Philosophy and the Absolute: The Modes of Hegel’s Speculation

193 Pages·1985·6.06 MB·English

by  Robert Grant McRae (auth.)

PHILOSOPHY AND THE ABSOLUTE
ARCHIVES INTERNATIONALES D'HISTOIRE DES IDEES
INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES OF THE HISTORY OF IDEAS
109
ROBERT GRANT McRAE
PHILOSOPHY AND THE ABSOLUTE
The Modes of Hegel's Speculation
Directors: P. Dibon (Paris) and R. Popkin (Washington Univ., St. Louis)
Editorial Board: J.F. Battail (Uppsala); F. Duchesneau (Montreal); T. Gregory (Rome);
J.D. North (Groningen); M.]. Petry (Rotterdam); Ch.B. Schmitt (Warburg Inst., London).
Advisory Editorial Board: ]. Aubin (Paris); ]. Collins (St. Louis Univ.); P. Costa bel
(Paris); A. Crombie (Oxford); L Dambska (Cracow); H. de la Fontaine Verwey (Amster
dam); H. Gadamer (Heidelberg); H. Gouhier (Paris); K. Hanada (Hokkaido University);
W. Kirsop (Melbourne); P.O. Kristeller (Columbia Univ.); Elisabeth Labrousse (Paris);
A. Lossky (Los Angeles); ]. Malarczyk (Lublin); E. de Olaso (C.LF. Buenos Aires);
]. Orcibal (Paris); Wolfgang Rod (Munchen); J. Roger (Paris); G. Rousseau (Los
Angeles); H. Rowen (Rutgers Univ., N.].); J.P. Schobinger (Zurich); G. Sebba (Emory
Univ., Atlanta); R. Shackleton (Oxford); J. Tans (Groningen).
ROBERT GRANT McRAE
PHILOSOPHY AND
THE ABSOLUTE
The Modes of Hegers Speculation
1985 MARTIN US NIJHOFF PUBLISHERS ~.
1111
a member of the KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS GROUP
DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LANCASTER ."liliiii
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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
HeRae, Robert Crant.
Philosophy and the .bsOlut~.
(International . rchlves of the hiStory of idu" , 109)
Bibliography' p.
!. liege\, Ceorg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1170-183!.
2. Absolute, The __ IHst<ny __ 19th century. 3. Knowledge,
Theory of--tlistory-_19th Century. I. TItle. II. Seri~s.
Archives Internationales d'histoire des Idees , 109.
B2949.A26H37 9185 110 85_8763
NNI3:'ffl.9I.OI{1S754.4
ISI1'J-13: 978-94-0J0.87544 o-ISUN--13: 97W+((1.)..jlJ).j
JX)I: IOJOO7/~5(1)).j
Book information
This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federa
tion for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and
Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Copyright
© 1985 by Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, Dordrecht.
Softrol.crrq:ritl oftl'c Inrd:'oI.cr 151. O:titiCll 1985
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a
retrieval system, or transmitted in any form o r by any means, mechanical,
photOcopying, recording, or otherwise, without t he prior written permission of
the p ublishers,
Maninus Nijhoff Publishers, P.O. Box 163, 3300 AD Dordrecht,
The Netherlands.
This book
is for
Lynn Massicotte
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
IX
Introduction
I. Absolute knowing and presentation 3
1. Appearing science
1.1 The idea of presentation 3
1.2 Natural consciousness and science 8
2. The element of configuration
2.1 Labour and thinghood 14
2.2 The linguistic object 18
2.3 The spirit of a people 21
3. Result and presupposition
3.1 Absolute knowing 25
3.2 A phenomenology of presentation 35
II. Spirit and presentation 49
1. Representation within the subjective mode
1.1 The concept of presentation 49
1.2 The universality of soul 59
1.3 Individual consciousness and its truth 63
1.4 Spirit and representation 68
2. Representation and intersubjectivity
2.1 Law as 'objective' representation 75
2.2 The moral 'ought' 81
2.3 The ethical subject 82
VIII
3. Absolute self-presentation
3.1 World-spirit 88
3.2 Absolute spirit 94
3.3 The close of philosophy 101
III. Philosophic presentation 113
1. Self-knowledge and language
1.1 Absolute mediation as return-to-self 113
1.2 Linguistic presentation and the dialectic 118
2. Thoughts and situations
2.1 Absolute need and truth 126
2.2 The origin of response 131
2.3 Externalization and recollection 135
3. The act of presentation
3.1 Speculation and praxis 141
3.2 Time and the dialectic 147
3.3 Begriffsmystik 150
IV. Conclusion: The empty sepulchre 165
Glossary 181
Bibliography 183
Index 187
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Professor Pierre-Jean Labarriere (Centre Sevres, Paris)
for his sound advice and criticism. Professor Lionel Ponton (Laval) en
couraged the project from its earliest days and made helpful suggestions.
Professor Thomas Langan (Toronto) and Professor Thomas De Koninck
(Laval) offered constructive remarks on the manuscript.
INTRODUCTION
I have purposely limited myself to a rather brief statement in this introduc
tion, in order that the summing up be not misrepresented for the discursive
development of the whole. There is something more than mildly dangerous
in setting oneself a series of goals in an introduction only to find them happily
attained in the conclusion, as if getting from the beginning to the end was
simply a question of transition. Of course, the destination of a speculative
presentation includes the process of development in such a way that the end
is always implicitly the beginning: each configuration simply forms a deter
minate moment within the on-going manifestation of the "absolute".
It is around Hegel's concept of the absolute, how it is known and how it
presents itself, which the bulk of our discussion turns. We may say tentatively
that the absolute speaks. This speaking is the manifestation of the absolute
itself, not a dissimulation or mere appearance, and consequently can be
known and known most perfectly in language. In Hegel's system, this speak
ing or discourse has exhausted itself and is complete, but in what manner this
"close" is achieved remains the question which disturbs and provokes our
own speech in what is to come.
This problem has most frequently been posed in terms of whether or not
Hegel asserted that his presentation of absolute knowing marks, in some
sense or another, the "end of history". The locus for this discussion is
generally the Phiinomen%gie, where the relation between the temporal or
historical appearing of the absolute and the knowledge of this absolute at the
level of science is most fully accounted for, particularly in the chapter concer
ning absolute knowing itself. In the first chapter of our own presentation, we
have correspondingly turned to the Phiinomen%gie in order to understand
the significance of absolute knowing vis-a-vis the project of the entire text.
Through the course of this chapter, two central issues immediately come
to the fore: (i) that the appearance of the absolute for natural consciousness,
as displayed in the path of phenomenal knowing, must be understood from
the standpoint of the fully determinate manifestation of the absolute in the