The China of western philosophy is not only the pursuit and yearning of our people in recent years, but also the natural formation of culture and customs. The following is my paper on the history of western philosophy for your reference.
A model essay on the history of western philosophy: an analysis of Hegel's thinking and existential identity
abstract
As the highest problem of modern philosophy, the problem of "the identity of thinking and existence" has experienced the unity of opposites from Kant's binary opposition to abstract identity, and then to Hegel's absolute idealism. On the basis of refuting Kant's agnosticism, Hegel inherited and developed Schelling's philosophical thought, thus establishing his theory that thinking and existence are both "absolute ideas". In his view, thinking is the essence of existence, and the existence of a thing is realistic only if it conforms to thinking; Thinking constantly realizes itself in existence, making existence consistent with itself. The study of Marxist philosophy should critically absorb its rational thought and scientifically solve the problem of identity between thinking and existence, so as to make new progress.
Keywords: Hegel's absolute idea, thinking and existence are the same
The relationship between thinking and existence, especially the problem of "the identity of thinking and existence", has gone through a long period of thinking and debate in western philosophy, gradually from vagueness to clarity, from abstraction to concreteness, and has been highlighted in a conscious form in modern times, and has developed into the highest problem of all philosophy, especially modern philosophy. It experienced from Kant's binary opposition to abstract unity, and then to Hegel's absolute idealism.
The dialectical unity of thinking and existence is the starting point and destination of Hegel's whole speculative philosophy and the basic and primary proposition of all his philosophy. Starting from the social and political roots, he studied this issue and formed a wealth of theories. On the one hand, the political revolution and industrial revolution of the modern bourgeoisie revealed the truth that ideas can establish existence and realize themselves, which is Hegel's new philosophical summary of the French Revolution from the standpoint of the German bourgeoisie. On the other hand, the German bourgeoisie is becoming more and more mature, and its confidence in changing reality is increasing, which is an almost qualitative leap compared with Kant's era. Theoretically speaking, it is based on Kant's "idea" theory and the inevitable result of the in-depth development of Kant's classical philosophical revolution. This paper mainly discusses Hegel's theory of thinking and existence identity theoretically.
First, German classical philosophers before Hegel talked about the identity of thinking and existence.
In modern philosophy, the opposition between thinking and existence is exposed from the beginning, and gradually tends to be consistent in the process of struggle.
Kant denies the identity of thinking and existence in principle, and denies the possibility that thinking can grasp the true essence of objective existence. On the one hand, he must have an object that stimulates our senses outside of us, namely "the thing itself"; On the other hand, he asserts that the objective thing-"thing in itself" is unknowable, transcendental and on the other side, and what we can achieve through understanding is only the sensory representation produced by the "thing in itself" stimulating our senses, that is, the so-called "phenomenon". In this way, there are two worlds before Kant: one is the "phenomenon" world on this shore that can be known, and the other is the "thing in itself" world on the other side that can't be known. It can be seen that Kant essentially denies the identity of thinking and existence, denies that thinking can grasp the true nature of objective existence, and denies the knowability of the world. But here, for the first time, he introduced a series of dialectical factors such as subjective initiative thought into solving the problem of thinking and existence, which provided enlightenment for German classical philosophers, especially Hegel, to solve the same problem of thinking and existence in the future.
Because Kant typically shows the relationship between thinking and existence in the form of binary opposition, German classical idealist philosophers after him can grasp the central issue at once. After Kant, Fichte realized that the key to the split between thinking and existence in Kant's philosophy was to affirm the existence of an unknowable "thing in itself", so he canceled Kant's "thing in itself" and tried his best to exert the "subjective feeling" in Kant's subjective idealism and construct a "self". As an ontology, he thinks that Kant's "thing in itself" is the product of what he calls "self". 2. Self-set non-ego (dual); 3. Self-setting yourself and non-self (combined topic). As such a dynamic activity, "ego" realizes the identity of its own thinking and existence according to the laws of affirmation, negation and harmony. In this way, he regards cognition and practice as the main body of individual thinking, that is, the dynamic setting action of "self". Thinking and existence have reached the same level in self-consciousness, which is an improvement compared with Kant's philosophy.
Schelling opposes Fichte's view that "self" is supreme, and thinks that in order to make "self" and "non-self" the same, there must be something above them, which is neither subject nor object, and he calls it "absolute". "Absolute" is the source of all limited things (matter and spirit), and it is the basis for the inevitable identity of thinking and existence, subject and object. Both "ego" and "non-ego" come from "absolute". It is definitely the "undifferentiated identity" between thinking and existence, and it is an unconscious spiritual force. Standing on the position of objective idealism, he believes that as long as there is an objective thing that exists independently of thinking, it is impossible for us to know it. To understand objective existence, we must regard thinking and existence as "undifferentiated identity", that is, simple equivalence, and thinking and existence are integrated without difference. Schelling tried to construct the identity of thinking and existence on the basis of objective idealism.
Second, Hegel demonstrated the identity of thinking and existence.
Hegel refuted Kant's agnosticism and inherited Schelling's objective idealism that thought and existence are unified on the basis of "absolute", but he disagreed with Schelling's so-called "undifferentiated identity". On the basis of absorbing the basic principles of Schelling's objective idealism, he applied dialectics to the theory of the identity of thinking and existence, and demonstrated that "absolute" is the process of the unity of opposites and the development of contradictions, thus systematically demonstrating the identity of thinking and existence within the scope of objective idealism.
Hegel emphasized that philosophy should be regarded not only as "should" philosophy, but also as "should" philosophy. Therefore, he strongly opposed Kant's establishment of a "thing in itself" beyond cognition. In his view, the knowledge in Kant's philosophy is only the knowledge of "phenomenon", while the knowledge of "thing itself" is unknowable, which separates the identity of subject and object, thinking and existence, and its essence is an agnosticism. As for Schelling's "undifferentiated identity", he thinks that he ignores the initiative of the thinking subject and fails to understand that the identity of thinking and existence is a process of contradictory development, rather than an undifferentiated identity that can be achieved at one time. Therefore, on the basis of "absolute idea", he clearly answered the question of the identity of thinking and existence. In Hegel's philosophy, "absolute idea" is the "origin" and "entity" of all things in the universe, and it is also a dynamic and creative cognitive subject with vitality. Starting from the humanitarianism of idealism, he firmly believed in the power of human reason and advocated the identity of thinking and existence. However, it should be emphasized that Hegel's "thought" refers not only to the thoughts in people's minds, but also to some "objective thoughts" existing outside people's minds, that is, "absolute ideas", and the thoughts in people's minds are only the advanced stage of the development of "absolute ideas". As for Hegel's "existence", it is not what we usually call "existence", but "objective thought". Hegel doesn't recognize the existence of matter at all. According to Hegel's point of view, everything (being) is just the alienation of "absolute concept" (thinking), and it is the shell or skin of "absolute concept", and "absolute concept" is the internal foundation and core of everything.
Generally speaking, Hegel's theory that "thinking and existence are the same" mainly includes the following three aspects: ① Being is thinking, and there is no objective existence outside thinking. ② Thinking is the essence and soul of existence; Existence is the externalization and noumenon of thinking, which can be transformed into each other and introduced into practice to solve the same problem of thinking and existence. The identity of thinking and existence is a dialectical process of contradictory development.
Here, I will elaborate Hegel's theory that thinking and existence are both "absolute ideas" from these three aspects.
(1) Being is thinking, and there is no objective existence outside thinking. This is a basic premise that Hegel's thinking and existence can be consistent.
Hegel absorbed Schelling's thought about the equivalence between thinking and existence, and regarded it as an integral part of his philosophy. In his view, existence is thinking, object is subject, and there is no objective existence except thinking. Hegel said: "In my opinion, the key to all problems is to understand and express the real things or truth not only as entities, but also as subjects." He explicitly denied the objective reality of matter and fundamentally denied the objective existence of things. He said: "Materialism holds that matter itself is a real and objective thing. But matter itself is an abstract thing, and matter as matter is imperceptible. So we can say that there is no such thing as matter. " [1] In Hegel's view, there are only two views on whether things are knowable: either they advocate that things exist independently of thinking, which is agnosticism; Either advocate the knowability of things, that is, to exist is to think. Other views are unimaginable. Based on this, Hegel canceled the independent existence of "things in themselves" in Kant's philosophy, and thought that everything (existence) was just the alienation of "absolute idea" (thinking), which was the shell or skin of "absolute idea" and the "absolute idea" was the internal foundation and core of everything. In this way, being is thinking.
(2) Thinking is the essence and soul of existence; Being is the externalization and noumenon of thinking, and they can be transformed into each other. Grasping an object is to realize its concept. And introduce practice into solving the same problem of thinking and existence.
Hegel affirmed that everything is the fundamental premise of thinking, and divided things into thinking and existence. On the one hand, he advocates that existence is thinking, and there is no objective existence outside thinking; On the other hand, it is clearly opposed to treating the "identity" of thinking and existence as undifferentiated identity and simple equivalence. Hegel thinks that Schelling's "absolute" is the unity of subjective and objective, which is correct, but it is inevitable to unilaterally admit the absolute identity of thinking and existence. In fact, in "absolute", subjectivity and objectivity, thinking and existence are not only the same, but also different.
Hegel believes that everything is the unity of thinking and existence: thinking is the essence of existence and existence is the content of thinking. Hegel said: "All real things, as long as they are truth, are ideas." Concept is "the absolute unity of concept and objectivity". These two aspects are not equal: thinking is the creator of existence, and existence is the externalization of thinking. Hegel said: in the unity of thinking and existence, "thinking dominates existence and subjectivity dominates objectivity." [2] Because thinking is dynamic and creative, thinking and existence are not rigidly opposed: on the one hand, thinking can produce its own object-existence through "externalization"; On the other hand, we can overcome the opposition between ourselves and the object and make it our own, that is, "assimilation", that is, make existence or object our own possession. In this way, the functions of "externalization" and "assimilation" constitute the development process of thinking and existence.
Here, Hegel introduced practice into epistemology to demonstrate the identity of thinking and existence. In Hegel's view, Kant's philosophy always stays on "should", which is too weak. The idea will not stay in subjectivity, but will abandon subjectivity and express itself as an objective thing. Idea needs an intermediary to make the objective world consistent with itself, that is "practice". [3] He pointed out: "Activity and labor are subjective and objective intermediaries" and "every behavior should abandon an idea (subjective thing) and turn it into an objective thing". Only practice and action are the bridge between subject and object, and it is the necessary link to transform thinking into existence, make existence conform to thinking and realize the unity of thinking and existence.
⑶ The identity of thinking and existence is a dialectical process of contradictory development.
The identity of Hegel's thinking and existence is not Schelling's indifferent "absolute identity", nor can it be achieved overnight. In his view, the existence of any specific thing is always temporary and relative. The identity between thinking and existence is a process of contradictory development and mutual transformation, a process in which thinking constantly realizes itself in existence and makes existence conform to itself, and a process from "freedom" to "self-action", from finite to infinite, from relative to absolute, from intuitive diversity to unity of diversity, from superficial phenomenon to profound essence. In a word, it is the process of thinking grasping existence and possessing existence, and the process of "absolute concept" constantly realizing itself in the progress of this contradiction between thinking and existence, and in the development of things' metabolism, so that things gradually conform to their concepts and achieve the same thinking and existence. Compared with other modern philosophers, Hegel's remarkable feature in solving the problem of thinking and existence is that he takes his own systematic dialectics as a methodology to solve the problem of "the identity of thinking and existence".
The same process of Hegel's thinking and existence is, on the whole, a process of pure concept transformation and development from existence to thinking and from objective to subjective. Thinking and existence are not two fundamentally different and completely separated things, but different development stages of the same thing: from existence to thinking is a development from low to high, from "comfortable" stage to "self-action" stage. [4] Hegel wrote: "The appearance of it (referring to the world) is so consistent with what it should be. [5] But this kind of existence is in line with what it should be, but it is not rigid and has no development process. " According to Hegel's view, since thinking is the essence of existence, a thing is true only if it conforms to the thinking it contains. However, all concrete things derived from the "absolute concept" are "limited things" subject to certain conditions, and they are only various links or stages in the development of the "absolute concept". Therefore, for any specific thing, they can't be completely consistent with its concept, that is to say, there must be contradictions that are both consistent and not completely consistent. Any concrete thing moves, changes and develops because of its internal thinking and existing contradictions, and eventually dies out and is replaced by another concrete thing that is more in line with the requirements of concept and concept development. The existence of anything is always temporary and relative, while the "absolute concept" is in the process of this contradiction between thinking and existence, and constantly realizes itself in the development of things' metabolism, so that things gradually conform to their concepts, and so are thinking and existence.
In Hegel's theory of identity between thinking and existence, the most basic content is a proposition that he is proud of: "Everything that is rational is realistic, and everything that is realistic is rational". Because in Hegel's view, all kinds of concrete things in the world are just "shells" or "skins" of "absolute ideas", and they are all links or stages in the development of "absolute ideas". He believes that everything that used to be realistic must be transformed into unrealistic things; And everything that meets the development requirements of the "absolute concept", no matter how it conflicts with everything that exists, will surely become a reality. Only "absolute concept" is eternal life, and all limited things are inevitably destroyed. It can be seen that in Hegel's identity theory of thinking and existence, thinking and existence are like two asymptotes in space, which are infinitely close to each other, but never intersect.
In short, Hegel's thinking and existence are consistent, which can be summarized as follows: thinking is the essence of existence, and the existence of a thing is realistic only if it conforms to thinking; Thinking constantly realizes itself in existence, making existence consistent with itself; Thinking and existence are the same in "absolute concept".
Three. assess
In the process of demonstrating the basic idea of the identity of thinking and existence, Hegel constructed a philosophical system of knowing and realizing himself and constantly moving towards the "absolute idea" of the identity of thinking and existence. Hegel's philosophical system is an objective idealism system, which completely attributes the development of nature, human society and human cognition to the mysterious process of "absolute idea" to realize itself and know itself. Hegel's theory of the identity of thinking and existence has both positive and reasonable aspects and unscientific aspects. The study of Marxist philosophy should critically absorb its rational thought, scientifically solve the problem of identity between thinking and existence, and make new progress.
(1) Hegel's theory of "the identity of thinking and existence" has gone out of the phenomenon and essence of opposition and separation between thinking and existence of western philosophers before him, and moved towards extreme or absolute identity and dialectical identity between thinking and existence, which is conducive to our scientific understanding of the object of dialectical materialism and its way of thinking; On the other hand, Hegel opposed materialism and resisted the restricted freedom to know the outside world. From the very beginning, he stipulated that the content that thinking can know is the content of thought, and thinking is free. [5] Thinking is not only not subject to reality, but also can create reality. Hegel's second view on whether things are knowable, that is, "being is thinking", is very absurd. Marx hit the nail on the head and pointed out: "Hegel fell into illusion and understood reality as the result of self-synthesis, self-deepening and self-movement." Moreover, Hegel's "thinking" and "being" are not the same as those in dialectical materialism. In this way, Hegel's ontology is not a real ontology. It does not recognize the restrictive effect of realistic perceptual things on thinking, but only allows thinking to override everything. Fundamentally speaking, the identity of thinking and existence in its epistemology is only a phenomenon, which only dispels the spiritual opposition between thinking and existence and maps out the integration of thinking (consciousness) and existence, but does not really reach the dialectical identity of thinking and existence. His theory of "thinking without changing" is based on objective idealism. Although he further developed the theory of knowability and refuted the theory of agnosticism, he finally determined that his theory of identity was not a scientific theory of identity.
⑵ Hegel's theory of "the identity of thinking and existence" emphasizes the enthusiasm and initiative of rational activities, criticizes the passivity, passivity and intuition of old metaphysical epistemology and reflection theory, reveals the process, development and dialectics of cognitive development, and tries to reveal the internal relationship between this movement and development, which has made great contributions to the history of human cognitive development; But he regards man as a limited cognitive subject, a subjective concept differentiated from "absolute concept" and a tool to realize self-knowledge. Human thinking is only an advanced development form of "absolute concept", and only "absolute concept" has always existed. In the process of human historical activities, this spiritual entity has been recognized and achieved step by step since human conscious thinking. Hegel's mistake is that he only saw existence (absolute concept) through existence (entity), so he blindly praised existence and forgot it. Therefore, when Hegel emphasized the role of rationality, he wrongly belittled the subjective position of human beings in cognition, annihilated the subjective position of human beings with the subjective position of ideas, and rationality swallowed up human nature, making human initiative look pale and powerless in the face of rationality. This is an extreme mistake. Even some later philosophers, such as Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, took the other extreme-irrational and anti-rationalist philosophical road when criticizing Hegel's mistake of suppressing human nature by reason.
In addition, when Hegel demonstrated that thinking and existence can be transformed into each other, he did an epoch-making event in philosophy: he introduced "practice" into epistemology as a necessary intermediary for the transformation of thinking and existence to demonstrate the identity of thinking and existence. This thought is undoubtedly profound, which inspires Marx to demonstrate that thinking and existence are the same in practice on the basis of dialectical materialism.
To sum up, Hegel's theory of "the identity of thinking and existence" has its unreasonable side, but it also has many bright ideas. The study of Marxist philosophy should critically absorb its rational thought and scientifically solve the problem of identity between thinking and existence, so as to make new progress in the new historical period.
References:
Zhang Zhiwei. History of western philosophy. Renmin University of China Press, Beijing 2002.
[2] Hegel. The philosophical system differences between Fichte and Schelling, Zhao Dunhua Peking University Press, September 1st edition, 20 10.
[3] Zhao Dunhua. The History of Western Philosophy was first published by Peking University Publishing House in May 2000.
[4] Russell. History of Western Philosophy Translated by He Zhaowu and Needham. The Commercial Press, first edition, September 1963.
[5] Zhang Chuanyou. Historical Process of Western Social Thoughts, Wuhan University Press, April 2005, first edition.
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