From: Phil Walden <phil-AT-pwalden.fsnet.co.uk>
Subject: RE: BHA: what is the role of philosophy?
Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 18:26:59 +0100


Hi Dick,

Some sort of response interspersed with our text:
>
>
> >According to Hegel, the role of philosophy is to develop
> knowledge towards
> >the Absolute.  The concept comes to know itself as the Absolute
> Idea.  (And
> >before Dick tells me that "only people can come to know
> themselves" I will
> >appeal to the dialectics of nature - something which had the stamp of
> >approval of not only Hegel but also Marx and Engels).  Thus the point of
> >philosophy is to facilitate the coming-to-know itself of the Absolute
> >through the exercise of reason.  Nothing is unknowable - there
> are none of
> >Kant's things-in-themselves - since the mere positing of a thing's
> >unknowability means that it exists and is therefore knowable.
> Scepticism is
> >thus refuted by reason.
>
> For me, an essential attribute of being a person is being a self-knowing
> knower.

Isn't that the same as an autonomous ego, almost Sartrean even?  Or does
"self-knowing knower" mean something very different?

  I have no problem with the notion of non-human persons (I never
> met one I didn't like).

I do not understand what a non-human person could be.  Does that make me an
incorrigible atheist?  Anyway, any elaboration you can give of what a
non-human person might be would be gratefully received.

  For me, then, the Absolute coming to know itself
> is a process of the Absolute becoming a person.  I like the idea that
> philosophy, and perhaps even other forms of human inquiry, might
> be a part
> of this process.  Those of us who in our small ways struggle to know
> participate in a much bigger process.
>
> One of my problems with Hegel is that he puts too much weight upon the
> concept -- this shows up in your assertion: "The concept comes to know
> itself as the Absolute Idea."   I believe that concepts result from
> insights into experience, and that concepts must be expressed in
> ways that
> allow us to judge them as more-or-less true or false.   But
> Hegel's vision
> is grand.

Dick, you say that concepts result from insights into experience.  But
surely some contribution to our concepts is made by nature and external
material reality.  Isn't it the attempt to establish concepts and the truth
by trying to deny nature (matter?) that leaves us unable to judge concepts
as true or false?
>
> I also wonder if all concepts come to know themselves as the Absolute
> Idea.  Do they all converge into one AI, or can each develop into
> a unique
> AI.   The vision of multiple Absolute Ideas might not be
> self-contradictory, perhaps we will just have to wait for better
> knowledge
> of the meaning of "absolute."

Well, I hold a monist conception of the Absolute according to which there is
one material (and dialectical) universe in which there is no fundamental
ontological hiatus between thought and reality, i.e. they are both matter.
As far as spirit is concerned, I think that it exists but am not sure where
to put it, if you see what I mean, but I suspect a good answer would lie in
a thorough reading of Hegel on the question.

Regards,

Phil
>
> Regards,
>
> Dick
>
>
>
>
>
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