The Epistemology of Hegel's Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit
In his Phenomenology of Spirit, G.W.F. Hegel lays out a process by which one may come to know absolute truth. This process shows a gradual evolution from a state of "natural consciousness" (56) (1) to one of complete self-consciousness - which leads to an understanding of the "nature of absolute knowledge itself" (66). By understanding the relation between consciousness and truth, one may come to know the true nature of our existence. Hegel proposes to answer these questions in one bold stroke; he relates them in such a way as to make an infinitely complex and indiscernible universe a unitary whole. This process from a natural state to a kind of transcendence leads one from the chaos of the immediate to the sublimity of the universal.
Consciousness begins as what Hegel calls "a natural consciousness" (56). That which is known to this consciousness "will prove to be knowledge only in conception, not in reality" (56). This kind of consciousness assumes knowledge of reality that is often refuted. Hegel says, "since natural consciousness does forthwith think it really knows, it views its own experiential course in a negative light, taking the very realization of its conception to be instead its own loss" (57), demonstrating the frailty of this method of thought.
To respond to this shortcoming of consciousness, some might attempt to find an absolute absolved from one-sidedness, from sheer relativity to the knowing subject. Others will not respond this way, however, instead spinning off into apathy, subjectivism, or nihilism (59). Those who do attempt to find an objective truth most often turn to science. Some have suggested that the intellect is an ...
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...s to relate to that reality at all. Thus as one comes to be fully aware of consciousness, one becomes fully aware of absolute reality.
Hegel describes a way by which one may come to know absolute truth. This process shows a transition from a state of "natural consciousness" (56) to one of complete self-consciousness - which leads to an understanding of the "nature of absolute knowledge itself" (66). By understanding the relation between consciousness and truth, one may come to know the true nature of our existence. Thus, Hegel answers these questions in one bold stroke; he relates them in such a way as to make an infinitely complex and indiscernible universe a unitary whole. This whole is not only total self-consciousness, but also total awareness of absolute reality.
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* Page References are to the unpublished translation by Peter Fuss and John Dobbins.
In sections 190-193 of Georg Wilhelm Fredrich Hegel’s Phenomenology of Sprit, Hegel looks into the relationship between the lord and the bondsman. In this examination of the relationship, Hegel makes the move to find out what both the lord and bondsman offer to each other in terms of existence and or identity. The formulation that Hegel made in the selected sections is that the bondsman had more to gain in terms of intellectual growth than his lord who becomes intellectually dormant due to the bondsman acting in the likeness of his lord.
In her novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee portrays a town in southern USA, plagued by the disease known as prejudice. Throughout the novel, the reader observes prejudice to 3 characters: Atticus Finch, who appears old and weak, and his own family regards him as a disgrace, without knowing why Atticus defended Tom; Arthur (Boo) Radley, is looked down on by society, illustrating how society can twist someone’s image although the only real fact that society has of him is him getting arrested for disorderly conduct and assault; and Dolphus Raymond, who is misunderstood as an uncivilized drunkard, showing that society judges on first appearances, without actually finding the truth of his actions.
The major characters in The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison were Pecola Breedlove, Cholly Breedlove, Claudia MacTeer, and Frieda MacTeer. Pecola Breedlove is an eleven-year-old black girl around whom the story revolves. Her innermost desire is to have the "bluest" eyes so that others will view her as pretty in the end that desire is what finishes her, she believes that God gives her blue eyes causing her insanity. She doesn't have many friends other than Claudia and Frieda. Throughout the book we see how Pecola is picked on by other children her age and then later on abused by Cholly, her own father. Her mother doesn't care for her either her actions toward Pecola are not without contempt. Cholly Breedlove is Pecola's drunken father. He has never known a loving family; his father deserted him and his mother who then left him to die in a garbage can. His great aunt saves him and raises him until her death, which occurred when Cholly was only thirteen or fourteen years old. Cholly himself deserts his family, not physically but he is always in a drunken state and doesn't provide the family with the barest necessities. Cholly dies alone in a warehouse. Claudia MacTeer is the main narrator in the story. She is about nine years old when they story takes place, she is remembering the story. Claudia is black and doesn't see anything wrong with that. She isn't like the other girls who think it would be better if she was white, she doesn't buy into that idea, she destroys the white dolls that she receives for Christmas. Claudia has learned from her mother how to be a strong black female and express her opinion in a white dominated society. Frieda is a lot like her sister and had the same morals imposed on her by her mother. Frieda is about ten years old when the story takes place.
The Bluest Eye is a brilliantly written novel revealing the fictional trauma of an eleven-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove. This story takes place in the town of Lorain, Ohio during the 1940’s. It is told from the perspective of a young girl named Claudia MacTeer. She and her sister, Frieda, become witness to the terrible plights Pecola is unintentionally put through. Pecola chooses to hide from her disabling life behind her clouded dream of possessing the ever so cherished “bluest of eyes”. The Breedlove’s constant bickering and ever growing poverty contributes to the emotional downfall of this little girl. Pecola’s misery is obtained through the touch of her father’s hand and the voice of her community’s struggle with racial separation, anger, and ignorance. Her innocence is harshly ripped from her grasp as her father rapes her limp existence. The community’s anger with it’s own insecurities is taken out on this poor, ugly, black, non-ideal, young girl. She shields herself from this sorrow behind her obsessive plea for blue eyes. But her eyes do not replace the pain of carrying her fleeing father’s baby. Nor do they protect her from the shady eyes of her neighbors. Though this book discuses negative and disturbing situations, it teaches a very positive lesson.
In today’s society, the mind is a set of cognitive elements which enables an individual’s consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory. In addition, without our minds and/or conscious experiences, a person would not be able to understand what makes them who they are. Similarly, in Thomas Nagel’s essay “What Is It Like to Be a Bat,” Nagel claims that even though there is something it is like to be an organism, humans are not capable of fully knowing what it is like to be a bat. In addition, Nagel supports his claims through the importance of an organism’s conscious experiences, memories, and knowledge which allow an individual to identify themselves. Therefore, in this paper I will discuss Nagel’s argument which I believe
Marx, as previously mentioned, seem similar in many ways to Hegel. However Marx addressed rights in a more helpful manner for us, than Hegel did. Whereas Hegel said it presented the self as `atomistic`, Marx worked with it directly and fitted it neatly within his thought. Rights, (and by rights he was addressing A) according to Marx is constructed by the owners of the means of production for their benefit. This makes it rather simple to conclude if A is indeed equal to B according to Marx, as long as one can simply justify this statement by Marx. “Good” to Marx have clear resonance from Hegel, and in order to explain what good is I will briefly complete, as Marx did, the framework which we started with Hegel. Marx used the parts of Hegel’s work in which he meant Hegel was true to himself.
People of all ages, and genders experience prejudice in their everyday lives, either as victims or being guilty themselves of using it towards others due to differences in between them. Prejudice is a presumption of a person based on stereotypes, rumors, the area they are situated in, and hearsay, without any solid facts. Inequity based on gender, sexuality, nationality, and skin colour also highly affects one’s opinions. In the novel To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee denotes the evils of prejudice and the negative consequences of prejudice that lie in the town of Maycomb, Alabama. By taking the reader, page by page, through various current life situations, and
Harper Lee’s, To Kill a Mockingbird highlights the theme of prejudice. In the novel, this theme contrasts the social hierarchies and false stereotypes that reek the town of Maycomb. Many citizens of Maycomb bear the burden of being accustomed to stereotypical beliefs due to their role in society, wealth or race. Though the status of certain individuals is highly considered in Maycomb, it is moral strength that truly makes a person admirable, and is shown through the actions of Atticus Finch, Tom Robinson and Boo “Arthur” Radley.
The Transcendental Deductions of the pure concept of the understanding in Immanuel Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, in its most general sense, explains how concepts relate a priori to objects in virtue of the fact that the power of knowing an object through representations is known as understanding. According to Kant, the foundation of all knowledge is the self, our own consciousness, because without the self, experience is not possible. The purpose of this essay is to lay out Kant’s deduction of the pure concept of understanding and show how our concepts are not just empirical, but a priori concept. We will walk through Kant’s argument and reasoning as he uncovers each layer of understanding, eventually leading up to the conclusion mentioned above. In the Transcendental aesthetics, Kant defines the objective validity of Space and Time as concepts a priori with the help of Geometry, showing that if we believe in the validity of Geometry, we have to believe that Space and Time are concepts a priori.
She wished her eyes would look like Shirley Temples; Pecola wants the blues eyes to finally be loved and accepted by everyone around her especially her mother and Pecola also believes if she had blue eyes her father would not have done what he did to her. Pecola goes to a man named Soaphead Church and asks him if he would give her blue eyes, he told her she would have to give the dog out front a piece of meat and if the dog acted weird that her wish would become true the next day. Pecola did receive her blue eyes, and when Claudia went over to see her all Pecola could do was look at her eyes and talk about her eyes. The thing about Pecola he mom still treated her the same she said “Mrs. Breedlove look drop-eyed at you?” “Yes. Now she does. Ever since I got my Blue eyes, she look away from me all of the time. Do you suppose she’s jealous too?” During this whole time that Pecola has felt alone and being picked on and wanting her blue eyes she never realized that she did have friends who were there for her Claudia and Frieda. In the end the blue eyes did not bring her what deeply truly wanted which was love and I think Pecola also wanted the blue eyes to take away all of her Physically and mentally
However, he did realize that no religion would be able to survive just based on the supposed experiences and ‘revelations’ of other people, which is what led him to understanding that it must be based on peoples understanding and personal interpretations of reality (Handout #1). Even though he did feel as though he was indebted to the Enlightenment, Hegel opposed many of its basic concepts even while protecting a lot of the developments that were brought by the Enlightenment (Handout #1). The views of religion that are offered by Hegel lean more positively to Christianity and religion in general since he does agree with the belief of God and he was Lutheran which is a sect of Christianity and also supports his acceptance of religion (Handout #1). He also frequently utilizes Christian terms in his writings, especially those of the Trinity which actually supports religion in general even though he thought that religion should be transformed into philosophy which proves that Hegel inspected and researched religion more as a philosophy which is more harmful to it since philosophies have never been proven. However, Hegel opposes a portion of orthodoxy because he believes that Evil was created by God and that humanity is nothing without the contrast between good and evil. Some of his views are also more harmful for Christianity because he
As such, when in possession of a self evident truth, the intellect has an infinitely positive, infinitely embraced qualitative relationship with a proposition. In other words, the intellect believes fully in said proposition, without an inkling of doubt, without a dot or tittle removed from the embraced proposition. The one who grasps, understands, comprehends, possesses said proposition, consummates a bond with a duality (subject and proposition), transmuting it into a singularity (one within the intellect). Such a man can be said to step outside his specific lot in life, and literally transcend, through his intellect, into a realm that is devoid of any doubt, uncertainty and vacillating possibility. For doubt arises when there are possibilities, but when a thing is unified, possibilities cannot be posited. Such a man embraces positively, in an active pondering contemplation the idea-in-itself with certainty, without mediums and
With the continuously accelerating rate in the loss of wildlife habitat, there is a concern which greets the upcoming century. The problem with the presently remaining "untouched" wilderness is that large whole pieces of wild habitat end up manipulated to suit the needs of human populations. Often times mismanagement of land, besides the mere intrusion into a delicate habitat, exerts stress upon it’s state of equilibrium; so much so that certain species within an area become at risk for extinction. Depending on the stability and degree of interspecie dependency, the extinction of a couple of species of animals could lead to the gradual eventual degradation of that habitat. The focus of many leading conservation biologists within the last three to four decades has been on the study of different factors and dimensions that influence the extinction rate of different types of wild habitat. By understanding the factors and dimensions involved in the maintenance of habitat stability, conservationists may be able to more accurately explain how fragmentation effect specific types of habitat and population, and more accurately predict the effects of proposed conservation projects. Now as we enter a new era with frightening statistics on environmental destruction, conservationists are calling for quick action to slow down the rate of extinction and habitat fragmentation. The present popular proposed solution is for the construction of dispersal corridors, which will reconnect pieces of isolated habitat and reduce the rate of wildlife extinction. There is not enough available material to support this proposal but there is also not enough to prove it unworthy either. Although this is not the only solution to the problem, it is the most appealing to conservation biologists who desire to protect and reclaim wilderness quickly. Thus, ecological corridors is a critical topic of debate because it has become a popular concept taken very seriously by radical conservationists who are in a haste to implement the plan but who do not have sufficient data to prove that it might not counter their predictions and, as many skeptics fear, prove detrimental for habitat restoration.
In deciding victory in the life or death struggle, for those who have fully separated from the biological drives, the self-concept is more important than the continuation of the physical being. Though Hegel does, eventually, concede the point that self-consciousness is im...
More and more species are becoming endangered every day and around 6000 are already endangered. Species endangerment is causing major issues, in our ecosystems and biosphere, as well as many other big problems that not many people realize and/or do anything to change. Even though there are many causes for extinction, the impact of habitat loss is the major reason that animals are becoming endangered and it is all our fault, the habitats being harvested for human consumption.