19th Century Philosophers: Marx

IV. Misunderstandings of Marx

1. Misunderstanding 1: Since communism is supposed to abolish the State, Marx is an anarchist predicting that all government will disappear.

Correction: The State has a special meaning for Marx. It represents one political class oppressing another. So, in a classless society where the oppression disappears there is no longer a State, although there can still be some sort of governing taking place.

2. Misunderstanding 2: Marx’ call for the abolition of private property entails the elimination of all personal or private belongings.

Correction: Marx for and predicts the elimination of the system of private property – whereby individuals are able to exploit the labor of others for their own gain and do what they will with “their” property. But this does not mean that all personal possessions must go. What is acquired without exploitation or without a system of exploitation may be kept legitimately.

19th Century Philosophers: Marx

III. What is Living or Dead in the Writings of Karl Marx?

1. Living:
a. Free marker tendencies toward monopolies, exploitation of the workers, commercial crises and destruction competition.

b. Alienation

c. Commercialization of life under capitalism; tendency to turn social relationships into matters of money and self-interest.

d. Social interpretation of human life

e. Social dynamics of historical processes – dialectical change.

f. Importance of technology in affecting human life – emphasis on material modes of production.

g. Prospects of capitalistic imperialism

h. Critique of bourgeois freedom and private property

i. Some of the objectives of The Communist Manifesto

j. Dangers of capitalists influence on government

2. Dead

a. Workers living at bare means of subsistence under capitalism

b. Workers paradise in a communist state

c. Classless society

d. Historical Inevitability

e. Rejection of the influence of ideology and consciousness in historical change

f. Government as simply the tool of the capitalist class

g. Need for violent revolution

h. Revolutions occurring in the most advanced industrialized countries because that is where capitalism will have progressed the most to bring about its own destruction.

19th Century Philosophers: Marx

II. Marx: Basis Theses (Summarized)

1. Primary Theses: History is a dialectical, deterministic process directed, overwhelmingly, by the material modes of production. Ideologies do not move the world what occurs in detail follows from the particular historical situation. Capitalism is a social – economic system which because of its institutionalization of private property, causes alienation in three ways: alienation from products alienation from one’s activity and hence alienation from oneself, and alienation from other human beings. In political terms, the historical process exhibits itself through a series of class struggles in which a dominant minority class directs the society. Increasing polarization occurs and the classless society offers a resolution of the struggle. Capitalism creates forces that it cannot control and these forces institute the destruction of the capitalist system. Labor determines the value of a product. The destruction of capitalism will occur first in the most advanced industrial societies because of the increasingly misery of the workers which strengthens and unifies the proletariat. All of the preceding theses are empirical generalizations.

2. Secondary Theses: The “dictatorship of the proletariat” (not dealt with in detail) is a transitionary stage in the development of communism. Although measures in different nations or societies will differ, violent means are necessary for the destruction of capitalism. Free competition in a capitalist system does not further the best interests of the society as a whole and does not even preserve the free competition because it inevitably concentrates capital in fewer and fewer hands. Here can be no REAL freedom and individuality for the great mass of people in a capitalist society. In modern society, the distinction between capitalist and landowner tends to break down. “From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs.” Communism is an international movement, although the overthrow of capitalism also occurs in separate nations. Communism will bring about the abolition of war as antagonism among classes and nations disappears. “Religion is the opium of the people.” All the preceding theses are empirical generalizations.

19th Century Philosophers: Marx

19th Century Philosophers: Karl Marx (1818-1883)

I. Life: Marx was born in what is now Germany but spent most of his life in exile interestingly enough because of his political stands. He studied law for a short time but later turned to philosophy, receiving a doctorate at the University of Jena in 1841. He became editor of a newspaper, the Reinische Zeitung, which was suppressed by the government in 1843. He then moved to Paris, where he began a lifelong friendship and collaboration with Frederich Engels. Although they jointly authored several works, both evidently regarded Marx as the guiding figure. Marx moved to Brussels after being expelled from France in 1845. He and Engels produced The Communist Manifesto, which was one of the most influential documents in human history in 1848. Expelled from Brussels, Mar moved back briefly to Paris and then to Cologne. He was expelled in 1849. He then moved to London, where he spent the remainder of his life. Marx never held regular work for any extended period of time. He did serve for a short time as a journalistic correspondent of The New York Tribune. For the most part, he was continually dependent upon Engels for financial support and he lived much of his life in poverty. He dedicated most of his life primarily to extensive research advancing the cause of socialism. Marx himself suffered from chronic illnesses and three of his children died. With time, the fame and influence of his works grew until Marx became the leading theorist and prophet of European socialism. He was not effective as a political activist however. In 1864 he helped establish and then dominated the International working Men’s Association which came to be known as the “First International” although he then generally destroyed the Association in a bitter controversy with the Russian anarchist, Mikhail Bakunin. Political activism was not well suited to Marx’ often vitriolic temperament and his tendency to take “hard-line” stands. The Communist Manifesto and Das Kapital are Marx’ two most famous works. Of particular philosophical significance, however, is The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844.

19th Century Philosophers: Schopenhauer

V. Freedom and Will: The Will as thing-in-itself is free. The person is a phenomenon of the will and therefore is subject to deterministic necessity through the principle of sufficient reason. Schopenhauer proposes, “For every individual action follows with strict necessity from the effect of the motive upon the character. The a priori sense of being free and the a posteriori sense of being determined are both accurate. We just have to separate the will from what is a phenomenon of the will. We know ourselves as a consequence of the expression of the will; we do not choose or will on the basis of our knowledge. External influences such as knowledge, instruction, and awareness of motives can alter the direction of the will’s efforts, but not the will itself. External influences ma show that the wile red “in the means it employed.” “Elective decisions” which many associate with free will are really just the resultant of a battle among motives where the strongest determines the will by necessity.

Regarding “repentance”, Schopenhauer writes, “I can never repent of what I have willed, though I can repent of what I have done when, guided by false concepts, I did something different from what was in accordance with my will. Pangs of conscience are different from repentance and they are the pain we experience in recognizing our own unchanging, inner nature, that is, our will.

19th Century Philosophers: Schopenhauer

IV. “The World is my Will”

1. Inadequacy of the World as Idea: Since knowledge in the world as Idea is wholly dependent on the body as a representation, our body is just like every other body, or object, of sensation and perception. One’s own body is known in just the same way as any other body. While one can study one’s own body in the same way as other bodies and perhaps come up with accounts or laws for its actions, causes, and motives, one is not able to grasp their inner nature.

2. The Body and Will: The inner nature of our actions, causes, and motives can be grasped immediately through the will. The body exists in two ways. This is known as double knowledge. Specifically, the body exists as an idea or representation in intelligent perception or secondly as will, an understanding that takes precedence for Schopenhauer. The body therefore can be seen as the objectification of the will. Schopenhauer states, “Every true, genuine, immediate act of the will is also at once and directly a manifest act of the body; correspondingly, on the other hand, every impression on the body is also at once and directly an impression of the will.” It is the will that establishes the subject as an individual. Without will the body is an idea like all other bodies. Oneself as an “object of perception is essentially different from all others; that it alone of all objects is at once both will and idea, while the rest are only ideas, i.e. only phantoms. Schopenhauer does not think that theoretical egoism or solipsism can be taken seriously, although he does not think it can be demonstrably refuted either. Manifestations of the will can have many grades. For example, a stone falling to the earth is a manifestation of will but it cannot move with a known motive, whereas a human being as a manifestation of will can move with a known motive.

Schopenhauer writes, “The parts of the body must, therefore, completely correspond to the principle desires through which the will manifests itself; they must be the visible expression of these desires. Teeth, throat and bowels are objectified hunger; the organs of generation are the objectified sexual desire; the grasping hands, the hurrying feet, correspond to the more indirect desires of the will that they express. As the human form generally corresponds to the human will generally, so the individual bodily structure corresponds to the individually modified will, the character of the individual and therefore it is throughout and in all its parts characteristic and full expression.”

3. Nature of the Will: The will is “something known absolutely and immediately, and that so well that we know and understand what will is better than anything else.” It is not inferred. The nature of the will can never be demonstrated, or explained through the principle of sufficient reason, because it is prior to the principle and more directly known. “Will is the thing-in-itself, the inner content, the essence of the world.” Purely in itself, the will is “without knowledge” and a “blind incessant impulse,” although in human beings it can be guided to some small extent by knowledge. Will can function as blind impulse in human beings as happens with other animals, such as through vital and vegetative processes such as “digestion, circulation, secretion, growth, and reproduction.”
4. Will and the Natural World: Schopenhauer writes, “We shall judge all objects which h are not our own body, and therefore are given to our consciousness not in the double way, but only as representations, according to the analogy of this body.”

Schopenhauer writes further, “He will recognize that same will not only in those phenomena that are quire similar to his own, in men and animals, as their innermost nature, but continued reflection will lead him to recognize the force that shots and vegetables in the plant, indeed the force by which the crystal is formed, the force that turns the magnet to the North Pole, the force whose shock he encounters from the contact of metals of different kinds, . . . and finally even gravitation, . . .; all of these he will recognize as different only in the phenomenon, but the same according to their inner nature. He will recognize them all as that which is immediately known to him so intimately and better than everything else, and where it appears more distinctly is called will. IT is only this application of reflection which no longer lets us stop at the phenomenon, but leads us on to the thing-in-itself.”

Whereas “individuality stands out powerfully” as the phenomenon of will in human beings, the phenomena of will in nature “operate according to universal laws, without deviation, without individuality.” Instinct and mechanical skills in animals are manifestations of will but are also blind activities. In so far as well constitutes out inner nature and will also constitutes the inner nature of the natural world, will is timeless and does not die. So permanence, birth, and death have no meaning or effect for it. Death only occurs to us as a phenomenon. The form of life only exists in the present, as an endless present, whereas the past and future are just conceptions following from the principle of sufficient reason. Schopenhauer records, “the man who has comprehended and retained this point of view may well console himself when contemplating his own death and that of his friends by turning his eyes to the immortal life of Nature, which he himself is”

19th Century Philosophers: Schopenhauer

III. “The World is my Idea”

1. Objects: Objects only exist for a subject – For a human being, “what he knows is not a sun and an earth, but only an eye that sees a sun, a hand that feels an earth; that the world which surrounds him is there only as an idea, i.e. only in relation to something else, the consciousness, which is himself.

2. Sensation: Schopenhauer speaks of the body as immediate object. The body as immediate object is sensation. The form of the body and the knowing subject cannot be known at this level. In other words, we can have sensations and know, but we cannot know objects or ourselves without some higher level of knowing, such as understanding, which can perceive objects in space and through causation.

3. Understanding: refers to the knowledge of cause and effect and the transition from cause to effect and from effect to cause. Understanding exists in al animals, although it varies considerably in degree. Laws of nature, for example gravitation, must be first grasped in the understanding. Deception of understanding is illusion.

4. Reason: is abstract knowledge embodied in concepts. Animals do no possess it. The greatest value of reason is that its knowledge can be communicated and permanently retained. Abstract reasoning, which only serves to make the immediate knowledge of the understanding permanent for thought by bringing it under abstract concepts, i.e., it makes knowledge distinct, it puts in a position to impart it and explain it to others. Speech, as a means of communicating, is the first function and a necessary prerequisite for reason. Deception of reason is error. Reason almost always acts on something given to it through sensation and understanding. Only the bare principles of identity, contradiction, excluded middle, and sufficient reason are present in pure reason alone. Although reason is necessary for some accomplishments, it is also shallower than the understanding. “The knowledge of the relation of cause and effect arrived at by the understanding, is in itself far completer, deeper and more exhaustive than anything that can be though about in the abstract; the understanding alone knows in perception directly and completely the nature of the effect of a level, of a pulley, or a cog-wheel, the stability of an arch, and so forth. But on account of the peculiarity of the knowledge of perception just referred to, that it only extends to what is immediately present, the mere understanding can never enable us to construct machines and buildings. Here reason must come in. It must substitute abstract concepts for ideas of perception and take them as the guide of action and if they are right the anticipated result will happen.” (#12)

5. Science: The special characteristic of science is not certainty but rather systematic form, that is, an ordered system with a process of subordination from general to particular (#14). Although deductive argument, demonstration is the aim of science, we should not forget that science originates in the world of perception. “In order to improve the method of mathematics, it is especially necessary to overcome the prejudice, that demonstrated truth has any superiority over what is known through perception or that logical truth founded upon the principle of contradiction has any superiority over metaphysical truth, which is immediately evident, and to which belongs the pure intuition or perception of space” (#15). Al empirical knowledge is subject to error or illusion in so far as it goes from effect to cause “for the same consequent may follow from different reasons. Since so much science goes from effect to cause “all natural philosophy rests upon hypotheses which are often false” (#15). “Only in the case of purposely arranged experience knowledge proceeds from the cause to the effect, that is, it follows from a method that affords certainty but these experiments themselves are undertaken in consequence of hypotheses” (#15).

19th Century Philosophers: Schopenhauer

III. “The World is my Idea”

1. Objects: Objects only exist for a subject – For a human being, “what he knows is not a sun and an earth, but only an eye that sees a sun, a hand that feels an earth; that the world which surrounds him is there only as an idea, i.e. only in relation to something else, the consciousness, which is himself.

2. Sensation: Schopenhauer speaks of the body as immediate object. The body as immediate object is sensation. The form of the body and the knowing subject cannot be known at this level. In other words, we can have sensations and know, but we cannot know objects or ourselves without some higher level of knowing, such as understanding, which can perceive objects in space and through causation.

3. Understanding: refers to the knowledge of cause and effect and the transition from cause to effect and from effect to cause. Understanding exists in al animals, although it varies considerably in degree. Laws of nature, for example gravitation, must be first grasped in the understanding. Deception of understanding is illusion.

4. Reason: is abstract knowledge embodied in concepts. Animals do no possess it. The greatest value of reason is that its knowledge can be communicated and permanently retained. Abstract reasoning, which only serves to make the immediate knowledge of the understanding permanent for thought by bringing it under abstract concepts, i.e., it makes knowledge distinct, it puts in a position to impart it and explain it to others. Speech, as a means of communicating, is the first function and a necessary prerequisite for reason. Deception of reason is error. Reason almost always acts on something given to it through sensation and understanding. Only the bare principles of identity, contradiction, excluded middle, and sufficient reason are present in pure reason alone. Although reason is necessary for some accomplishments, it is also shallower than the understanding. “The knowledge of the relation of cause and effect arrived at by the understanding, is in itself far completer, deeper and more exhaustive than anything that can be though about in the abstract; the understanding alone knows in perception directly and completely the nature of the effect of a level, of a pulley, or a cog-wheel, the stability of an arch, and so forth. But on account of the peculiarity of the knowledge of perception just referred to, that it only extends to what is immediately present, the mere understanding can never enable us to construct machines and buildings. Here reason must come in. It must substitute abstract concepts for ideas of perception and take them as the guide of action and if they are right the anticipated result will happen.” (#12)

5. Science: The special characteristic of science is not certainty but rather systematic form, that is, an ordered system with a process of subordination from general to particular (#14). Although deductive argument, demonstration is the aim of science, we should not forget that science originates in the world of perception. “In order to improve the method of mathematics, it is especially necessary to overcome the prejudice, that demonstrated truth has any superiority over what is known through perception or that logical truth founded upon the principle of contradiction has any superiority over metaphysical truth, which is immediately evident, and to which belongs the pure intuition or perception of space” (#15). Al empirical knowledge is subject to error or illusion in so far as it goes from effect to cause “for the same consequent may follow from different reasons. Since so much science goes from effect to cause “all natural philosophy rests upon hypotheses which are often false” (#15). “Only in the case of purposely arranged experience knowledge proceeds from the cause to the effect, that is, it follows from a method that affords certainty but these experiments themselves are undertaken in consequence of hypotheses” (#15).

19th Century Philosophers: Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
Background

I. Life

1. Family: Schopenhauer’s father was a wealthy and admired businessman. He was also a determined and somber person. He wanted his son to make a career in business and even resorted to bribery, with a two-year opportunity to travel, as a way of getting his son to go along. He died in 1805, probably by suicide.

Schopenhauer’s mother was the daughter of a person of some political importance. She was a rather merry and pleasure loving individual. She maintained a salon where Schopenhauer met Goethe. She was also a novelist and essayist. She and her son did not get along well perhaps because of competitiveness as to who was the greater person. She forced him out of the house and they saw one another again.

2. Education: Schopenhauer studied at the University of Gottingen but moved on to the University of Berlin in 1811. He was especially influenced by reading Plato and Kant. The Kantian influence is especially evident in his work. Sensibility through space and time, causality as a category of the understanding, the thing in itself are all Kantian notions, although Schopenhauer departs from Kant by regarding causality as the only category of the understanding and by giving a different direction to the “thing-in-itself.”

He heard but was unimpressed by the lectures of Fichte and Schleiermacher. In 1813 he published his dissertation entitled On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason. He knew and admired Goethe and wrote a work on color supporting Goethe against Newton. He was strongly influenced by eastern thought and was the first major western philosopher to exhibit such influence. The veil of Maya has an important place in his philosophical system.

3. Writings: His major work was entitled Die Welt als Wille and Vorstellung (The World as Will and Idea). It was published in 1818 and additions were made to it in later editions. The central term in the title is Vorstellung that means Idea or Representation.

Schopenhauer was unsuccessful in competing with Hegel at the University of Berlin in 1830. Although he despised Hegel’s thought, there are some strong similarities between his and Hegel’s though on several issues such as the will and spirit, the inferior nature of observational science and self-certification. He was very well read and could read in German, English, Spanish, French and Italian. He did not receive much recognition until the publication in 1851 of Parerga and Paralipomena (Subordinates and Things Passed Over.

4. Character: Schopenhauer was a reclusive, although he could be sharply witty in conversation and did attend artistic events. He was misanthropic and bitter about lack of recognition. He kept a loaded gun at his bed at all times and was always in dread of diseases.

II. Influence.

1. Followers: While there is an admiration for the uniqueness of his thought and for the clearness of his writing, there have not been a lot of philosophical disciples of Schopenhauer. His appeal probably rests more upon a personal appreciation of his work-particularly with respect to recognizing the role of pessimism and futility in life.

Apparently, novelists such as Tolstoy, Joseph Conrad, Marcel Proust, and Thomas Mann were among the appreciators. Nietzsche exhibits some of Schopenhauer’s influence. Wittgenstein also is said to have read Schopenhauer appreciatively. His emphasis on the will resonates well with some later thought about a special “living force” being necessary for life, for example, Bergson’s élan vital.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

IX. Freedom and the State: See the outline of Hegel’s Introduction to the Philosophy of History.

X. God and Religion (taken from Copleston’s History of Philosophy)

1. In an early work (1795), Life of Jesus, Hegel portrays Christ as a moral teacher who only uses the notion of being he divine messenger to gain credibility in his preaching to the Jews.

2. In his later work religion is a means leading to The Absolute. There are three stages in this process. First, there is the religion of nature or religion objectified which tends toward animism and pantheism. Examples of this include Chinese religion, Hinduism, Buddhism, the religions of Persia, Syria, and Egypt. God is here undifferentiated and immanent universal. Second, there is the religion of Spiritual Individuality or religion subjectified. This approach is reflected in the Jewish, Greek, and Roman religions. This approach views God as Spirit in the for of an individual person or persons who is over against or apart from the human. Third there is Absolute Religion or Religion synthesized. This approach is reflected in Christianity. God is perceived as Infinite Spirit that is both transcendent and immanent. Human beings are viewed as united with God and the divine life through grace.

The philosophical knowledge of The Absolute goes beyond religion. But religion, as related to faith and emotional experience, is more accessible to everyone God = The Absolute. Terry Pinkard, in his biography of Hegel writes:

“What is divine is not humanity as such but the principle of self determining ‘spirit’ which humanity brings to full consciousness about itself, and the Christian religious community is thus the form by which God Himself first becomes fully conscious of His nature . . .. In light o this conception, Hegel concluded, there need be no cleavage between the acceptance of a Christian outlook and a fully modern sensibility Christianity was thus indeed the only fully modern religion and the only one compatible with the kind of free institutions necessary for modern life to work. Faith in God was faith in the everlastingness of life, though not of one’s own individual life, and the goodness of being, in the conviction that what was absolutely good in life was written into the structure of thins and that we, humanity as a whole, were collectively capable of gradual realization of that good and of substantial realizations in our own lives.” (pp. 592-93)

Although Hegel views Christianity as the culmination of religions thinking he is most likely sincere in asserting this view, allowing for the interpretatively speculative nature of his philosophical method and system, we end up with an unorthodox Christianity, a pantheistic Idealism, that serves his philosophical thought more than it exemplifies more ordinary or traditional Christian thought.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

VII. Freedom and Spirit: See the material on Hegel’s Introduction to the Philosophy of History.

VIII. Freedom and the State: From the Philosophy of Right

1. Ultimate Authority: Ultimate decision-making authority in the State rests with the crown, conceived as a constitutional monarch. The monarch symbolizes the unity of the State and this person’s individual will exhibits that unity. “If the ‘people’ is represented . . . as inwardly developed, genuinely organic, totality, then sovereignty is there as the personality of the whole, and this personality is there, in the real existence adequate to its concept, as the person of the monarch.” (PR, par. 279) For advice, the monarch appoints a supreme council and “their choice and dismissal alike rest with his unrestricted caprice.” (PR, par. 279) For advice, the monarch appoints a supreme council and “their choice and dismissal alike rest with his unrestricted caprice.” (PR, par. 283) These counselors along with the civil servants under them, are answerable for their acts and are rightfully blamed for errors and transgressions The monarch however is “above all answerability for acts of government.” (PR, par. 284). Monarchs hold power by birth and inheritance, since an elected monarchy would take the ultimate authority away from the crown.

Hegel calls for an avoidance of Despotism. Despotism arises when there is a mechanical division of powers among the parts of the state. However, “When there is an organic relation subsisting between members, not parts, then each member by fulfilling the functions of its own sphere is eo ipso maintaining the others; what each fundamentally aims at and achieves in maintaining itself is the maintenance of others.” (PR, par. 286)

2. The Executive Branch of the State: Hegel next addresses the Executive Branch of the State. The application of the laws and the everyday activities of government reside with the counselors and the trained civil servants who perform their duties as organize members of The State. They bring their dedication and expertise to the tasks of a well-operated State. Misuse of power is avoided through their answerability for their actions.

3. Legislative Branch of the State: The legislature brings to public consciousness the interests of the various classes and institutions with The State. Members hold their positions in the legislature as representative of groups rather than as individual members. Hence they function in terms of their social roles rather than claming universal rights that allow them to express their subjective whims. So the group interests of farmers, business people, physicians, etc. will be expressed in the legislature. The legislature then functions as a mediator between government and the people but it does not possess ultimate authority.

4. Practical functioning of The State: Hegel envisions the executive branch, the counselors and civil servants, as the bedrock functionaries who oversee the actual workings of The State. The monarch is expected to follow the wise advice of counselors. Hegel goes so far as to suggest that the monarch’s official activities basically are a formality. Everyone must recognize the monarch’s “self-determining and complete sovereign will” as the final decision. But “to do so is not to say that the monarch may act capriciously. As a matter of fact he is found by the concrete decisions of his counselors, and if the constitution is stable, he has often no more to do than to sign his name. But this name is important. It is the last word beyond which it is impossible to go.” (PR, add. Par. 170) He also adds, “he has only to say ‘yes’ and dot the ‘i’, because the throne should be such that the significant thing in its holder is not his particular makeup.” (PR, add. Par. 171)

Hegel may be extremely idealistic here. Govern political realities, the monarchy may be much more assertive, and the actual theoretical structure of The State clearly gives the monarch the ultimate decision-making authority.

5. Freedom and the State: Hegel views the State as the ultimate representation of individual freedom. But it is a rational freedom rather than one based upon individual whim. The individual achieves freedom through the rationally coherent form of the State that allows individuals to fully express their capacity to participate in the organize unity of The State, through their social roles. He does not envision this freedom as doing away completely with the individual pleasures or family ties. Hegel himself was a wine connoisseur and believed in strong family ties, although he was rather conservative in his attitudes toward family structure and the role of women. The mob in the French Revolution, acting in the name of universal rights of humanity and their individual whims, did not represent authentic freedom. “To hold that every single person should share in deliberating and deciding on political matters of general concern on the ground that all individual are members of the state, that its concerns are their concerns, and that it is their right and that what is done should be done wit their knowledge and volition, is tantamount to a proposal to put the democratic element without any rational form into the organism of the state, although it is only in virtue of the possession of such a form that the state is an organism at all.” (PR, par. 308)

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

VI. Reason and Reality – The Real is Rational and the Rational is Real

1. Rationality is not associable with traditional or formal logic for Hegel. Rationality is a dialectical process that occurs within consciousness. Mind, not matter, constitutes the Real.

2. Dialectic: The dialectic process leads to higher levels of consciousness and reality as one proceeds through various moments which are characterized by: Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis.

Generations of opposites or contradictions are central to the above process. A particular thesis generates an antithesis as its opposite, which then leads to a synthesis that becomes the thesis for a generation of a new opposite, or antithesis so as to advance the dialectical process. Note that Hegel himself never uses these three terms together in this way, although it is an effective way of presenting dialectical opposition and synthesis.

For example, the thesis characteristic of the Oriental World, namely a non-subjective universality, generates the subjective freedom of the Greek World, which is then synthesized in the Roman World. The rational, cold subjectivity of the Roman World and its universals generates as an opposite the subjective Heart of the German World, leading to a true realization of Freedom.

The German term aufgehoben aptly captures the nature of the dialectical process. A given thesis is “negated, preserved, and transformed or transcended.” Although Hegel writes about dialectical oppositions as contradictions we need to interpret the term within the special context of his though: Terms such as negation, difference, otherness within an ongoing process come close to his meaning than a classic statement of the principle of contradiction. Nothing can both be and not be in the same respect at the same time.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

4. Critique of Observational Science: The classification of nature based upon observations does not give the true nature of things because particular things (the determinate content) and general concepts of class (universals) blend into one another. In other words, we cannot separate existent things sharply through classification. Observational laws of inorganic nature through inductive generalization are only probable rather than certain. Generally on the European Continent (for Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant) certainty rather than probability is sought. A law requires an act of consciousness that goes beyond observation. Hegel writes, “That a stone falls is true for consciousness because it is aware of the stone being heavy, i.e. because in weight, taken by itself as such, the stone has that essential relation to the earth expressed in the act of falling.” (PM, p. 290).

Because organic nature is indeterminate and in flux, laws of organic nature always present exceptions, are superficial, and lack any inner necessity to make them true. For example, although a thick coat of hair is associated with animals in northern latitudes, there is nothing in the notion of north that necessarily implies the notion of a thick coat of hair. The notion or concept of Purpose, i.e. the inner being of the organic that governs the changes in organisms through inner necessity, explains organic nature better than laws. Purpose or inner being is not as easily recognizable as the observable or the outer being and therefore the need for understanding through a rational self-consciousness rather than through passive observation. The outer is really the expression of the inner. With respect to sensibility, the inner expresses the notion of passive reflexion into itself, whereas the outer is embodied in the nervous system. Hegel rejects both physiognomy and phrenology however. Physiognomy does not establish a necessary relation between outer and inner. It also ignores the significance of acts as expressions of the inner in addition to any external physical characteristics. Phrenology exhibits similar problems.

Laws of Thought, logical laws, observed within self-consciousness are too static to capture the flux of organic nature and hence they give only a false sense of absoluteness. Psychological Laws observed within self-consciousness and based upon observations of habits, custom inclinations, passions, faculties, etc, also have to much static determinateness to capture individual consciousness, particularly the ability to select from the stream of reality. It should be clear that Hegel understands science as a process in a way different from most traditional and mainstream or standard views.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

2. From the Introduction: An object in consciousness has two aspects, being-in-itself and being=for-consciousness. Consciousness itself compares these two aspects to check whether or not they correspond to each other or not-thereby becoming a self-certifying agent.

3. The General Movement of the Phenomenology: The general movement of the Phenomenology goes from Consciousness of Objects, that is, the phenomenon of objects for consciousness to Self Consciousness to Reason which in turn leads from Observational Reason to Rational Self-Consciousness to Spirit to Religion to Absolute knowledge.

Consider Consciousness and Self-Consciousness. What Hegel terms as Simple Self-Consciousness exists just as Desire with the external world simply being the other. Self-Consciousness is conceived through the relation of Master and Bondsman or Slave and is based upon Work, or Labor.

In the Initial stage The Master is everything and the slave is nothing. Simple Self-Consciousness is everything; and Self-Consciousness based upon the recognition of an other external object is nothing.

In the Traditional Stage a struggle ensues where the Master puts the Slave to work to satisfy the Master’s wishes. A struggle ensues where Simple Self-Consciousness treats Other-based Self Consciousness as subservient.

In the Completion Stage there is Interdependence in that the Master becomes dependent on the Salve through the Salves labor and the Slave gains a sense of self-identity through the labor, while still being in some way dependent on the Master. The two Self-consciousnesses become dependent on one another.

Hegel points out that with regard to Stoicism, Self-Consciousness seeks freedom by withdrawing within itself. It negates the Master-Slave relationship and it only occurs at a time of fear and bondage and of some mental cultivation or sophistication. The freedom of Self-Consciousness is indifferent toward natural existence. Stoic Self-Consciousness negates any determinate content to the external world. It is real freedom of though rather than just the notion of it and it develops a contradiction within itself.

With regard to skepticism, Hegel contends that Self-Consciousness negates any determinate content to the external world. It is a real freedom of thought rather than just the notion of it and it develops a contradiction within itself. Skepticism gives rise to a conflicting duality where Self-Consciousness recognizes, on the one hand, total freedom, but, on the other hand, finds itself immersed in chaos, change, aimlessness, fickleness, instability, and indeterminateness. The outcome of it all is an Alienated Soul and the Unhappy Consciousness.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

V. Phenomenology of Mind (or Spirit) – German Word = Geist

1. From the Preface: The work is a scientific account of knowing that moves progressively form the most primitive moments or stages of consciousness or mind to Mind or the Absolute that is conscious of being as itself. Negation, for Hegel, is the process that leads from one moment to another in the progression. Negation is related to falsity, but not in the traditional sense. Traditionally, truth and falsity are mutually exclusive, fixed properties of propositions. Falsity, however, should be seen as the process of revealing an inadequacy in what was previously claimed to be true. It is a process of negating a truth-claim as a transitional passage to a new truth-claim that will, in turn, be negated. Negation reveals “otherness” or difference in opposition to the accepted claim and thereby shows the need to reject and modify it. Negation is a desirable necessity in the profession of consciousness. Hegel argues, “Truth is the whole.” We only grasp The Truth through an entire system. Truth is reached only when we complete the process of development in consciousness. For instance, Mathematics has little standing because it is static, fixed and lacks negation in the process of its development. Regarding the Absolute as Spirit it should be noted that Spirit is the only Reality. Hegel’s identification of Being and Consciousness establishes him as an Idealist. Spirit is also the inner being of the world, for example what is and is per se. Spirit is both object for itself and one with itself-self contained and self-complete. Spirit is also a spiritual substance and both knows itself and is itself simultaneously through its own activity.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

IV. From the Philosophy of History

Oriental World Greek World Roman World German Word

Childhood Adolescence Manhood Old Age

Despotism Democracy Aristocracy Monarchy

One is free Some are free All are free

(Weakness as Nature; Strength as Spirit)

1. Oriental World: Unreflected consciousness, substantial objective, and spiritual existence; no realization of subjectivity; stress on morality although externally directed.

2. Greek World: Spirit emerges more clearly because of the development of the individual, possessing subjective freedom

3. Roman World: characterized by subjective inwardness, along with universalizing law.

4. German World: characterized from earliest times by the sense of Heart, “that undeveloped, indeterminate totality of Spirit in reference to the Will, in which satisfaction of soul is attained in a correspondingly general and indeterminate way”; Heart as the key to overcoming the meaningless universal abstractions and superficial appearances of Church through the Reformation.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

III. The Course of the World’s History

1. Nature vs. Spirit: Whereas Nature or the natural world exhibits perpetually self-repeating cycles, Spirit is the realm where Perfectibility, Development, and the attainment of Completeness occur. Whereas growth in Nature is peaceful, Spirit exhibits a “severe, a mighty conflict with itself.” (p. 55) Nature suggests an initial complete knowledge in the sense of Divine Truth, which is really a distortion of the Truth revealed in history. As Nature is the development of the Idea in Space, History is the development of Spirit in Time. (p. 72)

2. Requirements for World History: Includes a narration of the gestation, or development, of things rather than an account of things. Includes also a State to record events. Nomadic wanderings, and the growth of families and clans, have no objective history because they have no recorded annals. It is a mistake to think that moral virtues present in all nations as in the examples of courage, self-denial, and magnanimity, mean the same thing so there is no moral progress.

3. More about spirit:

“Spirit-consuming the envelop of its existence—does not merely pass into another envelop, nor rise rejuvenescent from the ashes of its previous form; it comes forth exalted, glorified, a purer spirit. T certainly makes war upon itself-consumes its own existence; but in this very destruction it works up that existence into a new form, and each successive phase becomes in its turn a material, working on which it exalts itself to a new grade.” (p. 73) In the Spirit of a nation, the individual takes on a place in the world, is something, when one appropriates to oneself or exhibits in one’s character and capability of the Spirit of the nation.

4. Geographical Basis of History: “In the Frigid and Torrid zone the locality of World-Historical peoples cannot be found.” (p. 80) This is due to the power of climatic extremes preventing a higher level of consciousness where Spirit is considered for itself. The true theater of history is the North Temperate Zone. The South Temperate Zone is too diverse with to many broken up landmasses. As regards Native Americans, “a mild passionless disposition, want of spirit, and a crouching submissiveness toward a Creole, and still more towards a European, are the chief characteristics of the native Americans; and it will be long before the Europeans succeed in producing any independence of feeling in them. The inferiority of these individuals in all respects, even in regard to size is manifest . . . . “ (p. 81)

As regards Topography, the Uplands provide the context for patriarchical life, the Valley Plains a context for well-organized, large kingdoms based upon agriculture. Coast Land a context for daring and a sense of the infinite and Europe a context for a mixture of these elements. As regards Africa, Hegel writes, “The Negroes indulge, therefore, hat perfect contempt for humanity, which in its bearing on Justice and Morality is the fundamental characteristic of the race. The have moreover no knowledge of the immortality of the soul, although specters are supposed to appear. The undervaluing of humanity among them reaches an incredible degree of intensity. Tyranny is regarded as no wrong, and cannibalism is looked upon as quire customary and proper.” (p. 95) Hegel adds, “To this want of regard for life must be ascribed the great courage, supported by enormous bodily strength, exhibited by the Negroes, who allows themselves to be show down by thousands in war with Europeans.” (p. 96) Further, “political constitution, we shall see that the entire nature of this race is such as to preclude the existence of any such arrangement. The standpoint of humanity at this grade is mere sensuous volition with energy of will; since universal spiritual laws . . . cannot be recognized here.” (96) Hegel concludes, “AT this point we leave Africa, not to mention it again. For it is no historical part of the World; it has no movement or development to exhibit. (99)

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

II. The Nature of Spirit: the essential destiny of Reason, the ultimate deign of the world.

“In considering world history we must consider its ultimate purpose. The ultimate purpose is what is willed in the world itself. We know of God that He is the most perfect; He can will only Himself and what is like Him. God and the nature of His will are one and the same; these we call philosophically, the Idea. Hence it is the Idea in general, in its manifestation as human spirit, which we have to contemplate. More precisely it is the idea of human freedom. The purest form in which the Idea manifests itself is Thought itself.”

1. It Abstract Characteristics: In comparing Spirit with Manner a number of contrasts emerge. First, as Gravity is the essence of Matter, Freedom is the Essence of Spirit. Matter as gravity seeks a self-annihilating Idea of Unit, something outside itself. Spirit is self-contained existence, existing in and with itself. Spirit is self-consciousness knowing Itself so that what I knows and that It Knows are one = Freedom. The final cause of the World at large is the consciousness of its own freedom on the part of Spirit and, ipso facto, the reality of that freedom (19). The Orientals only knew that one (the Despot) is free; the Greeks and Romans knows that some (citizens, but not slaves are free; The German nations under the influence of Christianity knows that human beings as human beings are free. The sacrifices in the long course of the world’s history serve the Idea of Freedom Translating Thought into religious terms, the Idea of Freedom = God = God’s Will.

2. The Means by which Spirit is Realized: This is an empirical question or matter. The actions of human beings proceed from their needs passions, characters, and talents. Although the Idea of Spirit is abstract and general in Its essence, It attains realization through Will, in particular, the passionate activity of human beings. Nothing great in the World has been accomplished without passion. There must be a union of Idea and human passions. Passion means here human activity as resulting from private interests with the qualification that whole energy of will and character are devoted to their attainment and other interest are sacrificed to them. (p. 23) The development of Nature and human activities implicitly exemplify the realization of the Idea of Spirit. There is a union of objective (the Idea) and subjective (human will) and also a union of Freedom (human will) and Necessity (the Idea). Unhappiness exemplifies concern with particular purposes and while human beings act in terms of their private interests they are unknowingly serving the interests of Spirit. In addition World-Historical Individuals are agents of the World-Spirit. Examples of this are to be found in such as Alexander the Great, Caesar and Napoleon. They unconsciously serve the World-Spirit through some special insight into the needs of the time and act to bring about creative change. They are creative, determined, unorthodox and willing to sacrifice everything and others to accomplish their goals. From a purely personal perspective, they usually come to an unhappy end. Lesser persons may criticize with a sense of superiority, but only because they are lesser persons. “No man is a hero to his valet de chamber, but not because the former is no hero, but because the latter is a valet.” The Cunning of Reason sets the passions of human beings to work for the ends of the World-Spirit and lets the individual pay the penalty in the process. There is no separation of the ideal and the real, because Reason actualizes itself. Fault finding with the process shows an inability to concentrate on the World-Spirit and a focus on particular events or sacrifices. “For the fancies which the individual in his isolation indulges, cannot be the model for universal reality.” (p. 35)

“The religion, the morality of a limited life, e.g. that of a shepherd or a peasant, in its intensive concentration and limitation to a few perfectly relations of life, has infinite worth; but is quite shut out from the noisy din of the World’s History.” (p. 37)

3. The State as the Perfect Embodiment of Spirit: Although human desires or subjectivity generally might be thought to express the Idea of Reason, subjective will must unite with rational Will, a union which is the moral Whole, The State (p. 38). The State is the form of reality in which the individual has and enjoys freedom, on the condition that the individual wills what is common to the Whole. Freedom is not to be understood in terms of achieving gratification and enjoyment in a small space of liberty for the individual. Law, Morality, and Government and they alone are the positive reality and completion of Freedom. Subjective volition, passion is the practical spring of action: The Idea is the inner sprint of action; the State is the actually realized moral life, for Morality is the Unity of the essential Will with that of the individual will. Al the worth that human beings possess, all their spiritual reality, is possessed through the State, for only then is one fully conscious and a partaker of morality. Truth is the unity of the universal and subjective Will, and the Universal is only found in the laws, the universal and rational arrangements of the State. Law is the objectivity of Spirit, volition in its true form; so there can be no freedom without obedience to law in the sense of obeying oneself.
“When the State or out country constitutes a community of experience, when the subjective will of man submits to laws, the contradiction between Liberty and necessity vanishes. The State is the Divine Idea as it exists on earth. Common errors that have become fixed prejudices consist of the following. First, those human beings posses a freedom by Nature that is fettered by the State. So freedom becomes merely fulfillment of subjective desire, mere caprice. The State of Nature is a state of violence and injustice rather than true freedom, which must be acquired and won through an infinite process of knowledge and will power. Second, that the patriarchical condition is the primary conscious morality. This condition is based on feeling and the merely natural rather than on Reason. This condition is based on blood relations, which is not present for the state. This condition, the family, is valuable to the State however in its proper place. Third, that the People alone have reason and insight so that the generic existence of the State resides in its citizens. If individual will and consent are the basis for constitutional freedom, then there is no constitution. Commanding and obeying seem necessary to the functioning of a State. Hegel contends that Monarchy and not despotism is the highest expression of the State. (p. 44-46) As regards Religion and the State, Hegel argues that God constitutes the Unity of the Universal and Individual.


4. Spirit is “one Individuality, which, presented in its essence as God, is honored and enjoyed in Religion; which is exhibited as an object of sensuous contemplation in Art and is apprehended as an intellectual conception in Philosophy.” (p. 53)

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

An Outline of the “Introduction” in Hegel’s
Philosophy of History

I. Methods of History

1. Original History: Examples of original history are found in Herodotus and Thucydides. This history is usually limited to deeds, events, and states of society witnessed by the historian who shares in the same spirit described. In this approach, an external phenomenon is translated into an internal conception in the realm of representative intellect. Legends, ballad stories, and traditions are too dim and hazy even to be part of history at this stage of intellect. The influences that formed the writer are the same as those that formed the events.

2. Reflective History: The spirit of the historian transcends the time described. There is universal History, which is reflective rather than philosophical history. This approach presents a view of the entire history of a people or country with the historian bringing one’s own spirit to bear in determining the context and motives that give form to the narrative. Individual entails are often sacrificed in favor of more general abstractions. Second, there is Pragmatical History, which uses the study of the past as a guide to the present, especially with respect to moral guidance. Because of the peculiar circumstances of each period, straightforward analogies do not work well, hence Hegel’s interpretation of history in terms of dialectical progress. Third, there is Critical History. Critical History is an investigation of the truth and credibility of historical narratives. Fourth, there is Specialized History. Specialized History consists of the study of art, law, religion, etc. either as purely accidental national peculiarities which are bad, or revelations of the working of Spirit, which are good as a way of leading to philosophical history.

3. Philosophical History: Philosophical History is the thoughtful consideration of history. Thought, as essential to our humanity, brings to history the simple conception of Reason (the Idea) as the Sovereign of the World. The history of the world is a rational process. Reason is the substance of the Universe, that is, that by which all reality has its being and subsistence. Reason is the infinite power, the infinite material, the infinite form, and the infinite energy of the Universe. Reason is the infinite complex of things, their entire Essence and Truth. Reason is the True, the Eternal, and the absolutely powerful essence. Reason is what is revealed in the world, a thesis that has been proved in philosophy in the Phemenology of the mind and the Logic and is merely assumed here. Hegel states, “To him who looks at the world rationally, the world looks rationally back.” (p. 11) History presents the course of the World-Spirit, something known by Hegel because he has traversed “the entire field”. Reason = the Idea = Spirit = World Spirit = Absolute Spirit = The absolute = God = Providence. Since science seeks rational insight rather than a heap of data an investigator must bring an active, rational perspective to one’s study. Points of view producing a diffused conviction that Reason rules the World. The “Spirit” = intelligence as self-conscious Reason. Nature is the embodiment of Reason, as being unchangeable subordinate to universal laws. There is also the religious truth of Divine Providence. This is based on an indefinite faith rather than on reason. We must go beyond faith though to know God rationally. Feeling is the lowest form of mental content, whereas God must be known through thought. “Our intellectual striving aims at realizing the conviction that what was intended by eternal wisdom, is actually accomplished in the domain of existent, active Spirit, as well as that of mere Nature.” (p. 15)

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

2. Influence

Hegel developed a massive and comprehensive system of philosophy. Absolute Philosophy as influential among German people but it was also taken up with changes. Marx incorporated a number of Hegelian concepts into his own position, although Marx himself was a materialist as opposed to an idealist. The Hegelian dialectic has been extremely influential. The Phenomenology of Spirit is a seminal work in Phenomenology as a philosophical movement. He contributed significantly to the development of speculative philosophy of history. By relying upon culture and history as a necessary context for grasping knowledge in consciousness, Hegel helped lay a foundation for development of the social sciences. Absolute Philosophy was obscure enough to evoke a reaction that encouraged development of positivism and ordinary language in the 20th century.


3. Reading Hegel

The Phenomenology of Mind and The Science of Logic are especially difficult reading. This makes Hegel one of the great challenges to anyone trying to read western philosophy. Many philosophers deal with the challenge by ignoring him and this is something that we are said to do at our own peril according to Jacob Loewenberg, editor of Hegel’s writings. There are three approaches to Hegel:

1. Look for individual passages that reveal Hegel’s great insights such as the master-servant relationship, stoicism, skepticism, the unhappy consciousness, natural religion, and revealed religion.

2. Grasp Hegel’s work as a system so that you do not miss the forest for the trees. Do not however, focus upon every detail of the system since Hegel himself was never precise enough or clear enough or cogent enough to render the system intelligible in every detail.

3. Grasp Hegel’s work as a system and master all of the details.

It seems that the preferable approach to understanding Hegel is found in 2. If you do not grasp Hegel’s philosophy as a system, you are missing too much of what is essential to Hegel’s though. Ruth lies in the whole that is, the system for Hegel. On the other hand, the connections and transitions that he makes within his system are often questionable and the obscurity of many passages defies clear interpretation and thus may not always be worth the effort or examining every detail in Hegel’s system.

19th Century Philosophers: Hegel

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

1. Life

In 1788 Hegel enrolled at the University of Tubingen to study philosophy, theology, and philology. He became a friend of Schelling. Hegel was not an outstanding student but became a tutor after graduation. In 1801, Hegel took a position at the University of Jena, which he held until the University was closed after the Battle of Jena (1807). From 1808-16, he was director of a gymnasium or High School at Nuremburg. From 1812-1816 he published the Science of Logic. 1816 he became professor at the University of Heidelberg and in 1818 he became a professor at the University of Berlin where he became famous and regarded as the “official philosopher” of the German people. In 1820 he published the Philosophy of Right and in 1931 he died from cholera. A number of works based upon his lectures were published after his death.

19th Century Philosophers: Background

2. Kant

Kant is known as the advocate of the Copernican Revolution in philosophy. Just as Copernicus moved the center of the heavens from the earth to the sun, so Kant moved the focus of reality and knowledge from the world out there to the structure of the human subject’s mind. Kant focused upon the thing-in-itself or the Ding an Sich. Beyond the experience and knowledge based upon the structure of the human subject’s mind lies the thing-in-itself, which one can never experience or know as it is in itself, because we only experience or know through the medium of the mind’s own structure. Although all that is experienced or known occurs through the structure of the subject’s mind, objectivity and absolute truth still exist because there is a common structure, rationally discernible, consisting in intuitions in space and time and the categories of thought, that is, pure concepts of understanding. The structure of the mind is transcendental rather than transcendent. That is, it lies at the base of all experience and makes experience and knowledge possible. Absolute truth rests upon pure reason, theoretical or practical, and cannot be based upon sensory experience, which is always conditional or contingent. Kant presents an elaborate, intensely detailed analysis of consciousness that becomes, with the rejection of much of his fixed structure, the basis for continental phenomenology.

19th Century Philosophers: Background

1. Themes

A number of themes provide the context for 19th century philosophy. First, the search for a cleanly stated, straightforward objectivity by British philosophers vs. the search for or the rejection of, objectivity, within a profound subjectivity, by Continental philosophers. Among British philosophers John Stuart Mill represents the culmination of the British empiricism of Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard and Nietzsche introduce a profound subjectivity into philosophical thinking. However, Kant and Hegel retain objectivity, while Schopenhauer retains a partial objectivity. Kierkegaard and Nietzsche are clearly subjectivitists. Auguste Comte, and Karl Marx do not fir the pattern very well.

Second, there are traces of the traditional conflict between British empiricism and Continental rationalism. The distinction however should be carefully acknowledged and may represent an oversimplification of the two approaches. Comte and Mach on the Continent do not fit the distinction well, although Kant and Hegel do. Bradley in England does not fit the distinction well. One of the more interesting examples of the conflict arises with respect to science, specifically, the sense impression science of British empiricism vs. the dialectical science of Hegel and Marx.

Third, we see during this time the rise of social, as opposed to natural, sciences through the thought of Hegel, Comte, Marx, and Mill. Fourth, the concept of historical progress arises in the thought of Hegel, Comte, and Marx. Fifth, compared with earlier periods of philosophy in western civilization, the 19th century does not lend itself to confinement of interest to metaphysics and epistemology. This is true because Marx, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche are so concerned with the human condition. The rise of the social sciences since they are so concerned with human behavior also makes it more difficult to confine interests to metaphysics and epistemology.

Sixth, another important development during his time centers upon Hegel vs. Marx with respect to Dialectic. Hegel’s dialectic consists of the pattern of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis within the realm of ideas. Aufheben, meaning to negate, preserve, or transform constitutes the dynamic of dialectic. Marx’ dialectic turned Hegel on his head. He places the thesis, antithesis, synthesis pattern within the realm of material existence. He emphasizes the material modes of production as the dynamic of dialectic.