Arquivo para a ‘Linguagens’ Categoria
Dialogue and diversity
The clash between two Hegelian conceptions of the state and the absence of dialogue and new horizons are among the causes of the civilizational crisis.
Both the modernist old Hegelians and the new revolutionaries point to a vision of the state with a single discourse, absence of dialogue and tolerance, this is the root of the crisis.
What we notice is the superficiality of this fundamental problem, each one creating truths that they think are universal and sometimes are even bizarre, as they are only at the level of ideas and do not correspond to reality, they do not contribute to a real way out of the crisis of civilization.
Every day, “wise men” of some kind emerge who already have the solution to major problems involving leaders, nations and cultures that have developed, in general taken root and have great difficulty in dialoguing with other worldviews.
Coexistence in diversity is fundamental for a democratic society, when only a vision of the world and a way of administering the state is imposed a part of the population is outside this dialogue and will not see any way out other than rebellion, at the level of the state it means war.
We have lived through two world wars, the result of a colonialist conception of the state, however the current one is more serious because it is a vision of imperialist hegemony of opposing forces.
It is true that there are social forces striving to open a path of dialogue, but in the diplomatic field it has failed, not for lack of proposals, but for discreetly aligning themselves with one of the conflicting sides.
In the religious field this also occurs, the Pharisaic view that it is not possible to dialogue and see how important it is to live with “sinners” and “tax collectors” (those who mismanage the state or are corrupt today) is described in Matthew 9,11 -13:
“Some Pharisees saw this and asked the disciples: “Why does your master eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus heard the question and replied: “Those who are healthy do not need a doctor, but the sick do. So learn what it means: ‘I want mercy and not sacrifice.’ Indeed, I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners “.
The sacrifice of millions of innocents takes place in a war because there is no force that dialogues with the sin of conflict, hatred and war without human and moral limits (in photo, the explosion of the dam in Nova Kakhovka, Kherson region).
Without tolerance and dialogue, no peace is possible, and civilization is currently experiencing a crisis.
Dualism and unity
Dualism comes from Parmenides’ idealism and reaches Hegel, we have already posted in its categories in-itself, of-itself and for-itself, being for-itself a certain return to in-itself.
There are two types of dualism: substance dualism and property dualism. While substance dualism (or Cartesian dualism) argues that the mind is an independently existing substance, property dualism describes a category of positions in philosophy of mind that advocate that, although the world is constituted by only one type of substance, of the physical kind, there are two distinct types of properties: physical properties and mental properties.
This quarrel within dualism continues on the separation of substance and mind, whether as substance or property.
Unity is possible if we think beyond the logical ontology of Parmenides where Being is and non-being is not, there is a Being that is not, that is present in the soul, and that in the trinitarian sense is a Being-for-itself, that is is a for in the sense of beyond, in this case beyond the substance, and if we think of Absolute God (using the Hegelian category) the for-itself is substance and materializes in the “son” of the Trinity who is Jesus, being-in – himself man and being-for-himself God.
Thus God enters history and substance as mind and property, what the French theologian and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin calls the noosphere, which is the subtitle of this blog.
God mind and property enters history and eternalizes himself as a substance in body and blood, with the substances bread and wine, which are human artifacts, the wheat made bread by man and the grape made wine by man, thus human substance, deified and eternalized at the supper of Jesus, this is the feast of the Body of Christ held today by most Christians.
In Chardanian reasoning, God removed the universe from its sub-instance, which is also God, from the body of Christ, so the whole universe is Christocentric and penetrated by His divinity.
The human attempt to create an intelligent and beyond-human “being” is an ex-machina incapable of being for-itself.
This is how Trinitarian and human unity is achieved, it is necessary to pass through the non-Being that is Being, it is necessary to overcome contradictions and go beyond oneself, to enter a divine and eternal for-itself.
Hermeneutic circle and dialogue
Before the dialogue, Heidegger’s hermeneutic circle builds a concept of fusion of horizons, it seems idealistic, but it is just the opposite, knowledge does not happen by revealing the object to the subject, as understood by Kant, it is not a mere projection of the subject on the subject. object as thought by Kant’s idealism.
Subject and object have their own horizons, as both are endowed with historicity, I exemplify with a very present example: war, it is not enough to look at the subjects at war on both sides of a dispute, there is war as an instrument of hatred and oppression, and it itself has its historicity, of course the subjects at war as well.
Knowledge then takes place from the fusion of the horizons of the subjects, hence the overcoming of the subject-object scheme, it is dualistic and in it the dialogue is segmented.
When perceiving an object, the subject always contributes with his pre-understanding, his interpretation is partial, so it is necessary to understand the other pre-understanding, in philosophical hermeneutics although they are called pre-concepts, it has a positive aspect, the starting point of dialogue and the next step is the fusion of horizons.
If both want peace, and this cannot be just rhetoric, it is necessary to know the prejudice.
Gadamer criticizes Dilthey’s romantic historicity and clarifies: “[…] the idea of an absolute reason is not a possibility of historical humanity. For us, reason only exists as real and historical, which simply means: reason is not master of itself, since it is always related to the data on which it is exercised. (GADAMER, 1998).
Kant provided the overcoming of the object paradigm, with his spiritual vision he went to the philosophy of subjectivity, however today, with the studies pertinent to the linguistic turn, there is already a vision of overcoming subjectivity through intersubjectivity, manifested in language as a condition for the possibility of knowledge and not just as a third thing between subject and object or simple opposition and confrontation.
Philosophical hermeneutics is based not on the duality of meanings, but on its broad and plural vision of possible meanings, the possibility created by the understanding that takes place in the fusion of horizons that is not “anything about anything”, but rather penetrating what Husserl’s phenomenology called “the thing in itself”, that of the Being of beings.
The dialogue of positions in confrontation is just another form of war, there is no analysis that goes to the bottom of each subject’s pre-understanding and what is in the objects.
A sincere dialogue is necessary for a new civilizing step, an “other” dialogue.
Gadamer, Hans-Georg. (1998) Método e Verdade (Truth and method) Trans. Flavio Paulo Meurer. 2nd ed. Brazil, Petropolis: Vozes.
The war beyond territorial limits
With very limited attempts at peace, the war in Eastern Europe threatens to go beyond the borders, which makes the limits dangerous, both the attempt to invade Russian territory and destabilize Moldova,which now considers being a member country of NATO (its constitution prevents it).
Russia already has weapons and troops in Transnistria, a narrow strip in northern Moldova, while Soviet groups with support from Ukraine begin to launch attacks inside Russian territory.
While Russia’s land and sea access to Moldova is limited, the government of Moldova’s President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of using “saboteurs” disguised as civilians to stoke unrest amid a period of political instability, but Russia would gain access to southern Ukraine, leaving it more besieged and fragile.
The Ukrainian counter-offensive so far seems not to have taken effect, the Donesk region that would be a possible target has not proved fragile, with Russia defending its positions.
In terms of international diplomacy, an ideological alignment begins to grow, the so-called third way, which China and Brazil would also be part of, are increasingly closer to the Russian discourse of “conquered” territories and the discourse of peace is weakened .
Europe will hold a new meeting to discuss Ukraine’s entry into the Eurozone, it seems more plausible than entry into NATO, since in its statute no country at war can enter, it would be a serious exception and Russia would understand a declaration of war open.
Open because the sending of fighter jets and weapons to Ukraine is already a declared support, the countries, however, allege that it is for the “defense” of the territory, and for this reason the entry into territory is not well regarded by the NATO countries, it was even a condition for sending fighter jets to Ukraine.
The week will be decisive with the discussion of the countries of the Eurozone, and the counter-offensive of Ukraine, for the time being many attacks on Kiev, some of which hit children and a clinic.
The signs of peace are increasingly difficult and less effective, what happens is a strong alignment at all levels, from the economic to the political, each side tries to strengthen itself.
Idealism and perichoresis
Idealism, by developing the categories in-itself, of-itself and for-itself, isolates the trinitarian possibility of relationship and annuls the idea of ontological relationship, what is in-itself if it is not Being and what is for-itself if it is not is non-Being, the Other is not the negation of Being, but its complement.
Self is relationship, and this completes the Christian Trinitarian idea of three persons in relationship, which is called perichoresis.
In a possible metaphor with Idealism: God-Father is God-in-itself, God-son is God-for-itself and God-Holy Spirit is God-in-itself, it is observed that God-for-itself is both man ( God transcendent his divinity) as he is Divine (Jesus is God and transcends humanity)
This means the one in three persons, the first Christian council of Nicaea (325) discussed the divinity of Jesus, because it was even easier, due to the dualism of Being and non-Being, to believe in two than in three.
To support the dualistic idea, some pseudo-theologians have used the idea that God the Father is the source and origin of all divinity, so the other two people were generated by the Father, creating a new way of denying the Trinitarian perichoresis, or if you prefer “ the dance” in the inner divine relationship.
It was the Cappadocian priests, Gregório Magno, Gregório de Nyssa and Basilio de Nyssa, who saw this contradiction, which comes dressed in a new guise, with the exchange of the word prosopon (persona) for hypostasis, which in turn is confused with ousía.
Basilio used the formula of Mt 28,19 which states that the communication of the Three in baptism manifests the Holy Spirit in the union of the Father with the son, in the same dignity, and manifests it to man in baptism, for this reason valid baptism is in the name of the Three People.
The relationship is like a dance between the three people with the metaphor of the Cappadocians.
This relationship is mystical, but it is concretely described in John 3:17: “In fact, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him”.
God the image of man
It was Feuerbach who was the first to make an anthropological reduction of theology, his god is made to establish man, there is no liberation of man without the negation of god. He started from the assumption that religion is the expression and cause of human alienation, he saw it like this: “man’s knowledge of God is only man’s self-knowledge and his own essence”, in a clear allusion to Hegel’s Absolute.
His analysis of the religious attitude and the concept of alienation, Feuerbach influenced the socialist thinkers of the 19th century, especially Karl Marx, is among others (called Old Hegelians) a transition between Hegelian idealism and historical materialism.
Its analysis is important because many today reaffirm this idea that it is the material basis that constitutes man’s consciousness, the consciousness of God is the consciousness that man has of himself, the knowledge of God is the knowledge that man has of himself even so god of prosperity and who gives human material goods is Feuerbach’s god.
This is also present in contemporary religions, a god of power and wealth.
We have already elaborated that Hegel’s god of the Absolute is not relation and therefore not Trinitarian.
His reading is: ““the hermeneutic key that the author uses to understand religion is the following: religion is anthropology, ‘theology is anthropology’, so what man says about God, through religious language, is nothing else. than a confession of his aspirations and projects”, however it is God who creates to satisfy only immediate human needs.
This does not mean a God in nature who does not know man, otherwise the figure of Jesus would just be a superior being with no relation to man, including his human needs.
The Hegelian world created this selfish and merely human face, where gifts and divine asceticism do not exist.
Feuerbach, Ludwig (1988) A essência do cristianismo. Brazil, Campinas: Papirus, 1988.
Hegel and the relationship with the Absolute
Hegel’s relationship with the Absolute is important because although it is not evident, it is present in most religious and power concepts today.
For Hegel, the spirit is only spirit insofar as it is for the spirit, manifesting itself, thus its form of Absolute is representation and not a Being.
By form it is understood the different moments of the concept that are divided into particular spheres or particular elements, in which each particular element the Absolute is exposed.
There are stages for Hegel, of elevation of certainty to truth, in idealism this is asceticism. Consciousness in general has in the external object only one object; that which is self-consciousness which has the self as the object of thought; and finally, the unity of consciousness or self-consciousness when being and thinking become identical and the Spirit contemplates the content of the object as itself.
Hegel adds, dismantling the relationship of consciousness with the Other in the elevation of Truth: “In effect, the In-itself is consciousness, but it is also that for which it is an Other (the In-itself): it is for consciousness that the In-itself of the object and its being-for-an-Other are the same. The I is the content of the relationship and the relationship itself; it confronts an Other and at the same time surpasses it; and this Other, for him, is just himself; With self-consciousness, we enter the homeland of Truth” (Hegel, 2012).
An important passage in Phenomenology, which introduces Hegel’s most important concept, is the passage from consciousness to self-consciousness. In order for consciousness to leave the aporia of facing something that it cannot understand through the categories undertaken so far, Hegel uses the idealist posture of admitting that subject and object, being both units formed from the internalization of differences, have the same structure, infinity is just this object for consciousness, its “transcendence”.
Thus for-itself it is neither the passage in relation to the Other, nor a spiritual asceticism, it is only a representation in consciousness, this indeed a despiritualized asceticism.
Hegel, G. W. F. (2012). Fenomenologia do espírito. 8. ed. Brazil, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Alienation and absolute spirit
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (Germany, 1770-1831) is considered the last of the modern philosophers and who writes in a systematic way, where the theory forms a body.
The understanding of what alienation is becomes absolute, both in Hegel and in the philosopher Marx, pure thought becomes sensitive thought, aiming at a material realization in the form of work, and if we alienate ourselves, we separate ourselves from the pure essence and open the way for a separation between ideal and real, which unite in what Hegel called Absolute Spirit.
It is in the power relationship that both find themselves winning and being defeated that they see it: “You are the power that is above this being; well, this being is the power that is over the Other; therefore, you have this Other underneath you: this is the syllogism [of domination]” (HEGEL, 1988, p. 130).
The idealistic dualism becomes diabetic, the idea of master and slave does not value one of the self-consciousness more than that of the other, in chapter IV he speaks of two self-consciousness that are confronting each other, thus dialogue and the fusion of horizons is not possible, but opposition.
“Therefore, the relationship of the two self-consciousnesses is determined in such a way that they prove themselves and each other through a life-and-death struggle. They must fight this fight, because they need to elevate to the truth, in the Other and in themselves, their certainty of being-for-itself. Only by putting one’s life at risk, freedom [is conquered]…” (HEGEL, 1988, p. 128).
Hegel did not destroy or abandon religion, he just rewrote it in his own way: “Religion is the way in which humanity is aware of the truth and it is for everyone, whereas philosophy is not accessible to all people (HEGEL, 1988, p. 106).
He even states that religion is necessary, in which the content must become objective for the sensitive consciousness and then, through reflection, be understood in the form of the universal, that is, of thinking (HEGEL, 1995, p. 133).
Hegel, G. W. F. (1995) Introdução às Lições sobre História da Filosofia. Porto: Porto Editora.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1992). Fenomenologia do Espírito. Trad. Paulo Meneses e Karl-Heinz Efken. Brazi, Petrópolis: Vozes.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1988) Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion: The Lectures of 1827, One-volume edition. Berkeley: University of California Press.
The All, the Whole and the Trinity
It was inevitable that the idealism by segmentation that makes reality fall into some form of mysticism without a clear cosmovision, is the ontological quest that man has his completeness as a whole and what is the relationship with everything.
Heidegger argued about the precedence of the question of Being, idealist philosophy has this question, as we have already pointed out in other posts, but here we focus on Hegel’s apex, not only in the Phenomenology of Spirit, but in practically all writings there is a question of the Whole.
In each of the representations that constitute the Whole, he constitutes the Absolute, the Idea and the Idea of philosophy.
Hegel develops the apprehension of the Absolute through three moments: Art, Religion and Philosophy, so in a somewhat simplistic way it can be said that art is the personification of the Idea, the expression of the immediate split in Nature and Spirit.
Hegel (1995) describes that, Art and the intuitions it produced, need not only a given external world, to which images and subjective representations belong, but the expression of spiritual content, also needs the forms given by nature for its meaning. to which he must possess and foresee (Hegel, 1995, p. 342).
It is quite significant that Hegel developed a representation of the Absolute when he cited the Greek people, considered as the highest expression for the Greeks, and religion had an anthropomorphic form, that is, the gods were as carnal as men, so they are subject.
So this religion arises from the relationship between the Religion of Nature and its myths, while the relationship with the Christian Religion is the consciousness of the spirit that is infinite humanity.
The absolute spirit appears as humanity’s self-knowledge, being the conscience of effective history, and philosophy disentangles the instantaneousness of passions to surrender to contemplation.
According to Hegel (1995): “The absolute spirit cannot be made explicit in such a singularity of configuration: the spirit of fine art is, therefore, a limited spirit of a people, whose universality is in itself, when advancing towards the ulterior inheritance of its richness. , breaks down into a determined polytheism” (HEGEL, 1995, p. 342).
For Hegel, spirit is spirit only insofar as it is for spirit, manifesting itself.
Thus his spirit is for-itself in the sense of for-itself, little or nothing of the Holy Spirit who is totally in projection to the Other, whether in the Holy Trinity or in the human soul.
Hegel, G.W.F. (1995) Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (1830). 1. Science of Logic, 2. Philosophy of Nature, and, 3. Philosophy of Spirit. Transl. Paulo Menezes. Brazil, São Paulo: Loyola.
Spirit and Kant’s practical rationalism
Although Kant touches little on the issue of the Spirit, for him what exists is a practical “spirit” typical of the Enlightenment, there is an exception which is his reading of a Swedish author Swedenborg, a visionary of the suprasensible world of spirits, and that Kant treats in Dreams of a Visionary.
Kant’s metaphysics is linked to the dualism between subject and object, however, in this book he extrapolates the dogmatic rationalist nature and approaches the two worlds (body and mind) through a suprasensible world and thus, we would have the configuration of what would be the soul in contact with the body, through the spirit, that is, we have three entities: the spirit, the soul and the body, to establish the relationships he creates a very ingenious “psycho-physical” problematic.
Using Swedenborg’s views (which he assumes to be true) he imagines that the soul has contact with the other world united with the body that knows objects of sensitivity (the subject x object duality) while the spirit in its relationship with the soul also seeks to know such objects. subjects, since he is not completely connected to the body and remains in a spirit world, see that he has little or nothing to do with the religious spirit world.
Swedenborg sees himself as an “oracle of the spirits” who has his soul open to receive information, which makes him different from other men, so his soul communicates with the other world, through the connection with the spirit, there is in this a spirit world, and this spirit world existing, souls could communicate by a kind of telepathy, however this is not the case.
As he then explains this communication, there are limits to knowledge through the relations between the human soul and the supposed world of spirits, and such an argument is what he terms a “psycho-physical” trade between the world of spirits and the sensible world. by the soul that is found in man.
Very elaborate, however Hegel’s elaboration will be more complete and dialogues with the entire modern philosophical culture as well as with Christian theology, but to diverge, contrary to a thesis that approaches, Hegel’s will move away and find in the dialectical theses motivations to the Phenomenology of the Spirit.
Kant, I. (2003) Dreams of Spirit-see & Others Writings.- 1st ed. Swedenborg Foundation Publishers, PA: USA.