So far this much can be said of self-consciousness. In its earlier form it takes on a purely observing role. Consciousness as Understanding watches nature and its observable forces become clearer to it in their effects. It realises itself through nature but does not want to be enslaved in the phenomenal world. Hyppolite says, "It is this infinity [life] that understanding meets when it comes up against separate determinations and the demand for their unity. In thinking these determinations through as infinities, in discovering them the movement by which they come their own contrary, understanding rises above itself" (148).1 The formation of the self never-the-less preserves this natural infinity but fails in its infancy to recognise how those very forces inform its own development beyond self-consciousness. Crafting the world in its image becomes mindless2 abstract expressionism which bears little influence of Spirit. Only "through the mediation of diverse self-consciousnesses" does a productive truth come into being throughout the ages (Hyppolite 149). Self-consciousness in its role of Master relinquishes this activity to its Slave. On the contrary, the Slave eventually becomes free "in Spirit" because its work provides it a creative outlet. Spirit becomes a kind of instructive artwork whose truth earns a degree of universality.
Some clarification about the origins of truth is in order. Hegel says, "With self-consciousness, then, we have therefore entered the native realm of truth" (113).3 If self-consciousness has materialised out of nature, it follows that truth's native realm is in fact nature, or it is at least related to nature in some manner. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the following senses in which "truth" can be used: "I. Loyalty, faithfulness, etc.; II. Something that conforms with fact or reality.; III. Conformity with fact, reality, a standard, a pattern, etc." Its etymological lineage bears the following meanings: "faithfulness", "loyalty", "security", "truce", etc. ("truth"). The definitional and etymological data indicates a sense of opposition. But this opposition also features synthetic harmony. Sense II. especially brings to mind a faithful reflection of an original something. It appears that being truthful involves the unification of contradicting matters. Those contradictions must in any case be preserved. Indeed, Hegel's usage of "truth" closely aligns with his thought. For, if it wants to develop itself in a productive fashion, self-consciousness must overcome its differences between itself, another self-consciousness, and nature.
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| Natural consciousness will show itself to be only the Notion of knowledge, or in other words, not to be real knowledge. But since it directly takes itself to be real knowledge, this path has a negative significance for it, and what is in fact the realization of the Notion, counts for it rather as the loss of its own self; for it does lose its truth on this path. The road can therefore be regarded as the pathway of doubt, or more precisely as the way of despair. |
Now, Spirit's natural development can act like a prefiguration of Nietzsche's thought. But first an analysis of his essay's title: "On Truth and Lying in a Non-Moral Sense" is translated from "Uber Wahrheit und Luge im aussermoralischen Sinne". Sense comes from "Sinn", and it's possible translations furnish "sense", "point", "idea", "meaning", "mind", "consciousness", and "feeling". "Sinn" contains literal sense, which has the aspect of receiving sense-matter from nature in passive manner. Sense-data is also received actively if the observer engages its surroundings. Presence of mind and awareness become explicit to the observer.
Originally published on Fri Jun 13 19:56:23 2020, & last updated on Fri Aug 07 21:49:32 2020