Hegel's Phenemenology of Spirit:
162.
ARGUMENT:
this simple infinity or the absolute Notion may be called the simple essence of life
this self identical essence is related only to itself
each sundered moment is a pure opposite and therefore each the opposite of itself -
therefore not an opposite at all - but rather a pure self-identical essence
philosophy cannot answer the question 'how from this pure essence does difference or
otherness issue forth?' - for the division into two moments has already taken place -
difference is excluded from the self-identical and set apart from it
what was supposed to be self-identical is already one of these two moments instead of
being the absolute essence
that the self-identical divides into two means that it supersedes itself as an otherness
the unity of which it is usual to say that difference cannot issue from it - is in fact one
of the two moments - it is the abstraction of the simplicity or unitary nature over
and against the difference
but in saying the unity is an abstraction - it is only one of the opposed moments - it is
already implied that it is the dividing of itself - for if the unity is a negative it is
opposed to something - then it is eo ipso posited as that which has an antithesis within
it
the different moments of self-sundering and of becoming self-identical are therefore
only this movement of self-suppression
for since the self-identical moment which becomes its opposite is an abstraction or is
already a self-sundering - its self-sundering is therefore a suppression of what it is and
therefore a suppression of its dividedness
its becoming self-identical is equally a self-sundering - what becomes identical with
itself thereby opposes itself to self-sundering - it puts itself on one side - it becomes
the sundered moment
COMMENTARY:
first up the term 'self-identical' is meaningless - the phrase suggests a relation where
none holds - a relation exists between different things - therefore a thing is not related
to itself - if it is related to anything - it is related to what is not itself
likewise 'self-sundering' makes no sense - if a thing is sundered - it is undered by
another thing
if 'self-identical' is the definition of essence - we can forget essence
alternatively we can simply recognize that the final nature of things is unknown
in saying that philosophy cannot answer the question 'how from pure essence does
difference issue forth? - Hegel is for a moment recognizing the truth of skepticism
that is he is acknowledging that we do not and cannot know the origin and nature of
reality
but this acknowledgment is short lived - it is in his terms 'sundered' and I think never
to be 'un-sundered'
really where Hegel shines is in his introduction of movement into the metaphysical
realm
and it is a useful concept in relation to the problem of unity and diversity
his idea in short is that the unity diversifies and that the diversification unifies
and that this movement is ongoing - that is it is of the nature of reality - reality is this
movement
his logic of opposites is the conceptual underpinning or description for this reality
and he can say that his logic expresses the movement of reality and that the movement
of reality is described or expressed in his logic
one cannot help but think that whatever else you might say against Hegel's argument -
there is no doubt his identification of reality as a movement is of lasting significance
and value
for Hegel - it is the movement - the fact of change that is unchanging -
and this for him is the essence of life
as to this movement - it is quite simply unknown -
Hegel devotes all his poer to describing it - 'explaining' it - but really all his efforts
finally point to the fact that the 'movement' is no more than a name for the unknown
to my mind his dialectical argument amounts to saying that the idea of stable
knowledge is an illusion
and I would go the one step further and say that therefore this account of knowledge
and reality - cannot itself be held outside of it own logic
that is to say that such a metaphysics - like what it describes is only a moment in an
ever changing reality
language fixes it to a page - therefore it has the appearance of being what it is not -
unchanging
in fact like everything else it is ephemeral
from an artistic perspective it is a moment of revelation - even a moment of delight
