Section Two: Period of the Thinking Understanding
AFTER Neo-Platonisim and all that is
associated
with it is left behind, it is not until
Descartes
is arrived at that we really enter
upon a
philosophy which is, properly speaking,
independent,
which knows that it comes forth from
reason
as independent, and that self-consciousness
is an essential moment in the truth.
Philosophy
in its own proper soil separates itself
entirely
from the philosophizing theology, in
accordance
with its principle, and places it on
quite
another side. Here, we may say, we
are at
home, and like the mariner after a
long voyage
in a tempestuous sea, we may now hail
the
sight of land; with Descartes the culture
of modern times, the thought of modern
Philosophy,
really begins to appear, after a long
and
tedious journey on the way which has
led
so far. It is specially characteristic
of
the German that the more servile he
on the
one hand is, the more uncontrolled
is he
on the other; restraint and want of
restraint
- originality, is the angel of darkness
that
buffets us. In this new period the
universal
principle by means of which everything
in
the world is regulated, is the thought
that
proceeds from itself; it is a certain
inwardness,
which is above all evidenced in respect
to
Christianity, and which is the Protestant
principle in accordance with which
thought
has come to the consciousness of the
world
at large as that to which every man
has a
claim. Thus because the independently
existent
thought, this culminating point of
inwardness,
is now set forth and firmly grasped
as such,
the dead externality of authority is
set
aside and regarded as out of place.
It is
only through my own free thought within
that
thought can however be recognized and
ratified
by me. This likewise signifies that
such
free thought is the universal business
of
the world and of individuals; it is
indeed
the duty of every man, since everything
is
based upon it; thus what claims to
rank as
established in the world man must scrutinize
in his own thoughts. Philosophy is
thus become
a matter of universal interest, and
one respecting
which each can judge for himself; for
everyone
is a thinker from the beginning.
On account of this new beginning to
Philosophy
we find in the old histories of Philosophy
of the seventeenth century - e. g.,
that
of Stanley - the philosophy of the
Greeks
and Romans only, and Christianity forms
the
conclusion. The idea was that neither
in
Christianity nor subsequently any philosophy
was to be found, because there was
no longer
a necessity for it, seeing that the
philosophic
theology of the Middle Ages had not
free,
spontaneous thought as its principle
(Vol.
I. pp. 111, 112). But though it is
true that
this has now become the philosophic
principle,
we must not expect that it should be
at once
methodically developed out of thought.
The
old assumption is made, that man only
attains
to the truth through reflection; this
plainly
is the principle. But the determination
and
definition of God, the world of the
manifold
as it appears, is not yet revealed
as necessarily
proceeding from thought; for we have
only
reached the thought of a content which
is
given through ordinary conception,
observation,
and experience.
On the one hand we see a metaphysic,
and,
on the other, the particular sciences:
on
the one hand abstract thought as such,
on
the other its content taken from experience;
these two lines in the abstract stand
opposed
to one another, and yet they do not
separate
themselves so sharply. We shall indeed
come
to an opposition, viz. to that between
a
priori thought - that the determinations
which are to hold good for thought
must,
be taken from thought itself - and
the determination
that we must commence, conclude and
think
from experience. This is the opposition
between
rationalism and empiricism; but it
is really
a subordinate one, because even the
metaphysical
mode in philosophy, which only allows
validity
to immanent thought, does not take
what is
methodically developed from the necessity
of thought, but in the old way derives
its
content from inward or outward experience,
and through reflection and meditation
renders
it abstract. The form of philosophy
which
is first reached through thought is
metaphysics,
the form of the thinking understanding;
this
period has, as its outstanding figures,
Descartes
and Spinoza, likewise Malebranche and
Locke,
Leibnitz and Wolff. The second form
is Scepticism
and Criticism with regard to the thinking
understanding, to metaphysics as such,
and
to the universal of empiricism; here
we shall
go on to speak of representatives of
the
Scottish, German, and French philosophies;
the French materialists again turn
back to
metaphysics.
Chapter I. - The Metaphysics of the
Understanding
METAPHYSICS is what reaches after substance,
and this implies that one unity, one
thought
is maintained in opposition to dualism,
just
as Being was amongst the ancients.
In metaphysics
itself we have, however, the opposition
between
substantiality and individuality. What
comes
first is the spontaneous, but likewise
uncritical,
metaphysics, and it is represented
by Descartes
and Spinoza, who assert the unity of
Being
and thought. The second stage is found
in
Locke, who treats of the opposition
itself
inasmuch as he considers the metaphysical
Idea of experience, that is the origin
of
thoughts and their justification, not
yet
entering on the question of whether
they
are absolutely true. In the third place
we
have Leibnitz's monad - the world viewed
as a totality.
A. First Division
We here encounter the innate ideas
of Descartes.
The philosophy of Spinoza, in the second
place, is related to the philosophy
of Descartes
as its necessary development only;
the method
is an important part of it. A method
which
stands alongside of Spinozism and which
is
also a perfected development of Cartesianism,
is, in the third place, that by which
Malebranche
has represented this philosophy.
CLICK HEGEL ICON BELOW
TO
GO TO NEXT PAGE |
Evans Experientialism 
