Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit:
96.
ARGUMENT:
a paper with 'now is night' is written on it is preserved as something that is
the now preserves itself as something that is not night or day
it is a negative in general
the now is something that night and day is not
it is not in the least affected by what it is not
it is through negation neither this nor that - the universal
and it is the universal that is the true content of sense certainty
COMMENTARY:
Hegel says the now preserves itself as something that is not day or night
that is - it is not a contingent reality or concept
that it is a negative in general
he says a simple thing of this kind - is neither this nor that - that is it has no contingent
content
it is his argument that such a thing that is neither this nor that - that is non-contingent -
is the universal
and he says that it is the universal that is the true content of sense-certainty
what this amounts to in my view is that sense-certainty has no content
the real problem with Hegel's argument is that he thinks negation signifies
modern physics made a complete ass of itself by going down the same path with the
theory of negative matter
in my view when a proposition is negated it is marked as non-operational - that is it is
marked as not useful -
the point is in general that to negate a proposition does not signify or point to an
alternative reality - a negative reality
a consequence of Hegel's confused logic is that he cannot establish the universal - as
anything other than what the 'world is not'
and the fact of it is there is no content to such a reality
