More on Hegel, July 15, 2007
As I said before in these blogs, both Nicholas of Cusa and Friedrich Hegel view God as the unity of all opposites. However, because of his interest in knowing the growth of knowledge, Nicholas investigated the meaning of the symbol, maximum. First, he shows that the absolute maximum cannot be any greater or be less than it is. Thus, the absolute maximum is also absolute minimum. Accordingly, Nicholas views God as the unity of the opposites, absolute maximum and absolute minimum. (Nicholas will model God using a circle in which the center is the absolute minimum and the circumference is the absolute minimum.)
Since the absolute maximum will not be found in our finite world, we can expect to find two kinds of opposites in the universe. The first kind has a pair of opposites in which their ‘essences’ are maximally different. The second kind has a pair of opposites in which their essences are not maximally different.
In his Phenomenology of Spirit, Preface, paragraph 39, Hegel says that the pair of oppo
sites, true and false, is an example of the first kind. He says that these opposites have ‘complete otherness.’ This kind, he says, is like oil and water and does not mix. He thus rejects the statement --- in every falsehood there is a grain of truth. Thus, false is not a moment of truth. To know that something is false merely means that there is a disparity between ‘what knowledge we have’ and ‘the truth we are seeking In the same paragraph, Hegel identifies three other pairs of opposites of the first kind. They are as follows: subject-object, finite-infinite, and being-thought. If he was living today, Hegel would laugh at the one-sided and godless universes that are proposed by today’s physicists.
The opposites in the second kind have similar essences and are related functionally. They coexist under a higher idea (synthesis). An example is a plant that has inner essential moments such as roots and stems, which develop outer essential moments such as branches, leaves, buds, blossoms, fruit and seed. These moments are different positive things which are developed over time by a negation process. This negative process is ‘Plato’s negative,’ which appears in his Sophist at 257b.
Since the absolute maximum will not be found in our finite world, we can expect to find two kinds of opposites in the universe. The first kind has a pair of opposites in which their ‘essences’ are maximally different. The second kind has a pair of opposites in which their essences are not maximally different.
In his Phenomenology of Spirit, Preface, paragraph 39, Hegel says that the pair of oppo
sites, true and false, is an example of the first kind. He says that these opposites have ‘complete otherness.’ This kind, he says, is like oil and water and does not mix. He thus rejects the statement --- in every falsehood there is a grain of truth. Thus, false is not a moment of truth. To know that something is false merely means that there is a disparity between ‘what knowledge we have’ and ‘the truth we are seeking In the same paragraph, Hegel identifies three other pairs of opposites of the first kind. They are as follows: subject-object, finite-infinite, and being-thought. If he was living today, Hegel would laugh at the one-sided and godless universes that are proposed by today’s physicists.The opposites in the second kind have similar essences and are related functionally. They coexist under a higher idea (synthesis). An example is a plant that has inner essential moments such as roots and stems, which develop outer essential moments such as branches, leaves, buds, blossoms, fruit and seed. These moments are different positive things which are developed over time by a negation process. This negative process is ‘Plato’s negative,’ which appears in his Sophist at 257b.
posted by George Shollenberger @ 11:30 AM
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