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Unit 12 The dialectic of sensuous-certainty in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
Before we enter the Hegel’s dialectical logic, we need to mention the 3 fundamental laws of formal logic. Because Hegel’s Dialetic or dialectical logic might be properly understood when it is compared to the formal logic, which rests on the three laws:
“Aristotle described the fundamental principles by which thought can occur at all. At this foundation he marked three laws of thought, which remain basic in logic to the present. These laws are :
Hegel’s dialectic seems to violate the laws of formal logic in some respect, moreover he criticizes indeed the laws of formal logic.
However not every work of his philosophy is dialectical, only his “Science of Logic” and “Phenomenology of Spirit” are genuinely dialectical.
In this regard we can reveal the essence of dialectical thinking in “ Consciousness chapter of “Phenomenology of Spirit”.
“Phenomenology of Spirit” is a philosophical writing in which human mind is seen to develop from the primitive stage to the final stage. The most primitive stage of human mind is called “consciousness”, which consists of also three moments of its growth.
i. sensuous-certainty
ii. perceiving
iii. force and the understanding
# Plato’s Theaetetus and Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit
As in Plato’s Theaetetus dialogue displayed, human mind has natural inclination to seek knowledge and truth : What is knowledge? What is truth?
In the Theaetetus the form of knowledge indeed transforms itself from Perception-Knowledge through
Proposition-Knowledge to Reasoning-Knowledge. In this respect of transform and development of knowledge, Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit” resembles Plato’s Theaetetus as though the former encounters a difficult situation that cannot be not solved, i.e. aporia, the latter achieves the final goal of knowledge and truth, i.e. the absolute knowledge.
# The active faculty of I as intelligence in Rousseau’s ”Emile“ and Hegel’s dialectical, reciprocal mediation of subject and object.
In order to understand the narrative of sensuous-certainty, we need to recollect some content of the "Profession of Faith of Savoyard Vicar“ in Rousseau’s ”Emile“. In Emile the narrator takes up the investigation of philosophy in his time. He agrees with Descartes’ principle of ego cogito. The existence of the I is above all distinct and evident. However Rousseau is not easily able to deny his outer world as his sensation like Descartes: My sensation is as evident as I(ego cogito) because both the I and sensation are internal(Emile). In addition to it the I cannot affect or destroy my sensation.
“Thinking I” and my sense are parallel juxtaposed. However the I has the faculty of comparison and judgement of sensible things. Knowing similitude and difference between them lies in our ability of intelligence.
Rousseau emphasizes therefore the active role of ego cogito as intelligent and active being. The function of ego by Rousseau is for example judgment or comparison. This ability of ego is to “assemble and compare my sensations”. It is in me. Moreover ego(=“I”) produces the faculty to compare and assemble the impressions made by sensation.
Whatever name be given to that power of the mind which assembles and compares my sensations, - call it attention, meditation, reflection, or whatever you please, - certain it is that it exists in me, and not in the objects of those sensations.
It is I alone who produce it, although it is displayed only in consequence of the impressions made on me by those objects. ("Profession of Faith of Savoyard Vicar“ in ”Emile“ by
Rousseau)
Rousseau’s thought of connection between Cartesian Ego and sensation is indeed the secret of the whole German Idealism.
Immanuel Kant interpreted the connection between Cartesian Ego and sensation as “synthetic unity of transcendental apperception” in his “Critique of pure Reason”
Fichte formulated a theory about the interaction of I and Non-I.
In this regard Hegel too takes for granted the active function of ego in the process of cognition.
However Hegel’s terminology of intelligence is “mediation” (Vermittlung) different from his predecessors, Rousseau, Kant and Fichte.
Hegel’s mediation is dynamic; mediation is motion, movement and process.
He thinks about the mediation of subject and object while the gestalt of both subject and object changes into a higher stage.
As over mentioned the lowest stage of knowledge in Phenomenology is called
.
Hegel starts the journey of truth with the lowest gestalt of subject, i.e. sensuous-certainty. Sensuous-certainty is the most common notion of knowledge which is believed to be real by every one. The world of sensuous-certainty is not different from our daily experience : The world is filled with many things and I see them as a matter of fact.
I and objects are both independent. I see as sensuous-certainty plentiful things around me : Sensuous-certainty finds an infinite wealth of things.
The concrete content of sensuous-certainty permits itself to appear immediately as the richest cognition, indeed, as a knowing of an infinite wealth for which no limit is to be found, (---)
In addition, it appears as the most veritable, for it has not omitted anything from its object, but rather, has its object in its complete entirety before itself. (Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit par. 91)
However a problem appears when we ask the reality of truth: What is knowledge? Therefore Hegel’s strategy of epistemology is similar to that of Plato in Theaetetus.
In the world of sensuous-certainty the subject is separated from the object. On condition of separation of subject and object, the subject (=sensuous-certainty) wants to grasp the essence of object. This state of mind is called “immediate” by Hegel. In other words the sensuous-certainty believes itself to grasp the immediate knowledge of object. The immediate objects before the eye of sensuous-certainty are e.g. “this”, “here” and “now”. The immediate mind(=sensuous-certainty) however fails to comprehend the alleged truth. The immediately noticed truth escapes the scene of comprehension : That is to say for example :
“To the question: “What is the Now?”, we answer, for example, “The ‘now’ is the night.” In order to put the truth of this sensuous-certainty to the test, a simple experiment will suffice and if now, this midday, we look at this truth which has been written down, we will have to say that it has become rather stale. (Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit par. 95)
Through this way of investigation the truth of sensuous-certainty loses his belief of certainty of his objects.
However the failure of sensuous-certainty results not only in despair but also in positive moment from the previous process of cognition: Appearance of universal. To say easily, the concept of “This”, “Now” or “Here” remains, although the content of grasp vanishes. Remaining is the universal, the name or the notion : “This”, “Now” or “Here” as name or noun to be understood.
The ‘now’ is the not night, but midday. The category of This, Now or Here belongs not to the object but to the subject.
In this regard Hegel speaks of mediation of subject and object. Hegel’s mediation(Vermittlung) means that subjective ideas are projected onto objective sensation.
# notion of dialectic, sublation and negation
In the analysis of sensuous-certainty Hegel finds the core of his dialectical logic. We know the fact that the individuals are subsumed under the concept of universal.
However Hegel expresses this content in his own way: The truth of sensuous-certainty is not only destroyed but also preserved in the unversal. Night is turned into midday: The truth of individual Now is denied. But Night can be also Now. The content of sensuous-certainty is destroyed at any point but preserved in the concept of universal. Thus the concept of subulation (=Aufhebung) appears.
The definition of sublation is as follows:
destroy
preserve
enhance
When combined, the notion of sublation consists in the destruction of immediate content and preservation of it on the higher level. The aspect of destruction is also as negation determinated. The truth of sensuous-certainty lies in negating, denying the immediate content : The night was denied and then the midday is affirmed and vice versa. The negation refers to the movement of the opposite direction of experience to form the higher stage of cognition, i.e. universal as perception. Hegel’s notion of perception in Phenomenology is the cognition of universal things e.g. matter and its attributes.
The universal is thus in fact the truth of sensuous-certainty. The universal however is not a stable constant. On the contrary the universal is the whole process of denying and affirming immediate moments.
Hegel describes the dialectical circulation as follows.
It is clear both that the dialectic of sensuous-certainty is nothing but the simple history of its movement (that is, its experience) and that sensuous- certainty itself is nothing but just this history. (Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit par. 109)
Lastly we need to think about the nature of Hegel’s dialectic whether it contradicts the formal logic: The concept of universal seems to deny the 2 law of formal logic, i.e. the law of non-contradiction. The universal includes the negation and the affirmation in itself. However strictly taken, dialectic doesn’t contradicts the law of non-contradiction.
The law of non-contradiction is : Nothing can be both exist and not exist at the same time and in the same respect; or no statement is both true and false.
Hegel’s notion of dialectic and sublation doesn’t transgress the 2 law because the opposite propositions in dialectic don’t assert their validity at the same time and in the same respect.
Dialectic only thinks of being as history of its movement.
Summary
“Phenomenology of Spirit” is a philosophical writing in which human mind is seen to develop from the primitive stage to the final stage. The most primitive stage of human mind is called “consciousness”, which consists of also three moments of its growth.
As in Plato’s Theaetetus dialogue displayed, human mind has natural inclination to seek knowledge and truth : What is knowledge? What is truth?
In the Theaetetus the form of knowledge indeed transforms itself from Perception-Knowledge through
Proposition-Knowledge to Reasoning-Knowledge. In this respect of transform and development of knowledge, Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit” resembles Plato’s Theaetetus as though the former encounters a difficult situation that cannot be not solved, i.e. aporia, the latter achieves the final goal of knowledge and truth, i.e. the absolute knowledge.
Rousseau’s thought of connection between Cartesian Ego and sensation is indeed the secret of the whole German Idealism.
Immanuel Kant interpreted the connection between Cartesian Ego and sensation as “synthetic unity of transcendental apperception” in his “Critique of pure Reason”
Fichte formulated a theory about the interaction of I and Non-I.
In this regard Hegel too takes for granted the active function of ego in the process of cognition.
However Hegel’s terminology of intelligence is “mediation” (Vermittlung) different from his predecessors, Rousseau, Kant and Fichte.
Hegel’s mediation is dynamic; it is motion, process and history.
Hegel starts the journey of truth with the lowest gestalt of subject, i.e. sensuous-certainty. Sensuous-certainty is the most common notion of knowledge which is believed to be real by every one. The world of sensuous-certainty is not different from our daily experience : The world is filled with many things and I see them as a matter of fact.
However the belief of sensuous-certainty is denied because the truth of sensuous-certainty doesn’t last: The statement, “Now is night” comes to be false when day comes. The result of sensuous-certainty of “now” is not individual knowledge, but universal knowledge of it which can be night, day and morning. This process is called “dialectical” by Hegel. Now is neither day nor night at the same time both day and night. Day is day denying night vice versa. However without day or night “now” is indeed impossible. This is the dialectic of sensuous-certainty.
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