Almost finished with my Hegel anthology. I have about forty pages to go in The Phenomenology of Spirit. This book is the most difficult book I have ever read, period. More difficult than calculus, modern physics, James Joyce, or, and I’m guessing here, Mandarin Chinese. It may as well be written in cuneiform for all I can understand of it. If I had to guess, I’d say that perhaps I’ve grasped 5 percent of the book’s essential ideas, and I’m not even sure if I’ve grasped those ideas correctly. I shake my head, but I have swallowed the bait. I have to understand this, even if it means spending a month reading secondary material and re-reading the anthology, slower, over the next six.
What is this book about? Hegel’s describing Spirit, his one overriding Idea. It spills into all his other works – no, it is the basis of all his other works, from theories on Art to theories on Political Science. All is through Spirit. But Spirit is not what us normal, Judeo-Christian-influenced twenty-first century men and women think it is.
What is it?
What is this book about? Hegel’s describing Spirit, his one overriding Idea. It spills into all his other works – no, it is the basis of all his other works, from theories on Art to theories on Political Science. All is through Spirit. But Spirit is not what us normal, Judeo-Christian-influenced twenty-first century men and women think it is.
What is it?
I wish I knew. That seems to be what the entire Phenomenology of Spirit is about. So, here’s my take on Spirit, and I acknowledge that I’m probably 180-degrees dead wrong. But the following ramblings are what I’ve taken away from three months of reading Hegel.
Step back a bit from reality and try to envision mankind as a whole, as a generality or an abstract concept. Now let’s assume a fourth – or fifth, sixth, whatever – dimension, something we can’t see or feel or detect, but some zone or area that occupies the same space as we do. Inhabiting this dimension is Spirit. Spirit is not God, who is outside-of-time; Spirit is in time, like us, in that it develops. It seems to have a symbiotic relationship with us. Rather, we have a symbiotic relationship with It. Its essence envelops us, engulfs us, and we It. We are the instruments of Spirit, but it chooses to use us more in aggregate than as individuals. It’s purpose is to develop, to grow in consciousness, yet in it we have our consciousness. Hegel spends a great deal of time examining the characteristics and qualities of this surprisingly complex entity, and the intricate rules in which it interacts through us. Art, Politics, History, the State – all are expressions of Spirit in our dimension. We are expressions of Spirit. The concept of freedom which is expressed in our reality seems to be a reflection of the development of Spirit. You can also look at this from a religious angle, too, though I don’t know how one could worship Hegel’s Spirit. It seems we are … not necessarily pawns, but … limbs of Spirit.
Got all that? Not too hard. But probably completely off the mark.
What interests me, though, is how thoroughly science fiction the overlying idea seems to be. Think about it. (Or: think about It.) What is Spirit? What is it exactly, precisely, in five hundred – no, one hundred – words or less. What is It? That’s what interests me, and in an SF context there could be a rich lode of ideas there. What strikes me is how utterly alien the man’s thought is. It’s almost inhuman. Wait, that’s a poor choice of words. Hegel’s thought, to me, could be viewed as the next generation of human thought, something we are not capable of thinking right at this time (and these works were written two hundred years ago). Or it could be gibberish, bloviation, dense writing to disguise weak ideas as important. At this stage, I can’t quite determine which position has greater validity. Certainly many have held the second position.
Step back a bit from reality and try to envision mankind as a whole, as a generality or an abstract concept. Now let’s assume a fourth – or fifth, sixth, whatever – dimension, something we can’t see or feel or detect, but some zone or area that occupies the same space as we do. Inhabiting this dimension is Spirit. Spirit is not God, who is outside-of-time; Spirit is in time, like us, in that it develops. It seems to have a symbiotic relationship with us. Rather, we have a symbiotic relationship with It. Its essence envelops us, engulfs us, and we It. We are the instruments of Spirit, but it chooses to use us more in aggregate than as individuals. It’s purpose is to develop, to grow in consciousness, yet in it we have our consciousness. Hegel spends a great deal of time examining the characteristics and qualities of this surprisingly complex entity, and the intricate rules in which it interacts through us. Art, Politics, History, the State – all are expressions of Spirit in our dimension. We are expressions of Spirit. The concept of freedom which is expressed in our reality seems to be a reflection of the development of Spirit. You can also look at this from a religious angle, too, though I don’t know how one could worship Hegel’s Spirit. It seems we are … not necessarily pawns, but … limbs of Spirit.
Got all that? Not too hard. But probably completely off the mark.
What interests me, though, is how thoroughly science fiction the overlying idea seems to be. Think about it. (Or: think about It.) What is Spirit? What is it exactly, precisely, in five hundred – no, one hundred – words or less. What is It? That’s what interests me, and in an SF context there could be a rich lode of ideas there. What strikes me is how utterly alien the man’s thought is. It’s almost inhuman. Wait, that’s a poor choice of words. Hegel’s thought, to me, could be viewed as the next generation of human thought, something we are not capable of thinking right at this time (and these works were written two hundred years ago). Or it could be gibberish, bloviation, dense writing to disguise weak ideas as important. At this stage, I can’t quite determine which position has greater validity. Certainly many have held the second position.
Much, much to think about.
No comments:
Post a Comment