Chapter 10 Hegel and the Manifestations of Geist

What did Hegel find dissatisfying in Kantian philosophy? What is the difference between “picture thinking” and “conceptual thinking”? What is Geist? What is Hegelian logic? What is Hegel’s Doctrine of Being? What is absolute knowing? How do Hegel’s followers develop and apply his insights?

DESPAIR! How do we surmount our alienation from Truth?

HEGEL Do you agree with Kant that humans are alienated from ultimate reality? Or can we understand it through understanding history?

Hegel’s Vision of Unity The world as the unfolding of Geist

Do you think that you can understand the world through analysis alone, or is such a static approach unsatisfactory?

Geist Do you believe that the world as a whole is alive? What does this claim mean?

What does it mean for humans to participate in the life of the world, and so be a part of Geist? How does this help us collapse Kant’s distinction between the noumenal and phenomenal realms?

Is the objective world a thing? What does this question mean? And why is it important?

If Truth is an ongoing movement, how can we ever gain possession of it?

Hegel’s Answer By mastering dialectical logic, we can see how the flow of the movements of Geist adhere to a consistent and rational pattern reflected in every detail of the universe

Imagine… You are completely alone. How would you become aware of yourself as a self? Once you are self-aware, would you be satisfied all alone? Or would you want to interact with other conscious agents?

Would this interaction be pleasant? Remember, you want the other agent to recognize you. How do you interact with others when you want something from them? Do you try to manipulate them to get it from them? Do you thus treat them as mere instruments of your will?

Lords and bondsmen Would you prefer to be a lord, or a bondsman? What would be the costs and benefits of each position?

Skeptics! If you claim to have no certain knowledge of anything external to you, and so objectify what is outside you as “other,” how are you like a Hegelian lord? BUT you are part of other agent’s “otherness”. So, you are also like a bondsman!

If you see yourself as both a reflecting subject and the object of reflection, how might you respond? Would you try to take over the external world in some sense? HOW?

HEGEL’S LOGIC How is Hegel’s logic different from symbolic logic?

A Logical Process “1 + 1 = 2” How is this equation similar in kind to Hegel’s logic?

Have you ever been able to reason without starting from somewhere? When you reason, do you consider the relationships that exist between the objects of your reasoning? Do the debates of such reasoning ever have an obvious stopping point?

A Dilemma! If the debates your reason leads you into have no obvious stopping points, either they must continue for ever, or else something else must be introduced to stop them. If the debates continue for ever, can you ever gain knowledge?

The speculative side of logic How could you escape skepticism? What is the third movement of logic?

The Three Sides of Hegel’s Logic

A Hegelian Riddle! How is the Absolute Idea like a piece of fruit?

The Doctrine of Being If Hegel’s account of logic is historical, isn’t it just subjective? And if it’s just subjective, how can it provide knowledge of Truth?

The Foundation? BEINGNOTHING

How are Being, Nothing, and Becoming related?

God! What sort of God would exist in Hegel’s universe, if it is identical with the form of the world? Would this be a God worthy of worship? Would it even make sense to worship such a God?

Hegel’s Influence Why did only the “left” Hegelians have any influence on later philosophy? Does this imply that their claims are True?

Ludwig Feuerbach Do you agree with Feuerbach that Heaven and God are just illusions?

Do you believe that all religion is just an exercise in projection? Did Man create God?

Max Stirner Should we get rid of abstract notions of “mankind”? Why, or why not?

KARL MARX

Connection to Hegel? In which two ways is Marx’s thought connected to that of Hegel? How do these threads linking Marx and Hegel lead to communism?

Communism Do you think that communism is an appealing doctrine? Why, or why not? How did Marx turn Hegel upside down?

Wondrous Distress in Hegelian Philosophy How can Hegel’s system be understood as an attempt to vanquish both wonder and distress? Is he successful in these efforts? What are you counting as “success”?