![]() ![]() The first and most wide-reaching consideration of the process of the idea, or reason, reveals to us the truth that the idea must be studied (1) in itself this is the subject of logic or metaphysics (2) out of itself, in nature this is the subject of the philosophy of nature and (3) in and for itself, as mind this is the subject of the philosophy of mind ( Geistesphilosophie). ![]() We may even call it God, because at least in the third term of every triadic development the process is God.Ĭlassification Division of philosophy We may, however, call the process by the name of "spirit" ( Geist) or "idea" ( Begriff). The only thing always present is the process ( das Werden). In the lowest form it is "being", higher up it is "life", and in still higher form it is "mind". Its name, Hegel answers, is different in each stage. Hence, God, for Aristotle, is perfect because He never changes, but is eternally complete.) But one cannot help asking what is it that develops or is developed? (Aristotle saw "being" as superior to "becoming", because anything which is still becoming something else is imperfect. In the same way as "being" and "nothing" develop into the higher concept becoming, so, farther on in the scale of development, life and mind appear as the third terms of the process and in turn are developed into higher forms of themselves. It is also the highest expression of thought because then only do we attain the fullest knowledge of a thing when we know what it was, what it is, and what it will be-in a word, when we know the history of its development. Thus, becoming, not being, is the highest expression of reality. The whole truth, for Hegel, is that the tree became a table and will become ashes. For Hegel, the equally important truth is that it was a tree, and it "will be" ashes. Hegel does not deny this but, he adds, it is equally certain that being tends to become its opposite, nothing, and that both are united in the concept becoming.įor instance, the truth about this table, for Aristotle, is that it is a table. For Aristotle, there was nothing more certain than that being equaled being, or, in other words, that being is identical with itself, that everything is what it is. It is essentially dynamic, because it tends by its very nature to pass over into nothing, and then to return to itself in the higher concept, becoming. Now, being is not a static concept according to Hegel, as Aristotle supposed it was. Thus, at the very beginning of Hegel's study of reality, he finds the logical concept of being. According to Hegel, in logic, we deal in concepts robbed of their empirical content: in logic we are discussing the process in a vacuum, so to speak. In logic – which, according to Hegel, is really metaphysic – we have to deal with the process of development applied to reality in its most abstract form. These three stages are found succeeding one another throughout the whole realm of thought and being, from the most abstract logical process up to the most complicated concrete activity of organized mind in the succession of states or the production of systems of philosophy. The third stage is the first returned to itself in a higher, truer, richer, and fuller form. In this triadic process, the second stage is the direct opposite, the annihilation, or at least the sublation, of the first. Finally, in the citizen under the rule of law, we find the third stage of development, namely liberty in a higher and a fuller sense than how the unrestrained possessed it-the liberty to do, say, and think many things beyond the power of the unrestrained. Next, we find that one gives up this freedom in favor of its opposite: the restraint, or, as he considered it, the tyranny of civilization and law. If, for instance, we wish to know what liberty is, we first take the example of unrestrained action, where one does not feel the need of repressing any thought, feeling, or tendency to act. Thus, he hoped, philosophy will not contradict experience, but experience will give data to the philosophical, which is the ultimately true explanation. Hegel's method in philosophy consists of the triadic development ( Entwicklung) in each concept and each thing.
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