This objectivity is the idea, so by accepting absolute spirit, you are accepting an objective idea, which is also understood as thought today.
Only by understanding the process of the evolution of absolute spirit from a philosophical perspective can we truly comprehend what Hegelian absolute spirit refers to. So, Hegelian philosophy established one of the most important tasks of philosophy, which is to study ideas, or in other words, Hegelian philosophy tells us that the task of philosophy is to 'think of ideas'.
So, the idea of thought can only be grasped on the premise of understanding Hegelian philosophy. Therefore, it is the thought of thought, the idea of thought, which is the core of Hegelian philosophy.
It discusses the main parts of consciousness activity, self-awareness, and rationality in "Phenomenology of Spirit", describing human cognitive activity, social cognitive activity, and absolute cognitive activity. This forms what he calls the subjective spirit, objective spirit, and absolute spirit, which are the three main stages.
When we read his Phenomenology of Spirit, the first thing we discuss is consciousness, and consciousness discusses the certainty of sensation. At this stage of consciousness, we have actually entered an intellectual activity provided by Kant, an activity stage of intellectual ability. So, Chapter 2 directly discusses perception, Chapter 3 discusses intellect, and in Chapter 2, we discuss self-awareness. The third article discusses rationality, which is a process of development.
In his dialectical thinking, it is reflected in the specific discourse of each issue. Regarding the exploration of reason, it discusses the certainty and truthfulness of reason, as well as the purity of self-awareness. It is divided into two volumes, with the second volume mainly discussing knowledge about reason, followed by the concept of spirit. Because reason contains spirit, and spirit ultimately leads to religion and absolute knowledge.
This is one of its basic ideological threads, which is the development process from consciousness to self-awareness and rational activity.
In terms of ideological content, he mainly expresses human rational activities through spiritual concepts. So, although he has a dedicated article discussing the concept of reason, the main issue discussed in this content is not human rational activities, but how human consciousness activities affect the natural objects we know and produce a cognitive result.
The concept of rationality he mentioned here should not be understood as rationality in the Kantian sense. The content we only have in the spiritual part is precisely about the social spirit of human beings, which is the social spirit formed by the conscious activities of human beings after entering society.
For example, regarding the existence of law, ethical behavior, and concepts including enlightenment, these things are precisely a spiritual activity formed by entering a social level.
The concept of "spirit", according to Hegel's understanding, should refer to an active subject that includes all entities with materiality, historicity, and sociality. We usually abbreviate this active subject as Agent, which is the active subject.
So, spirit mainly refers to such an active subject. However, this active subject naturally includes the so-called Agency, or agency, in its spiritual activities. Therefore, the spirit is different from reason, not simply cognitive ability, nor is it just a self-awareness or individual subject, but rather such an agency.
This kind of agency or subject of agency includes three aspects: materiality, historicity, and sociality. Materiality is reflected in its conscious activity, which is a process of reaching perception or intellectual understanding through sensation. Historicity is the determination of self-awareness, while sociality is the rational determination of humanity.
This outlines the developmental process of the spirit revealed to us by Hegelian philosophy in "Phenomenology of Spirit".
Hegel, to be honest, it sounds abstract and difficult to understand. His ideas are too profound, so profound that we find it difficult to grasp. For example, I would need to use some relatively simple ways to interpret them for everyone. The best way to read Hegel is to read his books, not just to talk about his philosophy, but to understand the true operation of his philosophy. When you read his books, you will gradually feel the profoundness of his ideas, and even every problem it discusses in every part.
For example, in his introduction about the task of philosophy, he said:
My goal in this book is to bring philosophy closer to the form of science. If philosophy achieves this goal, it will no longer be called love for knowledge, but true knowledge.
Philosophy should not be understood as a pursuit of knowledge or a love for knowledge, but rather, if philosophy wants to become a science, it must truly possess knowledge. And understanding philosophy as a form of knowledge also began with Hegel.
The important reason why later philosophers opposed Hegel was to oppose his understanding of philosophy as a form of knowledge.
So, whether it is Husserl's phenomenology or Russell and Wittgenstein's analytical philosophy, their initial opposition is to view philosophy as a ready-made system of knowledge, which is exactly what Hegel wanted to do. Only by understanding philosophy as a form of knowledge can we know how to approach it.
This is very clear to Hegel, if you do not understand it as a true knowledge, all discussions about philosophy become dispensable. As a true knowledge, it is a question that every true thinker must discuss. Because it is a form of knowledge, it should be given great respect.
So, he said, knowledge must be science. This inherent inevitability arises from the nature of knowledge, and satisfactory explanation of this can only be provided through statements about philosophy itself.
In other words, if we want to understand why knowledge is a science, we can only use philosophical discussions to illustrate it. You cannot explain this problem clearly in any other way.
Because every natural science, every concrete science, discusses concrete objects, and only philosophy truly treats science as a general, abstract and general science as the object of philosophical discussion. The ideas generated by such scientific discussions are, of course, knowledge. Therefore, under this premise, Hegel insisted on understanding philosophy as a true form of knowledge.
And his so-called understanding of science, he said, is that the intellectual form of science is provided to everyone and paves the way for everyone to reach science, and the pursuit of rational knowledge through intelligence is a legitimate requirement like scientific consciousness.
Obtaining rational knowledge through the demands of intellect is itself what science should do. Therefore, because intellect is generally thought, that is, pure self, and intellectual things are known things and scientific and non scientific consciousness, shared things. Non scientific people can directly enter science through it.
This is made very clear and beyond doubt. He is useless or what, maybe what, if not what, then what. If he doesn't say that, he will tell you directly, and there is no other choice.
If you want to enter science, you must go through the cognitive process from intellect to reason, and the process from intellect to reason is the process from human consciousness to human social existence.
This is what Hegel revealed to us, which is the process from human consciousness activity to human social existence. Hegel immediately raised the core issue that philosophy should focus on, so when we understand Hegel, we must read his books. If you don't read books, you can't understand them just by reading textbooks, second-hand materials, or other people's interpretations. You don't know why he said that. His discourse is rigorous and detailed.
So, from realizing the development process of science, he directly discussed this issue. From the beginning, it was said that "the key to all problems lies not only in understanding and expressing the real or truth as entities, but also in understanding and expressing it as subjects. At the same time, attention must be paid to the entity itself, which includes both the commonality or the directness of knowledge itself, as well as the directness of existence or being the object of knowledge.
Earlier, we talked about the concept of entity, which is the subject and a very important ideological content of Hegelian philosophy. When he talks about the concept of entity, he emphasizes the commonality contained in the entity itself, that is, universality. In the history of Western philosophy, there is a discussion about commonality and individuality
As a commonality, it refers to the universal properties possessed by a concept. When we understand a concept as universal, we understand it as universal. For example, white, for example, white, we can understand it as common because "white" is universally present on all things that have the property of white. We use abstract methods to extract the concept of "white" from things that have white color to form the concept of "white", because the word "white" is actually a commonality.
What is a special appearance?
Individuals are individuals, and only individuals can exist as individuals. This phenomenon can also be understood as individual things. However, anomalies themselves are not objects, they are still concepts. The only difference between anomalies and commonalities is that they are not universal concepts, but rather special concepts. Therefore, they can also be understood as a concept.
