He argued that the rational mind was embedded in history and culture. Or put another way, human Consciousness, Psychology and Personality is embedded in a network of traditional relationships to others, as opposed to the today's commonly held idea of the sheer individual actor in a capitialistic paradigm (I can see a potential point of connection with the latest book I purchased 'connected' here already).
Hegel's view is that each step in human history is a step towards the growing consciousness of everything - which leads to the final total awareness of God's awareness of himself. In other words,
the evolution of the absoulute takes place through the events of human history.
Hegel Dialectic is the manner of transition or development. The notion is that dilalectical development takes place where we begin with a thesis (an entity, a position or an idea), which given the context that it operates in, naturally creates opposition or conflict with something else. Any thesis must imply it's opposite. This conflict leads to a resolution (or sublation) - a transformation of the opposed elements, to form a new unity.
It's in such Dialectic that we find the creative advance in spirit and history - to bridge and incorporate differences at a higher level. He argues that anything limited must undergo this dialectic and only God, in his fully realised form does not undergo it.
He argues, for example, that the concept of 'hot'would be meaningless, if it were not for the concept of cold.
Temperature hot <-----------------------> cold
The resolution between the thesis 'hot' and the antithesis 'cold' is resolved through the concept of different measures of temperature.
Further to this, Hegel argues that free will can only be realised between the thesis and the antithesis. He argues that our minds cannot come to a proper understanding about anything without the strong context of dualism, or polar opposites.
Hegel was also against the idea of 'cogito ergo sum' (I think there for I am) and claimed that self-consciousness could only be realised in relation to another self-consciousness. Hegel goes into the master/slave dialectic to illustrate this point.
There is a limitation on each because of their unequal relationship that prevent each from attaining self-consciousness. That is, the slave sees himself as an unfree object. The master sees himself as free, but only abstractly, and fails to see that he too is an object (dependent on the work of his slave). The slave's selfhood is denied by his inability to understand his own freedom. The Master's selfhood is denied by this inability to have the physical creative act of working, which is also required for selfhood.
In the slaves struggle for freedom, the slave recognises freewill. In his willingness to brave death for his struggle, he becomes the equal of the master. The master, in dealing with the slave's struggle, must deal with him on equal footing as another independent self. In doing so, Hegel argues, both come to realise their combined freedom in dependence and worship the external cause as the unification they lack.
I would really like to anaylse the master/slave dialectic in relation to Nietzche's idea's on power. (the two philosophers were detractors).
Also, I've come across a new term in Zizek's book 'Abrogation' which I intend to delve into further down the track.
But alas, for another time.
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