diff --git a/content/hegel/reference/existence/development.mdx b/content/hegel/reference/existence/development.mdx index 7a1d7ca..81f43ba 100644 --- a/content/hegel/reference/existence/development.mdx +++ b/content/hegel/reference/existence/development.mdx @@ -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 @@ -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 diff --git a/cspell.json b/cspell.json index 3d318cf..74f9d61 100644 --- a/cspell.json +++ b/cspell.json @@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ "vanishedness", "webp", "Wissenschaft", + "Yirmibes", "Zusätze" ], "enableFiletypes": [