Hegel's Philosophy of Nature

Volume II Edited by M J Petry

G W F Hegel

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• ISBN:
  9781317852490
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

This is Volume III of seven in a collection on Philosopher Hegel. Originally published in 1970, this volume looks at Hegel's view on physics.

CHAPTER ONE

Physics of universal individuality

§274

Physical qualities in their primary immediacy are external to one another in an independent manner as the heavenly bodies, which are now physically determined. Secondly, they are related to the individual unity of their totality as the physical elements 5. Thirdly, they are the process, which gives rise to what is individual in these elements—the meteorological process.

A

The free physical bodies

Addition. The determinations of the Notion now take on materiality; the being-for-self of matter finds its point of unity, and as it is therefore the being-for-self of being-for-self, and the transition of the determinations, 10 the disappearance of these determinations into one another has + itself disappeared, and we enter logically into the sphere of essence. This is a return into self in its other; its determinations appear within each other, and intro-reflected in this way, now develop as forms. These forms are identity, variety, opposition, and ground. This is therefore an advance 15 upon the primary immediacy of matter, in which space and time, motion and matter, passed over into one another, until in free mechanics matter finally appropriated the determinations as its own, and so revealed itself as self-mediated and determined. Impact is no longer external to matter, which is now differentiated as internal and immanent impact. It difierentiates 20 and determines itself by itself, and is intro-reflected. Its determinations are material, and express the nature of being material, and as it only consists of these determinations, it manifests itself within them. There are material qualities which belong to the substance of matter, and matter is whatever it is only through its qualities. In the first sphere the determinations 25 are still distinguished from the substance, they are not material determinations; substance as such is still shut up within itself and unmanifest; and it was this which resulted in its merely seeking for its unity.

1. Light
(The Sun, light and its reflection)

§275

Matter in its primary qualified state is pure self-identity, unity of intro-reflection; as such it is the primary manifestation, and is itself still abstract. As existent in nature, it is independent + self-relation opposed to the other determinations of totality. This existing and universal self of matter is light, 5 which as individuality is the star, and as moment of totality, the sun.

Addition. The apriori Notional-determination of light is now the primary consideration. In the second instance we have to discover the mode and manner in which this Notional-determination occurs in our sensuous 10 perception. As immediate, free, and independent motion returned into itself, matter is the simple self-equality of integrality. As motion has returned into + itself, the celestial sphere has perfected and concluded the independent and ideal life within it. This completed being-in-self is the precise constitution of its integrality. As existent it is in itself; that is to say that this being-in-self of the totality + is itself present. It contains the moment by which it is for another; that which is for itself is the power of its centre, or its self-containedness. This simple power is itself present however, and as it is the other of this determinate being, that which is merely internal is to the same extent external. As immediate, pure totality, matter therefore enters into the opposition between that which it is in 20 itself, and that which it is for another as determinate being; for its determinate being does not yet contain its being-in-self. Apprehended as this incessant rotation of self-relating motion, as the return to being-in-and-for-self, and as this being-in-self which is there opposed to existence, matter is light. Light is the self-contained totality of matter; as mere purity of power it is the self-conserving 25 and intensive vitality which is the concentration of the celestial sphere. Its rotation is precisely this immediate opposition of directions constituting self-relating motion, in the flux and reflux of which all difference extinguishes itself. As existent identity it is pure line, and relates itself only to itself. Light is this purely existent power, which fills space. Its being is absolute velocity, 30 the presence of pure materiality, the being-in-self of real existence, or actuality as a transparent possibility. That which fills space has two aspects + however, and if this filling subsists in being-for-self, light does not fill space, for the rigidity of that which offers resistance will then have lapsed. Light is present only in space therefore, and is certainly neither individualized nor exclusive. Space is merely abstract subsistence or implicit being, while as existent being-in-self, or determinate being which is in itself, and is 5 consequently pure, light is the power of being external to itself possessed by + universal actuality as the possibility of confluxing with everything; it is the affinity with all which yet abides in itself, and by means of which determinate being surrenders none of its independence.

When matter passes into being-for-self as light, and so begins to manifest 10 itself, weighted matter also manifests itself. Pressure, in which unity is sought through tendency towards another, is a merely hostile or discordant manifestation however; within it matter is certainly being-for-other, but it is this as exclusiveness, and as separation of the other from itself. As well as this mutual negation between the many, we now have 15 affirmative manifestation, for being-for-other is common to all. Light brings us into universal interrelation; it is by its being in light that everything may be easily penetrated by us, and grasped theoretically.

We have to grasp this manifestation in its primary determinateness, in which, within itself, it is completely universal, and as yet undetermined. 20 Its determinateness is indeterminateness, identity, intro-reflection, a complete physical ideality, contrasting with the reality of the weighted matter which we take to be differentiated and exclusive. This abstract manifestation, which is material identity with self, is not yet opposed to another; it is determinateness and oscillation, but only within itself. The being-for-self 25 of being-for-self as self-relating affirmative identity, is no longer an exclusiveness; the rigidity of the unit has melted, and as the indeterminate continuity of manifestation, has lost its opposition. This is the pure intro-reflection which, in the higher form of spirit, is the ego. The ego is infinite space, the infinite equality of self-consciousness with itself, the abstract 30 and empty certainty of myself, and of my pure self-identity. The ego is merely the identity of my own attitude as subject, to myself as object. Light corresponds to this identity of self-consciousness, and is the exact image of it. It is not the ego however, for in itself it is not self-dimming and refractive, but is merely abstract appearance. If the ego were able to 35 maintain itself in a state of undisturbed equability, as the Indians would like it + to, it would pass away into the abstract transparency of light. Self-consciousness only has being as consciousness however; consciousness posits determinations within itself, and self-consciousness, in so far as it is its own object, is the pure reflection of the ego of consciousness into itself. The ego 40 resembles light in its pure self-manifestation, but it is at the same time the infinite negativity of its return into self, out of itself as object. As the infinite point of subjective individuality, it therefore excludes its other. Light is not self-consciousness therefore, because it lacks the infinity of return into self; it is mere self-manifestation, but only for another, not for itself. 5

Light therefore lacks the concrete unity with itself which is possessed by self-consciousness as the infinite point of being-for-itself; consequently it is merely a manifestation of nature, and not of spirit. Secondly, this abstract manifestation is therefore at the same time spatial; it is absolute expansion in space, but is not the resumption of this expansion into the 10 unifying point of infinite subjectivity. Light is infinite spatial diffusion, or rather the infinite generation of space. As the determinations of nature fall apart through their separation, this pure manifestation also exists for itself, but as a false existence. Pure identity is not granted such a detached existence in the infinite concreteness of spirit; for in self-consciousness 15 this thought is subsumed under the absolute subjectivity of the self.

Thirdly, light has to encounter its limit; yet the necessity of its striking something other than itself is not the same as the absolute limitation of being-for-self by which matter offers resistance. In that light is abstract identity, difference is external to it as the absence of light. This consists of 20 the remaining reflective determinations of essence, expressed as physical bodies. Light is the primary consummation of that in which everything is made manifest. It is only the abstract understanding which regards this physical universal as supreme. Self-determining and concrete rational thought demands a self-differentiating universal which determines itself 25 within itself without losing its universality in this particularization. Light is the beginning of material manifestation, and only constitutes its acme in an abstract sense. It is because of this abstraction that light now finds a + limit, or deficiency; and it is through this limit that it first manifests itself Determinate content must come from elsewhere; in order that something 30 may be manifest, there must be something which is different from light. Light as such is invisible, and in that nothing may be seen in it, pure light resembles pure darkness; it is obscure and tenebrous. If we see in pure light, then we are pure vision, but we do not as yet see anything. It is limit which contains the primary moment of negation and therefore of determination, 35 and so gives rise to reality. As concreteness is the prime verity, not only the one, but both abstractions go to make up existence. Light only manifests itself as such after it has differentiated itself as light by distinguishing itself from shade.

After having developed the Notion of light, the question of its reality 40 naturally presents itself. When we say that we have to consider the existence of light, we are referring in fact to its being-for-other; but light itself is the positing of being-for-other, so that in the existence of light we have to take into account the being-for-other of this being-for-other. 5 How is visibility visible? How does this manifestation manifest itself? A subject is necessary in manifestation; how does it exist? Light can only be called material in so far as it exists for itself in the form of independent individuality, and this individuation depends upon the corporeality of light. Light constitutes the existence or physical import of the body of 10 abstract centrality, the real nature of which is a luminous body. This self-illuminating body is the sun. At this juncture, this is an empirically presented fact, and is all that we have to say of the sun at present. This body is the primordial and uncreated light, it is immediate, and does not arise from the conditions of finite existence. The stars are also self-illuminating bodies, 15 and their existence merely entails the physical abstraction of light. The existence of abstract matter is precisely this abstract identity of light. The stars are points of light, and do not shift out of this abstraction; this inability to assume concrete being is not impressive, it is a defect, and it is consequently absurd to regard the stars as superior to plants for example. 20 The sun is not yet concrete being. Religiosity wants to deck out the sun and moon with people, animals, and plants, but only a planet can rise to + these things. Introverted natural objects, and concrete shapes able to maintain themselves in the face of the universal do not yet exist on the sun. There is nothing but luminous matter in the stars and the sun. The connection 25 between the sun as a moment of the solar system, and as self-illumination, consists in its having the same determination in both cases. In mechanics the sun is merely the self-relating corporeality, and this determination is also the physical determination of the identity of abstract manifestation. That is why the sun shines.

30 Further enquiry may be made into the finite causes of the existence which shines in this way. If we ask how we receive the light of the sun, we are assuming that it is something which is generated. In this determination we see light associated with fire and warmth, as it is in our ordinary experience of it as terrestrial light, where it occurs as a combustion. We might think 35 therefore, that the means by which the burning heat of the sun is maintained, were essential to any explanation of sunlight, and that these means might be explained by analogy with the terrestrial igneous process, in which fire has to consume matter in order to exist. It should be remembered however, that the conditions of the terrestrial process which occur 40 in individualized corporeality do not yet occur here in the relations of free qualities. This primary light has to be distinguished from fire. Terrestrial light is for the most part connected with heat. Although sunlight is also warm, this heat does not belong to sunlight as such, but arises out of its contact with the earth. Sunlight, by itself, is cold, as we know from high mountains and balloon ascents. We have even empirical evidence of + flameless light, in the phosphorescence of rotten wood for example, as well as in electric light, where the fusion which electricity gives rise to is the result not of light, but of an explosion. There are also metals which + glow without burning when they are scratched or rubbed together with iron; minerals of this kind may even be more numerous than those which 10 do not give off light. Consequently, terrestrial light itself furnishes analogies from which one may infer that solar illumination is independent of the chemical process.

Light must also show itself to be a product of course. The physical conditions of solar light do not concern us here, because they are merely 15 empirical facts, and are not a determination of the Notion. Nevertheless, one could say that as the sun and the stars are rotating centres, their rotation constitutes a self-frictionalization. In its motion, the life of the sun is + merely this process of phosphorescence, in which light is given off; consequently, the mechanical explanation of it has to be sought in the axial 20 rotation of the sun, for this is i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Original Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• PHYSICS § 272–273
• Chapter One: Physics of Universal Individuality § 274
• Chapter Two: Physics of particular individuality § 290–292
• Chapter Three: Physics of total individuality § 308–309
• NOTES
• INDEX TO TEXT
• INDEX TO NOTES