Read the whole preface
text available at: http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/hegel/works/ph/phprefac.htm
Journals due on November May 9.
Guidance questions
1. What's the commonness and difference between Hegel and Kant regarding scientific knowledge?
2. How do you understand the statement: "subject is pure and simple negativity" (Φ 18)?
Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit states "As is the subject it is pure and simple negativity" in my opinion Hegel makes the case that the natural law if the land is ones understanding of self preservation. Each subjects radical unconscious and conscious states is the decision of being one makes. The simple negativity to choose to defy ones moral fiber in step following the law of simple science of survival of the fittest. The simple act of mimicking the cultural collectivism around a subject, but also staking one's own path of differentiating approaches to a life subject. Daring the conventional wisdom the conventional to be truly unique in faith of life and barriers of law. Once the emotional state of moral ambiguity and wisdom for each circumstance takes place the action of the decision making follows and is in essence the pureness of natural life. The individuals longevity of faith is the desired effect of the action a subject takes. Life is simply a lopsided hybrid of survival and faith with survival overall negatively taking center stage in any civilized or barbaric society
ReplyDeleteJennifer Bacigalupo
ReplyDeleteHegel feels that the subject is not just about knowing and making out an individual mind, as it was for philosophers such as Kant. Hegel thinks that the pure subject is social beings who are oriented with the world together in their own culture. Individuals always remain in the middle of their own perceptions AND the ideas about the world that they share with the other people in their lives that will constantly have an affect on the individual through society from the day they are born. The thought of knowledge is that it is a process of striving to reach consistent and truthful kinds of thoughts altogether.
To be honest I am not too confident on my understanding on the quote. I understand the statement "Subject is pure and simple negativity" because I believe it has to do with each individual. Our ideas as humans are shaped by every other individual, which makes the world social. We have subjective experiences that make up society through language, morals, culture, and religion. The way we perceive things (subjects) gives us the power to explain ideas. I believe the “subject” being “pure” is because it is humans and how we consciously perceive knowledge.
ReplyDeleteErik Robles
ReplyDelete1. Kant and Hegel in their attempts to work out how the conditions of possibility of knowledge depended upon coming to an understanding of our forms of thinking and our capacities of judgment, rather than tracing the origins of knowledge to impressions, sensations, or other empiricist notions of unadulterated sense experience. Knowledge and truth are not to be found by asking questions about the object, but by seeking knowledge and self-knowledge of the capacities and activities of thinking itself
2. in this statement Hegel refered to every subject is constituted by "the process of reflectively mediating itself with itself."
he explains this further that instead of a subject depending on an outside force, the subject is good in of itself.
"subject is pure and simple negativity," to me means that to only consider one subject as it stands, be it a human, animal, object or idea, can be negative in the sense that it can leave one ignorant to the reality surrounding that subject. Kant and Hegel both wrote about knowledge and they both tried to understand the way humans think in relation to the world around them. This quote can be relevant when the person relating to that situation does become ignorant of the surrounding variables while only considering that one subject but to to say that this quote is completely true would be wrong. One reason i say that it would be wrong is because at some point we do have to come to focus on one more aspects of the subject that may have been caused by the surroundings but now lies within the subject itself and can only be changed or analyzed through the realization of the subject itself.
ReplyDeleteAna Garcia
ReplyDeleteHegel states that the mind does not immediately grasp the objects in the world, He agreed with Kant when he said that knowledge is not knowledge of “things-in-themselves,” or of pure inputs from the senses.
According to Hegel the scientific knowledge it is limited by and partially determined by its “other” the natural world. It is not self mediating like a philosophical knowledge. From my understanding the statement “subject is pure and simple negativity” means that everything has negativity, but that the purpose it to bring everything to self consciousness. He believes that everything has negativity and it is through movement that such things can let go of the negativity.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea what Hegel is talking about. I have a sneaking suspicion, that underneath all his flowery and as-complicated-as-humanly-possible writing style, you would find, that he isn't really saying much. In other words, upon vigorous explication of the conceptual fortitude imbued in the dialectic stylings of Hegel, one discovers that his additions to human understanding are at best, fornicious. The problem with these smarty pants types, is they only hang out with other know-it-alls, so when they write their little exposes on the MEANING OF LIFE they have to write it in a language which will impress their buddies, not in a language the purpose of which is to be clearly understood. They seek to impress. They seek to be revered. And, I believe, they seek to hide the fact that they have no more of a handle on the truth than an illiterate blind man.
ReplyDeleteThat being said, maybe I just missed the point.
I think what Hegel is trying to say under all of this is just that our human mind is too complicated to understand just like that. To fully understand our complicated minds, we have to look and understand what we aren't even sure of what we are looking for because our minds are just built in ways that are just that complicated. Therefore, there isn't really a way to completely understand the human mind just like that. Therefore, to come to a full understanding we must first understand ourselves, then use this understanding and apply it to the society. Through all of this, then can we truly take a step further to coming to a full and complete understanding of the human mind. From there, then are we able to gain a better understanding of the subject to matter concept.
ReplyDeleteSheena Lambert
ReplyDelete1)In Hegels Phenomenolgy of the spirit it states "The systematic development of truth in scientific form can alone be the true shape in which truth exists." With my little understanding of this book on a whole this is one of the few quotations that I can understand or think I understand.I think that the truth in something is in itself not based on any human intuition or some "floating idea" that our minds may develop out of no where. To prove the truth in something one has to be sure of it's real existence in the world.However how can one do this if we are not even sure of our own existence in the world except the fact that we are able to formulate thoughts (Kant).
1) "Subject is pure and simple negativity"--- The subject which in my opinion us, the oberserver and our mind is pure however the nature of our self-conscious mind is pure negativity. In this we assume the existence of ourselves thus making ourselves the subject and object.This is where I became lost because there must be a differentiation between the two.
Martha De Los Santos
ReplyDeleteThe similarities between Kant and Hegel is that the both deal with the idealistic theories of the Phenomena of the mind. Yet both of their ideas differ in that Kants idealistic theory deals with the dinstinction between things as they appear to an observer and things in themselves. While Hegels theory points out the finite qualities are not fully real because they depend on other finite qualities to determing them. To me both of these philosophers idealism on the perspective of knowledge and phenomena help each other ideas so that it will make sence as one. Kant with the thing in itself and Hegel with the qualities that make the thing itself.
with the second question im confused i think he refers as the subject us our minds what it contains is negative or useless more like non existent. i dont get this thing.