Observations placeholder
Hegel - Philosophy of Mind – Self consciousness
Identifier
029345
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Philosophy of Mind - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Self-consciousness130.
§ 424. Self-consciousness is the truth of consciousness: the latter is a consequence of the former, all consciousness of an other object being as a matter of fact also self-consciousness.
The object is my idea: I am aware of the object as mine; and thus in it I am aware of me. The formula of self-consciousness is I = I:—abstract freedom, pure “ideality.” In so far it lacks “reality”: for as it is its own object, there is strictly speaking no object, because there is no distinction between it and the object.
§ 425. Abstract self-consciousness is the first negation of consciousness, and for that reason it is burdened with an external object, or, nominally, with the negation of it. Thus it is at the same time the antecedent stage, consciousness: it is the contradiction of itself as self-consciousness and as consciousness. But the latter aspect and the negation in general is in I = I potentially suppressed; and hence as this certitude of self against the object it is the impulse to realise its implicit nature, by giving its abstract self-awareness content and objectivity, and in the other direction to free itself from its sensuousness, to set aside the given objectivity and identify it with itself. The two processes are one and the same, the identification of its consciousness and self-consciousness.
The source of the experience
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm FriedrichConcepts, symbols and science items
Concepts
EgoHigher spirit
Higher spirit and Perceptions
Higher spirit and personality
Higher spirit, personality and memory
Personality