- Dec 10, 2018As evolving through this debate Paul, Bill, John, the difficulty for me seems to be that in its best sense metaphysics is the thought of/about the whole. This is close to what Hegel is saying. However, in so far as the of/about establishes clearly a subject/object divide which Hegel's whole oeuvre is ranged against, I would go with Alan on this. The problem for me is not whether or not Hegel's thought is theological here. It is rather that the question of perspective and logical location of the traditional/normal/modern thinker of metaphysics and of Hegel are very different from each other. Rather I would say that Hegel seems to be able to push through the problematic of the subject-object divide by problematizing the category of being to such an extent that being-for-self's location encompasses both subject and object. I am not sure how this would affect the reading of the SL but I suspect it would be radical.
SrivatsBill,I liked how you started, but one phrase jarred me, namely, "Geist is a moment of the whole."Once we are educated to think clearly about Geist (your phrase) then it seems to me that we can recognize that Geist is the Whole -- although that could not be clear at first.As for metaphysics -- you are right to remind Srivats of Hegel's many uses of the term in his Encyclopedia, and especially in his Science of Logic. It is a key part of Hegel's response to Kant.Hegel's dialectical project is a Metaphysics. To ignore that is to ignore a lot.Metaphysics and Speculative Philosophy are kith and kin.All best,--Paul---------------------------------------------------------------------------------On Monday, December 10, 2018, 1:02:19 PM CST, bill.hord bill.hord@... [hegel] <hegel@yahoogroups.com> wrote:If Geist is Hegel's main topic, it isn't where he begins immediately. If one is trying to follow his thought, starting immediately with Geist is going to be misleading and result in some misunderstandings.
This isn't merely because one can't think clearly about Geist until one has been educated to do so (however true this might be). It's also because Geist doesn't stand on one side, in opposition to being, essence, concept, and all the rest. Geist is a moment of the whole, and ignoring being, essence, and concept would mean treating Geist abstractly.
Many words-- and even many philosophical terms of art -- have a variety of uses and meanings. This shouldn't deter us from using a term in an appropriate sense if it is useful. I use "metaphysics" to encompass and refer to thought about being, essence, concept, and all the rest -- including Geist.
Bill--R Srivatsan
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