Spirit

Spirit (438-443)

Self-Consciousness as Reason emerges as Spirit just as it recognizes the certainty of the truth that had previously been lost: that it is all of reality. Spirit is Self-Consciousness in its awareness of “itself as the world, and the world as its own” (438). While this was the Truth or Concept of Reason, it was only so in its immediacy or as a given. In this sense, it had not been raised to the level of certainty; it was something that was only asserted rather than actually comprehended. Spirit now is the concrete unity of the self and the world, or as Kalkavage refers to it, “an I that is We and a We that is I” (Kalkavage 235). Spirit is the moment where “real community” is established. For Spirit is the true mutual recognition of each individual of and for each other. With this, Hegel now turns to the ways in which Spirit has manifested itself in history, and begins with Spirit as something objective or in-itself: The Ethical World and ancient Greece.

The Ethical World (444-483)

A large function of the Ethical World is that of Action. Arising from the remains of Reason as actualized self-consciousness, the Ethical World too has ways in which individuals as members of community act and have products of their actions. Hegel explores this through Actions and deeds. Deeds take on a similar nature to the products or “works” of the action of Reason. In the guise of Spirit and the Ethical World, Action now becomes imbued and reinforced by the ethical substance that has now come to the fold. Action is how ethical substance is actualized through agents (members of a community). Self-Consciousness as Spirit is aware of its Actions as having this ethical substance, for all actions that it performs directly impacts other members of the community. In this sense, no one can act without acting in accordance with an ethical substance or viewpoint. I feel this is important to introduce first for Hegel does so before detailing the Ethical World. This small beginning section is one that is for-us as phenomenological observers (readers), giving us some dramatic irony to see exactly how this moment of Spirit will come to an end. He stresses this by stating that the very Action of the Ethical World will come to undermine its very foundation, bringing it crumbling down.

The Ethical World shows the reader (and Self-Consciousness) how Self-Consciousness’s true certainty of itself can only be experienced within a social community. Ethical substance becomes the “natural talent” of Spirit, being the substance of all Action. Hegel calls ethical substance “the universal work produced by the action of all and each” (439). It is the Greek-ness of Greek culture manifested by the actions of both the city (polis) and each individual member of said city. Hegel makes it clear that Ethical substance is made in this very reciprocity or flow. From this, the essence, or Truth of Spirit becomes clear: ethical substance. Through this essence, morality becomes manifested within the customs of Ancient Greece. Spirit as the spirit of the community or spirit of Greece now embodies these ethical laws/”the good of the whole”. The Ethical World as Ancient Greece comes to exist in two opposite forms: divine law and human law.

While it may seem divided at this juncture, Spirit as both divine law and human law are the contradiction that is the whole of Spirit. This division constitutes the whole of ethical life. Human law is that of Spirit’s awareness of itself in accordance with public life and customs, while Divine law is Spirit manifest in the family and family structure. Due to the social structure in ancient Greece, the Human law is related to the Male, while the Divine law is related to the Female. The interesting distinction here is between the city and governance as a civic relationship, while the family is a natural relation. Both realms of law exist within the framework of ethical relations for both assert what is believed as true and good to the whole which an individual is from. While there are instances in which family units may isolate or separate themselves from the city or governance as a whole, the relation between the two prevents any true form of isolation to happen. Hegel shows how war keeps the families and the city-state closely tied together. While some may view this as a negative relationship, Hegel shows how this actually becomes a positive thing for the members of the community. War is a way in which the city-state can remind its members that, while they are beings that rise above pure natural relations and desire, Death remains the ultimate and ever-present master. Hegel notes that through the fear of death and eventual combat in war, the members learn what it truly means to be a part of the polis as a larger whole. True sacrifice must be staked for this. This is then where the relationship between the Human and Divine law can again be seen, for here the men cross from the human law of the governance and polis into the Divine law of the family matters: taking care of the family and possible burial rites.

Continuing with the theme of the Divine law, Hegel evokes an interesting take on the relationship between brother and sister as the ultimate relationship in all of the Divine law. This relationship again becomes a moment where the two realms cross into each other. The bond that brother and sister share begins in the Divine and will cross into the Human as the brother begins to live in accordance with the Human law, becoming the perfect union of opposites. The balance that rests within the Ethical World brings about a somewhat “self-correcting” system, as Kalkavage calls it (Kalkavage 246). This balance unfortunately cannot last forever, for no contradiction can remain balanced. Both sides will eventually collapse into each other, becoming their own downfalls.

For Hegel, the Greek world is tragic in character, and he expresses this best by bringing up Sophocles’s Antigone. For Hegel, Antigone is the perfect representation of the collapse of the Ethical World. Unlike other tragedies, it directly deals with the necessary moment of transgressions against a community, through the conflict of the two realms of law.Without getting into too many details about the play, in burying her brother, Antigone breaks the law of the polis or the Human law, but is acting in accordance to the Divine law. This is where the conflict emerges. Returning to Action, Kalkavage notes that “Action is necessarily one-sided and is therefore at odds with complete knowing, which is two-sided (Kalkavage 251). What this means is that at this stage of Spirit, it is impossible for Self-Consciousness to act in accordance with both laws, for all action emerges from one or the other, as I previously stated, for they are opposites after all. If this is true, then all forms of Action become criminal, for the dissolution of the ethical whole has begun. In Action, an individual not only actualizes themselves, but also their real of law and right (what they believe to be right), for they now become agents of it. Each Action now becomes a claim to right absolutely. In claiming to be absolute right, each side inadvertently demonizes the other.

Now emerges a rather difficult task for Self-Consciousness and Spirit as a whole, what is known and what is unknown? By these Hegel means that there is some information by which Self-Consciousness may simply not be aware of. But if that is true, then how can Self-Consciousness have certainty about what it claims to be right absolutely? What if its claim encompasses only a partial right? In this we find a new mediating term with regards to Action in the Ethical World and the deeds that are produced form said action: Guilt. Guilt becomes the way in which Self-Consciousness is capable of reflecting on its actions through its deeds, for, as a reminder, the deed becomes a way in which the Action (be it ethical or otherwise) is actualized. In acting an individual becomes once again a being-for-self apart from the community. For the individual knows it is acting and acknowledges this, and in the very act of taking sides or making decisions, the individual affirms that it truly is in-itself. In the retrospective thinking that comes from reflection upon a deed emerges guilt. Guilt is the admittance of ignorance in times of Action or decision; an acknowledgement that the right this individual championed may have only been a partial right. The realization that comes when an individual acts shows the lacking of unified selfhood from the Ethical World, which still perpetuates a divided unity in the two realms of law. Through this, the Ethical World collapses, making way for the next, more chaotic moment in Spirit’s development.

Self-Alienated Spirit, Culture (484-595)

Spirit that is Certain of Itself, Morality (596-671)