People see Hegel as imposing this all-encompassing, totalizing system on reality, which they want to "break free" from (I'm thinking of Kierkegaard, etc.).  But that's not how I see Hegel at all.  That's almost the opposite of how I see Hegel.

I see Hegel as pesky, clever, troublesome... perhaps mischievous?

I see Hegel this way especially in comparison with Spinoza (kind of in comparison with Kant, too - but let's stick with Spinoza for now).

I see Hegel as doing a kind of running commentary on Spinoza.  Part of this has to do with how I see Spinoza, and how it's the opposite of how many people see him.  Some people see him as an atheist, or even a materialist.  But I see Spinoza as the greatest mystic in the European tradition.  To me, Spinoza (not Hegel) is the great system builder.  To read Spinoza is to see the entire universe as a kind of diamond, a shining, luminous jewel, in which every part reflects every other part, and it all fits together in an all-encompassing system of absolute unity.

I see Hegel as... not disagreeing with Spinoza, exactly, but... making fun of him?  I see Hegel as inserting a dark reflection into Spinoza.  There's something playful about Hegel, maybe even something a little devilish.  

Hegel's criticism of Spinoza is not that Spinoza is wrong, but that Spinoza is completely positive.  Hegel wants to awaken the negative.  Because human consciousness is the negative, and there's no place for the negativity of human consciousness in the absolute unity of Spinoza's divine system.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Capitalism is Ending

Image
THE PRODUCTIVITY BOMB Sorry, Ray Kurzweil , there will be no singularity.  As much as Moore’s Law has become a cliche, it has also become a cliche to point out that exponential growth has no "knee" - that is to say, that an exponential growth curve has no inflection point.  It goes up faster and faster, so that not only is the value rising but the derivative of the value is also rising (that is, the rate of increase is itself increasing) yet at any given point it is still a gradual increase.  Growth that gets indefinitely huger as it approaches a specific point of time, a limit known as a singularity, is not exponential growth but rather hyperbolic growth .  There’s no evidence that technology is growing hyperbolically; it is “only” growing exponentially.  Gordon Moore himself has stated that he doesn't believe in the singularity, or even in the continuation of Moore's Law.   (And Moore's Law is starting to fail, anyway ... )  But it hard
Read more

Liquefactionism

Image
“To Dissolve Man” An Investigation into the Liquefactionist Party In the 21st century, we will have to deal both with the odious Liquefactionists and with a confused and reactionary anti-Liquefactionism, which is far more apparent and obviously horrifying. I borrow the term “Liquefactionist Party” from William S. Burroughs, who writes about the Liquefactionists in the “Parties of Interzone” section of Naked Lunch - which, as a political policy guide, is unmatched in its insight and accuracy.  He writes that, “ The Liquefaction program involves the eventual merging of everyone into One Man by a process of protoplasmic absorption. ”  He goes on: “It will be immediately clear that the Liquefaction Party is, except for one man, entirely composed of dupes, it not being clear until the final absorption who is whose dupe.” Paradoxically, Burroughs goes on to tell us that “Liquefactionists in general know what the score is.”  If they know the score, how can they be dupes?  Perhaps thi
Read more

The Ego Is Not Selfish Enough

    The problem with having an ego is that it may not be selfish enough.   As I mentioned in my previous article, " A Defense of the Ego ," the ego can be understood as an illusion, or more accurately, as a construction.  But that doesn't make it wrong.  (It doesn't even make it untrue, because social constructions are real.)  The problem with the ego is not that it is too selfish (and thus evil).  It's just the opposite.  The difficulty with the ego is that it may come into conflict with your selfishness.  This problem may arise in various ways.  Let's look at some of the most common: Let's say you are trying to eat as much chocolate peanut butter pie as you can.  That is your selfish motivation.  Now let's say there are many strategies for getting chocolate peanut butter pie: strategy 1, strategy 2, strategy 3, etc., etc..  You have landed on strategy number 54, and it's working pretty well.  But unbeknownst to you, there is another strategy, st
Read more