Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit:
117.
ARGUMENT:
the object which I apprehend presents itself purely as One - but I also perceive it as a
property that is universal - which thereby transcends the singularity of the object
the being of the objective essence of the one was therefore not its true being
but since the object is what is true - the untruth falls in me - my apprehension was not
correct
on account of the universality of the property - I must take the objective essence to be
on the whole a community
I now see the property to be determinate and opposed to another and excluding it
therefore the objective essence is not a community with others - on account of the
determinateness of the property I must break up the community - and posit the
objective essence as one that excludes
in the broken up One I find many properties that are mutually indifferent
therefore I do not apprehend the object correctly when I apprehend it as an exclusive
it is now a universal common medium in which many properties are present as
sensuous universalities
what I perceive as the simple and the true is not a universal medium - but the single
property by itself - which is neither a property or a determinate being - for now it is
neither in a One nor connected with others
only when it belongs to a One is it a property - and only in relation to others is it
determinate
as this relating of itself to itself - it remains merely sensuous being in general - since it
no longer possesses the character of negativity
and the consciousness that takes its object - as my object - has ceased to perceive and
has withdrawn into itself
sensuous being and my meaning pass over into perception -
I am thrown back to the beginning and drawn into the cycle which supersedes itself
each moment and as a whole
COMMENTARY:
the object I perceive is a possibility of description
it is in this state an unknown that is open to consciousness - open to interpretation
any conception of it - as e.g. - 'one' - is revisable - but nevertheless any such
description is true - as true as any other -
the truth of descriptions is determined by their use
the concepts that Hegel refers to here - the one - property - universal - common
medium etc. - are all in themselves valid -
that is the unknown can be defined and described in such terms -
for them to make sense we need to know their point or their use
what is clear from Hegel's analysis is the interconnectedness of such concepts and the
importance of argument -
argument is what relates one conception to another
on the conceptual level - the focus of consciousness - the unknown - becomes an
argument
here really is the beginning of objective status -
what was unknown is now argued - and as an 'argued' is at least a public entity - and
open to the possibility of description
