Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit:
113.
ARGUMENT:
the This therefore is established as not This or as something superseded - and hence not
as Nothing - but as a determinate nothing - the Nothing of content viz. of the This
thus the sense element is present - not as what is immediate certainty - rather as a
universal - as that which will be defined as property
the immediacy is a universal immediacy
being is a universal by virtue of it having mediation or the negative in it
when it expresses this in its immediacy it is a differentiated determinate property
many such properties are established simultaneously - one being the negative of
another
these determinacies are related only to themselves - they are indifferent to one another
- each is on its own and free from the others
the simple self-identical universality is itself distinct from these determinate properties
it has
it is pure relating of self to self
the abstract universal medium which we call 'thinghood' or 'pure essence' is a simple
togetherness of a plurality - but the many are in their determinateness simple universals
themselves
this salt is a simple here and at the same time a manifold - it is white and it is tart -
cubical and of specific gravity
all these properties are in the simple Here in which they therefore interpenetrate - none
has a different Here from the others - but each is everywhere in the same Here as the
others
and without being separated by different Heres they do not affect each other in this
interpenetration
the whiteness does not affect the cubical shape etc.
since each is a simple relating of self to self - it leaves the others alone -
and is connected by the indifferent Also - this Also is thus the pure universal itself -
the medium - the 'thinghood' - which holds them together in this way
COMMENTARY:
the relation of consciousness to its point of focus (the object) - results in the revelation
that is the 'object in consciousness' and 'consciousness in the object' -
the relation is appearance
consciousness and the object are outside of this relationship - this happening this
event of relation - unknowns
it is the relation that reveals consciousness and the object - as phenomena
the primary act of consciousness is description
the sensual properties of a thing are its natural affects on the body
in describing these natural affects we begin with the differing ways they affect the
body - we describe them in terms of sense experience
these are 'affective descriptions'
the thing itself is nothing more than its affects on the body
affects possible because of the way the body is -
that an object might affect different bodies in different ways - or the same body in
different ways at different times - just points to the fact that its descriptive
possibilities are not limited
the thing itself - if you want to go there - is just 'that which affects'
what distinguishes one thing from another is really just a question of description - how
it is described
the fact there can be no final - essential description is just testament to the fact that
consciousness and its objects are never fixed in time and place
any here and now is just an occasion for description
all that we have of the here and now is the history of its marks - that is the history of
descriptions
a thing's properties are its descriptions
outside of its descriptions the thing is an unknown
the thing itself remains the focus - the point of all descriptions -
Hegel's 'indifferent Also' is a conjunction
we can create complex descriptions of the object of focus by conjoining descriptions
the object itself is not in any way altered by this action
its revelation though is expanded
the point of any description is just that it is a platform from which we can act in relation
to the object of consciousness
it is a platform that suggests the possibility of action - of utility
what this in fact amounts to is in the end a matter of practise - what happens
in order to act - we must always defy essence
which is to say we must always pretend knowledge
