Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit:
99.
ARGUMENT:
pure being is the essence of sense certainty
sense certainty has demonstrated that the truth of its object is the universal
pure being is not immediacy - it is that which mediation and negation are essential to
it is not what we mean by being - but is rather being defined as an abstraction - or as
the pure universal
our meaning is not the universal - but is what is left over from this empty or
indifferent here and now
COMMENTARY:
pure being is that which is unknown - and is thus the source of any knowledge
knowledge is our fundamental response to the unknown
the object of knowledge is the unknown - what else could it be?
Hegel's idea of pure being as an abstraction - amounts to saying that he has adopted a
definition of 'pure being' or essence
what I say is that any such approach to what is fundamental (whatever that is - or
however it is described) - is a failure
abstractions of any kind are (like anything else for that matter) aspects of being
and aspects of being cannot be the essence of being - this is what is essentially wrong
with Hegel's argument
my point in general is that the pursuit of essence is (and partly for the reason just
given) pointless -
logically speaking all that can underlie all that is known - is the unknown
I don't call this essence - and unlike Hegel I am not going to say some particular
knowledge is essence
