PHIL336: 19th Century European Philosopher: Hegel
Longer Paper #1
Due: Wednesday, October 25.
Dennis Beach, OSB
Fall 2000
Once upon a time, the world spirit, in the shape of a young man named George, lived
on the shores of a large lake, from which there issued something very different from the
lake, a small stream. This stream flowed out over a few large rocks—large that is,
compared to the stones George skipped over the surface of the lake, but not so large as
the rocks that formed the overhanging bluffs. The stream meandered, becoming larger
and larger until, as it flowed away from the pine and birch forest where George lived, it
was already becoming a river, on its way to the sea (although George couldn’t know
this destination). But even though the water flowed away, and the lake level fell at
times, it always seemed to rise again, perhaps from the rain, and so the lake was always
there, a constant in the landscape. Constant in summer, but perhaps even more
constant in winter, when a thick sheet of ice formed over it, and George could walk to
his favorite fishing hole instead of trying to keep his wayward canoe hovering over it in
the liquid current. Yes, the lake, like the stream, was a constant, after a fashion.
George, of course, embodied Aristotle’s principle that all human beings by nature desire
to know, and he began to pride himself on what he knew about his world. But the more
he thought about what he knew, the more confused he got, and so he decided to keep a
journal that would untangle what he knew about his world.
Write three sections of George’s journal, making up (with some degree of
verisimilitude) what details you need in order to make your points clear. The three
sections should illustrate the claims and the key dialectical conflicts of the first three
shapes of Spirit articulated by Hegel in his Phenomenology of Spirit. For each section, you
should include the following, with concrete details used to make the point clear:
a) George’s criterion for knowing the truth: the shape that the truth of the world
takes in this stage of consciousness, as well as George’s understanding of
what it means to know this truth at this point.
b) The problems that arise as George attempts to establish that he really knows
the world in an authoritative way using this criteria. You cannot retrace all of
Hegel’s moves (even if we wanted to do so, I doubt any of us could!), but
should illustrate what you consider the key moments of this shape and its
conflicts.
c) How and why George is pushed to develop a new model for knowing the
world that solves (temporarily) the problems he encountered.
Somewhere in the journal entry (some few places, if you prefer), you should include a
discussion of determinate negation as well as of mediation. Define other key concepts as
you deem appropriate.