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feat: new section on immediacy and determinateness
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Firgrep committed Jan 7, 2025
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69 changes: 60 additions & 9 deletions content/hegel/reference/existence/development.mdx
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Expand Up @@ -112,11 +112,11 @@ the glimmers, as it were, of a movement amidst this static determinacy.

Hegel notes that "The _whole_ is likewise in the form or _determinateness_ of
being [is such] _for us, in our reflection_ (Hegel 2010, 84/21.97). Stephen Houlgate
[elaborates](#houlgate) that this difference is between, on the one hand, regarding
`existence` as _immediate_ and therefore containing `being` and `non-being` as its
moments but where `being` predominates, as it appears _for us_ in our reflection;
against, on the other hand, `existence` as simply the unity of `being` and `non-being`
where neither one has the greater emphasis.
[elaborates](#houlgate) that this difference is between, on the one hand, `existence`
as _immediate_ and therefore containing `being` and `non-being` as its moments but
where `being` predominates, in contrast to, on the other hand, `existence` as simply
the unity of `being` and `non-being` where neither one has the greater emphasis.
The former is that way because it appears _for us_ in our reflection.

It is puzzling why Hegel should have to raise a problem of external reflection
here. If the issue appears to stem from over-emphasizing `being` over
Expand All @@ -127,10 +127,61 @@ available of `existence` that does _not_ determine that the unity of `being` and
the root cause—namely, the immediacy of `existence`—must also be
problematic, but then the issue is no longer that of an external reflection.

There seems to be three approaches one could explore. Either the oneness, or
unity, of `being` and `non-being` is or is not. Or the matter with the external
reflection is itself an external reflection that is unwarranted. Or, the logical
development here needs to be revised.
There seems to be at least four avenues one could explore from here. Either the
oneness, or unity, of `being` and `non-being` is or is not. Or the matter with
the external reflection is itself an external reflection that is unwarranted. Or
an external reflection really has taken place on erroneous grounds and it not
yet clear as to why, or if it follows necessarily from the logic. Or, finally,
the logical development here needs to be revised.

#### Immediacy and Determinateness (Niklas, Yirmibes)

Further to the issue of why an one-sided determination and an external
reflection arises in the first Existence section. First, does oneness imply
wholeness? The term `whole` is a category of Essence, which is later developed
in the _Logic_, and, as the movement roughly is explicated there, the `whole`
presupposes `parts`. Insofar as the `whole` is here evoked, it may simply imply
`parts`, and that gets thought into the mire of one-sided determination. Put
simply, to identify a concept as one-sided (a whole), one should already know
more than the one-sidedness of the concept. Since what will come has not yet
been made explicit (posited), one can only determine this one-sidedness as if it
is _for us_, in our reflection. This is exactly what Hegel attempts to prevent
in the development here by alerting us to the fact that there is no
one-sidedness of `existence`; that this thinking is an external imputation upon
the matter by us and that it does not follow immanently. This external
reflection can possibly be traced back to the very notion of a `whole`.

However, why does the `whole` become relevant here in the first place? What
triggers the external reflection as such?

Is the problem that there is an appearance of determinateness (or a seeming of
it) at the _immediacy_ of `existence`? Because _immediacy_ as such, were it
pure, is incongruent or incompatible with determinateness, which cannot be
merely immediate. On some level, every category in the _Logic_ faces this
problem since they are each initially _immediate_ or have `being`. But here,
however, the problematic is taken to its extreme since there is no determination
that could be attached to the _immediacy_ of `existence`. In other categories,
it is more readily known that the immediacy of a concept is a mediated
immediacy.

One could claim that `existence`, initially posited, just is the immediacy of
the unity of `being` and `non-being`, and there is nothing more to the
matter—no determinateness. However, Hegel's argument in this section is
that this precise immediacy necessarily produces determinateness. It produces
determinateness in virtue of both `being` and `non-being`, and, `being` _and_
`non-being`. In the immediacy, the emphasis falls on the simple oneness of these
categories. But, this immediacy of oneness vanishes in favor for a mediated
togetherness. However, these two phases contradict each other, since `existence`
apparently cannot be both one and many. It is in _this_ transition from one to
the other that external reflection may interdict and impose an unwarranted
resolution to the contradiction, namely, by mapping unto the matter a
syllogistic form whereby the difference is governed by an identity. This
reflection loses sight of the fact that `existence` just is both a simple
oneness _and_ a mediated togetherness of `being` and `non-being`, whose implied
contradiction is what produces its movement of one to the other through
sublation. It is sublation because `being`, or the oneness, does not entirely
vanish in the transition, but is made an equal moment together with another,
namely, `non-being`. This subsequently turns out to qualify `existence`.

### Textual Note

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1 change: 1 addition & 0 deletions cspell.json
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Expand Up @@ -94,6 +94,7 @@
"vanishedness",
"webp",
"Wissenschaft",
"Yirmibes",
"Zusätze"
],
"enableFiletypes": [
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