Half Hour Hegel: The Complete Phenomenology of Spirit (Preface, sec 61-63)

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In this twenty-seventh video in the new series on G.W.F. Hegel's great early work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, I read and comment on the sixty-first, sixty-second, and sixty-third paragraphs of the text, from the Preface.

Hegel continues contrasting the speculative or dialectical approach with the "argumentative" or "ratiocinative" approach. The speculative approach radically reframes the relationship between Subject and Predicate, and Hegel uses a musical or poetic analogy -- of the relationship between meter and accent in rhythm -- to illustrate this relationship.

He also examines two examples of propositions, "God is Being", and "The Actual is the Universal", showing how these are handled in the mode of speculative philosophy. Part of the dialectical process is that the Subject disappears or finds its full meaning or essence in the Predicate, which in its turn becomes something like a subject in itself. Hegel points out that the inevitability of doing speculative philosophy in natural language, explains a complaint often made about philosophy, that it requires rereading in order to be understood.

In this video series, I will be working through the entire Phenomenology, paragraph by paragraph -- for each one, first reading the paragraph, and then commenting on what Hegel is doing, referencing, discussing, etc. in that paragraph.

This series is designed to provide an innovative digital resource that will assist students, lifelong learners, professionals, and even other philosophers in studying this classic work by Hegel for generations to come.

The introductory music for the video is: Solo Violin - BWV 1004 - Partita for Violin No. 2 - Recorded in Brooklyn June 26, 2011 specifically to be dedicated to the Public Domain

My videos are used by students, lifelong learners, other professors, and professionals to learn more about topics, texts, and thinkers in philosophy, religious studies, literature, social-political theory, critical thinking, and communications. These include college and university classes, British A-levels preparation, and Indian civil service (IAS) examination preparation

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#Hegel #Phenomenology #Philosophy #Idealism #German #Dialectic #Spirit #Absolute #Knowledge #History
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As a teacher, section 63, Amen brother. Amen. Preach it.

ligottifan
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New installation in the series -- more about how speculative/dialectical philosophy (at least Hegel's version) deals with subjects and predicates in judgements and propositions. . .  and why philosophy requires rereading

GregoryBSadler
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I appreciate the personal challenge here for doing personal development/work to understand the text!

seifertdj
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What you said about adapting one's mind to the text was most interesting. 

shylockshekelsteingoldmanb
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lol on sec 63 - I feel like I lucked out in a weird way to approach the challenges I had, and still have, with philosophy. Where it definitely felt unintelligible, but I figured that was because I'm just not very smart. A large part was kind of navigating the language used - which sort of sounds alien at first. But truthfully I'm not the best at absorbing things and it takes me a long time. I'm just glad that I'm more curious than lazy.

But the part where you talk about how one should be able to apply something when reading - that's really something I wish I could get across to people about why its fulfilling. Its a really good feeling and truly worthwhile when I can sort of take something, or have my perspective changed or broadened.

dfelliott
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I struggle a little about the point about allegations of meaninglessness due to obscurantism. I know of a social psychologist who was attending Heidegger lectures and thought people were spoofing about understanding the content (he thought it was impenentrable) and so he did a study using gobbledegook but claiming it was heidegerrian and found that people represented it as meaningful if they thought it was a citation from heidegger.

None of this supports the idea that Heidegger is meaningless or a charlatan, it might be seen as simply an exchange between philistines but....its not as thought obscurantism does not exist, that pretentiousness does not exist...granting that content is meaningful regardless of our grasp is perhaps the duty of the studious but it is very kind to those who would abuse it.

Foucault, no lightweight, accused Derrida of 'intellectual terrorisme' for claiming all rebuttals were minsunderstandings and misconstruals.

So that this does not look like a whingefest, I think students are somewhat caught because there is nothing other than arguments from authority (and your own intellect/faith) to decide between opaque but profound material and simply..misguided, confused, vaporous material etc...not to mention the fact, that thinkers accuse EACH OTHER of this stuff all the time, didn't Nietszche call Plato a blockhead? But the point I am getting at is, there is a position of insecurity, potentially, for the student who is critical, worldly but not totally ignorant and narcissistic, in deciding for themselves what is going on.

Its hard to say what value (if any) taking the quality of content on faith would have (its just received opinion)..perhaps we should just be silent about what we do not understand?

There are psychological aspects to consider e.g. the longer you spend with material and the harder you work at it the more likely you are going to value it, identify with it, want to believe it is clear, whether it is or not, and there is a cudgel, of sorts, that can be wielded by those who claim (whether they are or not) to be 'in the know' and I think despite moments of brilliance, this kind of showboating and emperors new clothes stuff is a feature of the circles around people like Lacan, Derrida etc.

Now I have gone and done that thing where I prattle on about things that are not directly a component of the unfolding of the argument in the POS.

My bad.

lyndonbailey
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I know it's not the way you think we should engage the material but I'm planing to watch all the lectures before I read the text.

sa
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I find Hegel's speculative thinking to be a very hard ask. I definitely agree with his point that normal subject + predicate propositions entail a closure or a fixing of the subject in a way that doesn't represent reality. I also agree that when you start interrogating that isolated subject it either turns out to be an abstract universal nothingness, or it disintegrates into its predicates.
But I think fixed subjects are basically an anthropological need, a necessary error, and without them thought just becomes a homogenous swirling flux without any point from which we can orient ourselves... Have I misunderstood something?

asgilb
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62 is way more understandable, i'll guess since an example was provided. But even here, the tendency to get lost in the back & forth of the analysis/observation is hard to fight while trying to apprehend it. Also, possibly with greater dissipation into the idea, but initially with any sub/pred, I don't have the tendency to forget the subject, but only see a larger composite equation that is more defined than the subject would be alone. Maybe to remember the subject after 20 mins have passed would be an effort, but if I can't do that, I don't feel that I have any idea about any part of the composite, so to say anything about it later without this would be a mistake or possibly lead to several mistakes.

SequinBrain
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This paragraph (section 63) is abt Peterson

oussamajt
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With the dialectic as a process and the relation of the subject and predicate we discover "we meant something other than we meant to mean".  Might this process of development be likened to one in which we are turned around and discover the opposites existent supporting things in general?  Including what is 'false' in what is 'true' and 'true' in what is false?  (Now I have put those words together I am not sure if it is what I really meant to say or it just makes a nice symmetry - but I kind of did feel drawn to say something along those lines).  Dare I say this is a fairly Indian understanding reminiscent of how they nod and shake their head all at the same time.How can there be false in the true and true in the false in the face of the excluded middle?  Well as Hegel points out while the excluded middle is true of logic.  It is not necessarily quite so simple in terms of the movements of speculative philosophy. 

Would you care to comment at this stage?

dwroberts
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I don't know if you find this interesting or naive, Dr, Sadler, but as you discuss this subject/predicate - universality dialectic, I find myself integrating a visualization of the Taoist Ying/Yan symbol.

songsmithy