Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit:
141.
ARGUMENT:
the notion of Force becomes an actual through its duplication into two Forces
these two Forces exist as independent essences - but their movement is each towards
the other - such that their being is a being posited by the other - their being has the
significance of a pure vanishing
they do not exist as extremes that are fixed and substantial - transmitting to each other
in the middle term of their contact a merely external property - on the contrary they
are only in this middle term and in this contact
in this there is immediately present both the repression within itself of Force or its
being-for-self - as well as its expression - Force that solicits and Force that is solicited
their essence is solely through the other
thus they have no substances of their own that support and sustain them
the Notion of Force preserves itself as the essence in its very actuality
Force as actual exists in its expression
the truth of it remains only the thought of it -
the movements of its actuality - their substances and movements - collapse into an
undifferentiated unity
thus the realization of Force is at the same time the loss of reality - in that realization
it has become something quite different - viz. - this universality - which the
understanding knows at the outset to be its essence and which proves itself to be such
in the reality of Force - in the actual substances
COMMENTARY:
here consciousness and its object are instances of the one universality
the understanding consciousness has of the object - is the reality of the object
consciousness understands itself in terms of force and understands its object as force
this is if you like an account of the middle term - of the relation of consciousness and
its object
the relation is force expressed in consciousness - expressed in its object
'force' is the name of the universal
even so this force argument is post immediacy - post that is raw experience - it is a
reflective and indeed metaphysical account of the relation - of the experience
and yes it is true to say the relation is a relation of unity
the relation is the unity of consciousness and its object
we experience the unity
but the unity as experienced is unknown
consciousness reflects on this - on its unity with object and characterizes it - gives it
'substance' - or at least expression
Hegel's argument that the understanding knows immediately its essence and that this
essence is the actuality of the substances - is not correct
this 'knowledge' is not immediate at all -
it is a reflective argument - an explanation of the unity that presents - immediately -
without knowledge -
it is the ground of knowledge - it is what 'knowledge' rests on
in truth there is no explanation in the sense of a final account - just transitory
hypotheses - that function as explanation
Hegel's notion of force really just gives the unity - the unknown - a name
