- Aug 7Hello Srivats,Secondary material is never 'correct'...only provocative and hence true in that respect. I haven't enough time in this life to develop my own subjective reading let alone an objective one!Kind regards,Mary
On Wednesday, August 7, 2019, 12:52:26 AM CDT, R Srivatsan r.srivats@... [hegel] <hegel@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Eric,I see what you mean about paragraph two. But I must say that even when I read your paper at first, I puzzled over the abrupt introduction of the theme of the Crusades (I hadn't read PhS para 217 then) in the specific paragraph in your paper only to lose it in the next paragraph. This effect is especially powerful because in the previous paragraph you criticize reading skepticism and stoicism as particularly historical themes which would have placed them in Christianity. Of course a second reading shows an implicit thread within Christian theology especially when you refer to Hartshorne a few paragraphs down.But yes, paragraph two would put in position your advice about how to read Hegel. And that has been to the best of my competence my way of reading Hegel depending on a cautious assessment of various secondary commentaries as a guide.Here's what troubles me though: In a parallel thread Mary has initiated, there is a discussion of Zizek's reading of Hegel's term monstrosity and I have been hovering over saying something about Z there, but haven't. I find that Zizek's readings are extremely productive, but I always have a sneaky feeling that between Lacan and Hegel Zizek somewhere uses the latter as pegs on which to pin his own position. So while Z is interesting in his own right as a reader of Hegel, I always hesitate before accepting his position as 'correct'.This is the general problem of how to read Hegel though. Your recommendation depends a lot on 'subjective' care of reading surrounding sections -- which I agree is extremely important. But here's the catch -- what's the safety net that ensures which particular assessment of what Hegel is speaking about correct?But I guess recognition of a position on Hegel's text need not necessarily mean an institutionalized agreement about the accuracy of its assessment. After all, philosophy (especially Hegelian) is more about institutions and less within them. I wonder how one gets over the bad infinite of a progress consisting of perpetual disagreement though! In other words, what is the objective form of the Hegelian philosophical spirit? What are its controls, constraints and freedoms?BestSrivatsOn Tue, Aug 6, 2019 at 8:11 PM 'Eric v.d. Luft' ericvdluft@... [hegel] <hegel@yahoogroups.com> wrote:I believe that Srivats and Paul are missing the main point of my paper,
whose purpose is clearly stated in the first three paragraphs. The whole
paper should be read in the context of these paragraphs, especially the
second.
As for inferring Christianity into PhG 217, no citation is necessary.
That inference is well-established. In fact, the entire subsection of
PhG 207-230 is about Christianity. For example, the three forms of the
Immutable (Unwandelbare) at the end of PhG 210 are obviously Yahweh,
Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
In PhG 217 self-consciousness seeks living spirit but finds only dead
spirit. Specifically, it looks for the living individuality of the
Immutable but finds only the grave of this individuality, which no
longer has any actuality for spirit. In other words, an expedition to
the so-called "Holy Land" twelve centuries after the physical death of
Jesus is not going to find anything with religious significance. That's
the Crusades: "... der Kampf eines Bemuehens, der verloren werden muss"
("... the struggle of an effort which must fail").
It amuses me that Paul, who likes to read Christianity into places where
it does not exist, refuses to see it here in PhG 217, where it really
does exist.
FWIW,
E.
Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S.
Owner, Gegensatz Press
North Syracuse, New York
<www.gegensatzpress.com>--R Srivatsan
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