SPECIAL EDITION – Hegel's Philosophy of Three: Part 2
#37. The Phenomenology of Spirit
Tuesday, June 28 , 2022
“Art does not simply reveal God: it is one of the ways in which God reveals, and thus actualizes, himself.”
– Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics
“Reality by a Thread” UPGRADE Now Available – 2nd Free Podcast For Everybody Downloads Tomorrow!
SPECIAL EDITION PART II – CONSIDERATION #37: “The Phenomenology of Spirit”
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
Kant represented the peak of Rationalism and German philosophy prior to Hegel. According to Kant, human beings are incapable of knowing “a thing in itself” in its total completeness, because our senses are limited, making “things in themselves” essentially unknowable. Perception and “a priori” knowledge and understanding make it possible for us to experience these “things in themselves,” or physical objects, partially, as “phenomena.” All physicality is completely recognizable and intelligible only to the Mind of God, not being limited by any physical factors.
“If it is inherently impossible for us to know the “thing in itself,” how can we know there really is a ‘thing in itself?’”
However, Hegel, and other Idealists, had one simple question: “If the ‘thing in itself’ is essentially unknowable, how do we ‘know’ that the ‘thing in itself’ really exists?” If it is inherently impossible for us to know the “thing in itself,” how can we know there really is a “thing in itself?” This is the deficiency Hegel attempts to solve. The only way to do that involves eliminating the concept of “a thing in itself”; thereby negating the possibility of a truly objective physical Realty. In Hegel’s philosophy there is not an external physical world; the mind creates everything. Hegel sought to formulate a complete system of philosophy based on this new revelation.
“Since Hegel’s demise, no one has taken up the mantle, or has taken up the challenge, of trying to include all of Reality and all of existence in one comprehensive system. So, even if Hegel fails in his attempt to create a completely comprehensive account of the human condition; you have to give him a certain degree of credit for trying what may be impossible. He is trying to construct a coherent explanation, or account, of the external world of nature, the internal world of consciousness and experience, and the process by which consciousness develops in Historical time.”
Michael Sugrue, Hegel: The Phenomenology of Geist (Lecture: Great Minds-Part 4)
One example of what this reality might look like is Christopher Nolan’s film, “Inception.” In the film, characters enter the “Dream World” where their entire “dream reality” is generated purely, and directly, from their own minds. Much like Hegel’s philosophy, it is a complex and complicated idea to follow; often confusing and sometimes losing us along the way. Much of this confusion arises from the fact that there is more than one mind affecting the dream. Multiple minds formulate the dream world; each from their own perspective based on their own inclinations and aspirations. Not as complete an explanation as Hegel’s, however, it will give you a good “sense” of how a completely “non-physically” generated reality might be experienced by human beings.
“We are connected to a ‘larger’ more comprehensive ‘human mind’ that represents the consciousness of all human beings…”
Like Inception, the key to Hegel’s philosophy is that reality is not generated by any “one” single mind; it is generated through a combination and interconnection of multiple minds. Hegel argues that the world is certainly a product of mind, but not just our individual minds. We are not each individually creating and generating our own unique world or universe. We are connected to a “larger” more comprehensive “human mind” that represents the consciousness of all human beings; the “soul” of humanity, so to speak. Hegel called this all-inclusive consciousness representing the collective human mind Geist, or Spirit.
CONSIDERATION #37 – The Phenomenology of Spirit
Part-2 – The Phenomenology of Spirit (Geist)
Geist is a German word that is very difficult to translate into English without losing key distinctions and connotations. It is traditionally translated as Spirit or Mind. However, there are three English words derived from the German “Geist” that may help to fill in the gaps.
The first word is “ghost.” Ghost, interestingly, is a spirit caught between being and non-being. It is also the Spirit of the body, much like the Geist is the Spirit of humanity. It is metaphysical, existing outside of the physical world, yet somehow connected to it.
“The essence of our purpose in existence is directly connected to Geist.”
The second word is “gist.” The connotation of “gist” is to understand the essence of something. The essence of our purpose in existence is directly connected to Geist. To understand the “gist” of our existence requires us to understand the nature of Geist.
The last word is “geyser.” The connotation of geyser suggests something hidden beneath the surface that periodically erupts into our perception, or reality. The Geist represents a “geyser of consciousness,” generally moving unseen, that consistently over time erupts into a new catharsis of “human understanding” reflecting a turning point in History, or Reality. In Hegel’s philosophy, Geist becomes a repository for a multitude of metaphysical possibilities.
“Human development is directly related to the evolution of Geist through time, human beings are in an active symbiotic relationship with Geist…”
Prior to Hegel, abstract concepts relating to God, Mind, or other abstractions such as Plato’s Realm of Forms, were all static states of eternal existence. Most involved the idea of an eternal state of divine knowledge reflecting on itself, accessible to us through reason in the form of a priori knowledge. God, Mind, and the Realm of Forms never changed. In fact, this was the essential quality of their nature; unchanging, incorruptible, unattached from the existence and reality they had once created.
“Geist and humanity are evolving together.”
Hegel’s Geist, however, is not only an active participant in human behavior, but it also reflects the evolution of human spirit through History. Human development is directly related to the evolution of Geist through time, human beings are in an active symbiotic relationship with Geist in which the evolution of our purposes become intertwined; Geist and humanity are evolving together.
In Hegel’s philosophy, there is a definite beginning and a definite end to this endeavor. The end comes when Geist and Humanity have both fulfilled their ultimate purpose for existing. The stages of our development through this process can be identified and understood through the perception, not of any “thing in itself,” but of the important lessons we were meant to learn, from our own History.
“…the problem is, how is it possible, or what intelligibility can be lent to the idea, that mind creates everything? Well, once you lose the Ding an sich [thing in itself] then there is only the mind to generate the form and content of consciousness. But this mind is not static, as Kant would have us believe; Kant thinks that the a priori forms are built in, kind of hardwired into the psyche, and there’s no choice, no change or alteration.
Hegel believes that the actual categories of human cognition develop over time. So, there is a temporal dynamism here, which allows for change and allows for the growth of consciousness; and by implication this growth of consciousness is teleological. It goes from one point to another. It has a beginning point and an end point. The opening point will turn out to be the finitude of consciousness, and the end point will turn out to be infinite consciousness. And this is the progress of the Geist through History. This development of consciousness is in fact the development of self-consciousness…
So, what we are looking at here is the phenomenology of Geist… Appearance is Reality. In other words, the world we experience is what it is. There’s no Ding an sich, no second level that we can’t get access to. What this podium seems to be (knocks on podium) is exactly what this podium is. What human history, on the development of the human psyche is, is the human psyche itself. There’s nothing underneath, or apart, or separate from; the world is what it is. And if we look at it rationally, it will disclose itself to us.”
Dr. Michael Sugrue, Hegel: The Phenomenology of Geist (Lecture: Great Minds-Part 4)
According to Hegel, the entire history of philosophy revolves around the coming to self-knowledge of the Geist, which occurs through human development. Essentially, we are in the process of “becoming” Absolute Truth, simultaneously with the Geist. The journey begins with the external world of the senses which leads to a gradual dialectic that over time generates impasses and contradictions, periodically causing the Geist to “geyser” up to the surface of human consciousness – moving Humanity and the Geist closer to their ultimate end point of infinite consciousness.
“The Phenomenology of Geist essentially reflects the history of human thought…”
The growth and development of Geist, and human self-consciousness, evolves because of a continuous series of cathartic gestalts resulting from an endless process of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. The Phenomenology of Geist essentially reflects the history of human thought, and Hegel’s attempt to move it beyond the prison of duality.
The finitude and limitation of human self-consciousness, or human self-understanding, gradually progresses through the process of contradiction to ever higher levels; and the end, the telos, the purpose of these cogitations, is to come to complete uncontradictory and absolute final self-consciousness. This can be viewed as the reconciliation of God and man, or the reconciliation of human beings with themselves…
Michael Sugrue, Hegel: The Phenomenology of Geist (Lecture: Great Minds-Part 4)
In The Phenomenology of Geist, Hegel explains the spiritual odyssey of Western Civilization. As human beings began to recognize patterns and make distinctions about reality, many questions arose. Those questions led to the birth of philosophy beginning with the early Greeks. Aristotle’s original concept of “natural purpose,” which is at the heart of virtue philosophy, maintains a heavy influence in Hegel’s work. Step-by-step. Thought-by-thought. Thesis-antithesis-synthesis… This is the process that continuously occurs over time, evolving individual and collective human self-consciousness toward the ultimate purpose of infinite, or divine, consciousness. Eventually manifesting itself as the Mind of God.
“This moves individual self-consciousness, and the collective consciousness of the Geist, closer to their purpose.”
In Hegel’s philosophy, we are not defined by our relationship with “things.” What defines us is our relationship with other minds. This is the relationship that leads to the possibility of synthesis. Individual minds engage, disagree, argue, and eventually synthesize, or transcend, the outdated ideas and realities of the past, moving the Geist ever closer to perfection. This moves individual self-consciousness, and the collective consciousness of the Geist, closer to their purpose. This evolutionary process continues to move us forward in the direction of infinite consciousness, or Absolute Truth.
POSTSCRIPT
Absolute Spirit
According to Hegel, the combination of Objective Spirit and Subjective Spirit is Absolute Spirit. Subjective Spirit pertains to the minds of individual human beings. The purpose of Subjective Spirit, or individual human beings, is to become self-contained and free. Objective Spirit consists of the collective consciousness of humanity, the society, or the state. The collective consciousness of the Objective Spirit reflects the overall reality of human beings at any given time in History. It establishes the collective Reality. A combination, or Unity, of Subjective and Objective Spirit manifests as Absolute Spirit. Absolute Spirit represents the Unity of Eternal Absolute Truth, the infinite mind of the cosmos.
“Absolute Spirit unifies subjective and objective duality into a unity of the Absolute Idea.”
Subjective Spirit develops through anthropology, phenomenology, and psychology, and its essence is cognitive. Objective Spirit develops through laws, morality, and social ethics. Objective Spirit contains the essence of Absolute Truth, however only in terms of its potentiality. It is a finite reflection of Absolute Spirit. The essence of Objective Spirit is necessity. Absolute Spirit develops through art, religion, and philosophy. Absolute Spirit unifies subjective and objective duality into a unity of the Absolute Idea. Subjective and Objective Spirit should be considered roads leading to the destination of Absolute Spirit, Absolute Idea, Absolute Truth, or the Mind of God.
“…objective expressions of the Human Spirit manifest the subjective understanding of Geist through the creative social institutions of art, religion, and philosophy.”
The triad related to Absolute Spirit consists of art, religion, and philosophy, in that order. These represent the highest understanding and interpretation of Absolute Truth. Humanity’s grasp of the Absolute Idea is demonstrated objectively through these three possibilities. Each of these possibilities is also composed of a triad. Art, for example, moves from Symbolic Art (cave drawings) to Classical Art (art related to religion and myth) and finally to Romantic Art (expressions related to the importance of self).
From this frame of reference we can see how Geist moves through individuals into the social context. Individual artists create art. Society determines its value. We can also recognize the evolution of human thought from Symbolic (sensory perception/myth), to Classical (religion/Christianity), and finally Romantic (philosophy/science). These objective expressions of the Human Spirit manifest the subjective understanding of Geist through the creative social institutions of art, religion, and philosophy. Each reflecting a higher level of understanding regarding Absolute Truth.
“These three objective expressions of human thought and understanding reflect the History of Geist in our world.”
Here is another way of looking at the progression of Geist. Art is an acknowledgement, or recognition, of Absolute Truth. Art represents an objective way to express that recognition through the Geist. Art is essentially an attempt to “re-create” a particular aspect of Absolute Truth experienced by the artist. The essence of art is inspiration.
Religion moves to an understanding of Absolute Truth. It is an attempt to realize the Absolute Truth by trying to incorporate it into your daily life. Institutional religions traditionally promote this understanding through the practice of dogma and ritual. Faith and devotion are the essence of institutional religion.
Philosophy, or science, represents the highest level of human understanding of Geist. It utilizes logic and reason to consider and investigate the nature of Absolute Truth and our connection and relationship to it. Rationality is the essence of philosophy and science.
These three objective expressions of human thought and understanding reflect the History of Geist in our world.
Next week the conclusion of our three-part Special Edition on Hegel; his interpretation regarding the history of Geist in the world.
P.P.S.
Excerpt from Tomorrow’s 2nd Free Podcast!
“We can say that sometimes Reality appears to us as a kind of tangled mess of possibilities. We often experience reality as a huge birds’ nest of entanglements from which we view the world. We don’t really know what the nest is composed of, or how it is put together, we just know that it supports us and is somehow the source of our experience…
When we encounter a very massive entanglement, like Reality, we don’t try to untangle it all at once. We look for the smaller entanglements within it and start by untangling them first. We find the largest knots in these smaller entanglements and unravel them one at a time; until the entire entanglement is unraveled and then we move on, to the next entanglement. The more we unravel the knots in these entanglements the more the purpose and meaning of the larger entanglement becomes accessible. We begin to see where the strings go, what they’re connected to, and what their function is in the overall entanglement. It may be true that some entanglements can never be completely unraveled. However, it is also true that it’s human nature to try anyway. That’s why we’re here.
The overall nest is Reality. Each individual book in the “How Things Work” series represents a major entanglement within the overall entanglement called Reality. The main entanglement we are attempting to untangle now is science and religion. This is a major entanglement because it represents the essence of our search for truth, knowledge and meaning. Entanglements within the Entanglement of Science & Religion include Dualism, Taoism, Western Philosophy, Trinities & Triads, Atomic Theory, Relativity Theory, Quantum Theory, Judaism, Christianity, and Mysticism.”
Excerpt: “Untangling the Knots of Reality” Podcast Two: Translating Reality: Untangling Mathematics & Metaphors (Free Download Tomorrow)
“Book One: Dualism – Recognizing the Patterns of Reality SUBSTACK EDITION” Now Available for Only $9.95! Exclusively through BooksNotOnAmazon.com (FREE PDF Download with Paid Subscription to “Reality by a Thread.”) Click Image to Learn More…
