Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit:
155.
ARGUMENT:
in this tautological movement the Understanding sticks to the inert unity of its object -
and the movement falls only within the understanding
its an explanation that explains nothing - only repeats the same thing
in the Thing itself this movement gives rise to nothing new - it comes into
consideration as a movement of the understanding
in it we detect what is missing in the law - the absolute flux - for this movement is
directly opposite of itself - it posits a difference which is not only a difference for us -
but one which the movement cancels as a difference
this is the same flux as presented itself as the play of forces - soliciting and solicited
forces - but these distinctions were no distinctions - and immediately canceled out
what is present here is not merely a bare unity in which no difference would be
posited - but a movement in which the distinction is made - but canceled
this process of explaining the to and fro of change - which before was outside of the
inner world and present only in appearance - has now penetrated the supersensible
world itself
consciousness has passed over from the inner being as object - to the other side - into
the Understanding - and it experiences a change there
COMMENTARY
yes - the canceling out of the movement - if this is what happens it is a canceling out to
what?
if the movement is canceled - what do we say of it?
that it is an illusion -
for either it is a real movement - which presumes movement is possible - actually
occurs - or it is not -
and as to the status of such - if it is an illusion - what is this to mean?
if it is a comprehended movement - it has some reality
if you want to then say - well reality just doesn't support such a movement -
then it's pretty clear your theory of reality is what is out of whack
the focus of consciousness is like a template that is placed on all conscious experience
if you want to say time moves on - then this template moves with it
the focus of consciousness - of a consciousness - is the action of a particularity within
a non-particular context
consciousness moves with the movement and therefore its focus - while a focus - is
never still
the object in this movement is rendered unknown by the movement
reflective consciousness fixes the object as an argument
this is how the object is held in consciousness
reflective consciousness theorizes and describes the object
this action moves it from the phenomenal realm into the theoretical
this theoretical realm is no timeless form -
the act of description and particularly its expression in language - as it were holds the
moment - this is the idea of it anyway
for operational purposes we assume we are then dealing with a fixed form - and one
therefore we have some hope of dealing with and of manipulating
but really all we have done is create a descriptive event - which in its complexity is
an argument
also it is worth noting we only operate on this level - in these terms given the very real
fact of memory
and memory here I will put is clearly a necessary function for and of consciousness
and it is clear consciousness can only function in memory given a certain physical
state of it functional external - the body
so I am saying the fact of focus - focus in time is no metaphysical conundrum - it is
just the fact of it
reflectively we can say this is what happens
and yes we can try and explain it - and for a lot of reasons - this can be an important
thing to do - it can help us function better in the world
but this is all it is - explanation is simply a ground for function
