because it includes everything, even contradictions are part of it. The absolute reality manifest itself to us
in ordinary experience, in logic and natural sciences, in psychology, politics and history,
in painting, poetry and architecture and in religion and philosophy. All aspects of life, everywhere, what is revealed,
what is manifested are the absolute reality; the one
and the same absolute reality. And its rational
structures, its rational structures are revealed to us because we also passels that rational
structure or mind has that ability to think. This actually takes us to the problem of
dialectical method. The absolute being and logic, the absolute
being is the common root of the categories of
pure concepts it is the empties and at the same time, the most comprehensive reality. It is
emptiest because it is not anything for example, quote and quote it is not quote and quote
something or quote and quote some specific entity, which can be determined which can
be limited. So, in that sense it is empty, but at the
same time it is most comprehensive reality because it is everything, something which
is everything cannot be something that is a
actually the a contradiction which later on Hegel resolves with a concept of synthesis. The most abstract and the most real, the most
elementary and the most exalted notion, all are concepts expressing modes of being and
are transformation of the idea of being. So,
everything all are concepts all that exists outside everything is the mode of a (Refer
Time: 43:26) of this absolute reality. .
Now, what is the nature of being? How does being, which is everything, becomes
anything else? This is the problem which I just mentioned,
something which is everything the Geist the spirit includes everything,
it involves everything, and it encompasses everything. Something which is everything cannot be something,
how can it be something then? A virtue of what principle or inner force
is it modified into something so that, we can determine what it
is. How does being which complete and static,
initiate, movements, is so that it can become something? See, in order to become something there should
be a movement and movement presupposes what a space to move. But the concept of being includes
everything and there is no space left even that is also part of it. So, how can you conceive
of a movement which should make the absolute something? Being is the most universal notion and hence
the poorest, and the emptiest since it is the
most universal it cannot be anything specific, it cannot be anything determinate, it
becomes totally indeterminate because it is everything, something which is everything
cannot be something. To be something it needs to be determined
as a thing. But being is
by definition indeterminate. If you define it or determine it as one thing
then it is not everything, but being without any determination
is non-being. So, that is the paradox here, on the one hand
since being is the most universal and the most complete it is also for the same reason
it is the poorest and the emptiest. In order to
become something it has to limit itself, which means that it as to seem to be being since
it is being it cannot be something. But being without any determination is what
non-being. Being pure and simple is
equivalent to nonbeing. It is both being and not being both itself
and its opposite which is under normal circumstances philosophers consider
this as a paradox. This as a
contradiction which cannot be entertained, because philosophers or logicians are again
such contradictions, but Hegel says that wait hold on this is not the time to say that you
know contradictions are to be opposed because constitutions constitute the very core of
reality according to Hegel. So, he introduces the concept of becoming,
it is both and immoveable and barren thing and for that reason nothing or not being because
it is both it becomes something and the contradiction contained in being is resolved
in the notion of becoming or development. So, there is being and non-being and this
contradiction between being and non-being because this being is at the same time being
and not being a contradiction and this contradiction involves a tension, this tension
initiates a movement and as a result the contradiction content in being is resolved
in the notion of becoming, or development. Becoming is both being and non-being: both
are contained and reconciled in notions of becoming. So, as a result what happens something else
evolves it become something, and when it become something again the problem
is that a new contradiction results, which is
resolved by a new synthesis and so on until we reach the absolute idea. So, here we can see notion of dialectics. So, Hegel was interestingly proposing that
we should reach the absolute through contradictions,
contradictions are not something which we should be afraid of, or we should completely
refrained our self from, but contradictions are the very core of reality,
contradictions are the very core of human thinking, once you approach human thinking,
once you approach rationality human rationality and once you approach reality
historically this thing would be very clear. Each contradiction is reconciled in a unity
a synthesis, this is what Hegel says; and this is
contradicted further and then synthesized in another unity, contradictions and unity
is go on disappearing and reappearing in the process
of development until resolved in the final unity of the absolute idea. So, it is something like you have a contradiction
between two opposing ideas and as a result there is a
third idea which is the result of a synthesis of
this two opposing ideas and this synthesis itself forms an idea, it assert something
and automatically generates its contradiction. So, the thesis then becomes or the thesis
automatically generates its antithesis. So, you
have thesis and antithesis which would generate a synthesis and once the synthesis is
generated, the synthesis itself becomes a thesis, asserts itself as a position, which
generates its own antithesis owing to its limitations and finite nature; anything finite
is incomplete. So, any finite thesis is bound to generate
its opposition or its antithesis and then which would ultimately result in a creative
conflict of these two a contradiction, which will generate a synthesis, which would
again become a thesis, synthesis, antithesis synthesis. So, it goes on and on and finally, reaches
the infinity or absolute idea. Now contradictions; exist not only in thought,
but also in the things themselves, this is what Hegel says. It is not just confined to human thinking
or thought, but objects the world itself the reality itself is composed
of or its constitutive or such contradictions, antinomies pointed out by Kant are natural
they lie in reason and in reality contradictions lie in the nature of reason and since reality
itself is reason or rational, reality is also bound to be constitutive of contradictions. Contradiction found in the idea of being is
resolved in the notion of becoming. So, you have concepts of being, non-being
and becoming, thesis, antithesis and synthesis. In the process of becoming being determines
itself explains the process of historical development and the development
of human thinking as well, the dialectical element in thought and reality, the dialectic
is manifest in every phenomena natural, organic political and historical. So, in all aspects of life in all spheres
of life reality can be seen as manifestation of this
dialectical. It constitutes the moving soul of scientific
progress, we can see that a scientist or a scientific theory is being
advanced, since it is a definite finite scientific conceptualization, it is bound to generates
its antithesis its opposition and in that creative
conflict between this thesis and antithesis the opposition, the conflict a synthesis a
better a mature theory evolves and in that way science
progresses. So, human thinking
progresses through dialectical process. Contradictions are the motive force of all
reality, the principle of all movement and of all activity
we find in reality and they are not unthinkable according to Hegel because thinking
itself constitute the very core structure of thinking itself. And contradiction is the root of all life
and movement, because without contradiction everything would become static, everything
tends to change or pass into its opposites. Without contradictions everything would be
dead existence, static externality nothing would be happening but everything would be
static without that. And again it suggests
that no single concept represents the whole truth, truth is the whole the position which
we began with this lecture that the whole alone is true. All concepts are partial truths, and when
we talk about contradictions and their overcoming, truth like rational reality is
a living process constituted by the entire system
of concepts; nature does not stop at contradictions, but overcomes it. So, what Hegel was
trying to argue is that though there are contradictions in nature in human thinking, there
are contractions in reality nature or realty does not stop with contradictions. There is always a tendency to overcome which
evened of contradiction to a higher form synthesis then again it encounters a contradiction
over there which is again synthesized or which is again overcome and the process
take us to absolute infinity. The process
encounters contradictions and overcome them and resolves all of them in the absolute. Reason can capture this moving reality with
the application of the method of dialectic. So the dialectical method, which is a method
suggested by Hegel to understand this process; dialectical method basically suggest
that reason is not a static faculty of the human mind; it is the product of our social
heritage the historical development of our social group. So, this is where you know the historian in
Hegel is relevant in understanding his philosophical concept. So, he says that reason is the product of
our social heritage, the historical development
of our social group and reason encounters contradictions and proceed by synthesizing
them in that process. And dialectical thinking is a process that
seeks to do justice to moving living organic existence. So, this is something which Hegel talks about
reality, it is not a static entity it is living dynamic moving reality. What is dialectic? Dialectic is a very old philosophical
concept which is present in ancient Greek tradition, the pre-Socratic thinkers themselves
have discussed about it or the element of dialectic is visible in there thinking as
well. Say for example, when ancient Greek thought
talked about the theory of four elements: earth, water, fire and air, where reality
is composed of earth and air which are sort of
contradictions; fire and water which are also in a position, but these apparently
contradicting or opposing elements when they come together they constitute or reality. So, this conception of dialectic is present
even in the thinking of the ancient Greek philosophers and the history of dialectics
Socrates is plays a very important role and also
Plato, because Socrates uses dialectic is employs it the use of argument in order to
make the opponent contradict himself, we have already
examined this in the process of Socrates dialogues, what happens is Socrates
persistently raises certain questions and in
that process make his opponent contradict. So, the contradictions are exposed in that
process. So, you make you are on or rather the concepts
which you hold as true to contradict themselves and then realize that
there is some problem in it, in the whole process of thinking. But Hegels concept of dialectic is its different
it is rather richer than any of the other consists because he consist it as synthesis
of opposites, every concept we have has limitations and hence will pass over into
its opposite a negation of itself. So, in one sense
the contradictions according to Hegel we have already seen is a principle, the very core
of reality. So, in that sense the scope of contradictions
of the scope of dialectic is rather infinite in Hegel’s philosophy. But when it comes to reason, he understands
it in this way every concept or every preposition which we
assert has its limitations. And hence will pass over into its opposite
a negation of itself. It is a process which
consists of three stages or moments thesis antithesis and synthesis which I have already
explained, the three moments of dialectic is the dialectical process move from a first
stage by proposing thesis, say for example, the entire universe revolved around earth
which is a geocentric view of Ptolemy. So, here antithesis proposed and vacated,
but since any and every position every concept or every thinking concept is bound to be partial
and incomplete. The thesis which is
advocated that the entire universe revolves around earth Ptolemy is bound to generate
its own antithesis, which says that this is not
true; it is not true that the entire universe revolves around earth owing to the finite
nature and finite feature of any single proposition or any single concept. Now there is a thesis and antithesis. So, the dialectical process moves from a first
stage by proposing a thesis, this moves to a second
stage which negates opposes or contradicts the first and thus initiates an antithesis
it is not the case. And now we have in the history
of astronomy Copernicus, who proposes a helio centric view which is much advanced
view a mature view than the geocentric view of Ptolemy. This opposition is overcome by
a third stage in which the opposing stages are synthesized. The opposition stage of
Ptolemy is view, and not Ptolemy. Ptolemy and not Ptolemy are synthesized in
Copernicus. So, in one sense we can say that Copernican
view the synthesis presupposes both thesis and antithesis, antithesis presupposes the
thesis. So, all this things are interconnected in
that way. So, if you concentrate or if you focus on
only one of them you seem to think that this is a contradiction this needs to
be avoided, but Hegel would say that this is
possible because of that. So, there is an interconnected less between
these things, in synthesis a new concept emerges as a higher
truth which transcends the thesis and the antithesis. So, the three functions of the synthesis number
one to cancel the conflict between thesis and antithesis, because between Ptolemy and
not Ptolemy. The conflict between these
two needs to be canceled by Copernican view, which is much superior to preserve or
retrain the element of truth within the thesis and antithesis and then the third one, is
to transcend the opposition by sublimating the
conflict into a higher truth. So, the higher
truth is the Copernican truth which is which asserts a helio centric view. And let us conclude here our discussion on
this; if you examine this process we can see that this process of dialectic of encountering
contradictions and overcoming them of having thesis, antithesis and synthesis involves
the process of in negation, preservation, and elevation. So, what happens a thesis that is initiated
is negated, example Ptolemy is geocentric view is negated, it is not Ptolemy
we can put it in this way symbolically Ptolemy and not Ptolemy. By the Ptolemy’s view by virtue of being
a finite assertion, a partial assertion generates its own antithesis, automatically generates
its own antithesis. Now the synthesis
preserves both thesis and antithesis in Copernican view Ptolemy’s preserved in terms of
being what made the former possible. Copernican view was possible or rather
Copernicus even conceived of such a problem because of Ptolemy and not Ptolemy. Because of the thesis and the antithesis which
was initially initiated. The synthesis was
made possible because of the thesis and antithesis. So, in that sense it is not only negated,
but also preserved. And then there is another stage the synthesis
also elevates as the new account is superior to both the thesis and
the antithesis. So, in that sense the dialectical process
involves these three stages, negation, preservation and elevation. We will discuss these aspects, and some of
the other details relating to these aspects. And some of them other important dimensions
of this dialectical method in the next lecture, were
we would also be examining the concept of spirit, the phenomenology of spirit in a different
way. So, we will wind up this lecture
here. Thank you.
