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THE FOURTHWAY MANHO E-JOURNAL Volume 93 December 10, 2019 |
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HEGEL AND HIS PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE By Professor Dr. Tan Man-Ho (An excerpt from the original work, Real World Views, Book 1 by Professor Dr. Tan Man-Ho entitled "New Trends in Dialectical Philosophy, Economic Forces in Society, Natural Science and Philosophy of Nature ", March 1972 ~ June 1973 Discourses, Chapter 6, Section A: "Hegel and His Philosophy of Nature" pp. 109 ~ 114)
A. HEGEL AND HIS PHILOSOPHY OF
NATURE 1
“If
the Hegelian system is to be fully appreciated, it has to be grasped as a
whole.” The philosophy
of nature of Hegel is an attempt to view natural sciences as a whole.(Dr.
Michael John Petry, Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature) “The universe is a
system, whose very essence consists in subordination; a scale of beings
descending, by insensible degrees, from infinite perfection to absolute
nothing.” (Soame Jenyns)
This state resembles the Enneagram of Everything living (the great chain of
being), where the universe is a system that begins from the Absolute
(Perfect) descending in an octave by the force of three and limits of seven
down through two decelerating points to the infinite absolute nothing, and
vice-versa. (Gurdjieff) Hegelian
terminology is not an accidental arising out of subjective desires.
The real world is as such that ordinary
institutionalized vocabulary and grammar
cannot be used effectively without distortion of the deeper and ultimate
meanings and intentions of consciousness that has arisen from reflecting the
real world mind within the language itself. Nature never obeys
vocabulary and grammar
proceeding in the something called thought.
For nature bends this way and that way, cries by itself, laughs by itself,
moves by itself, makes funny, startling ever-queer gestures, etc. It
pulls particles into itself and repulses them too, and so it is best to call
this ‘being-pulling-into-one-and-into-itself-at-the-same-time-pushing-away’
creating separation and externalization. Therefore, individualities
stand external to one another and serving one moment for the other –
being-for-other and at the same time serving itself – being-for-self.
The individuality is a gravity-center concentration of matter. 2
Hegel is well acquainted with all the
natural sciences of his day. What about the current contemporary
sciences? Planck’s, Einstein’s, Minkowsky’s,…….? One thing is
sure, the Hegelian essence and style will still prevail as the most general
laws of the dialectic will still prevail in contemporary sciences. 3
It is possible to comprehend Hegel’s
‘Philosophy of Nature’ with a psychological eye, the psychological
methodology of Ouspensky. Either the world is inside consciousness or
consciousness inside the world. Both are equally right. The
Earth is a material being with consciousness whose physical bodies consist
mainly of the atoms, the electricity, the chemical motion, the inner light,
the electromagnetic heat, the sounds and the psyche. 4
An intelligent question is a
question from a higher level of being. Hegel’s espouses nature as if
it has soul or souled nature, some sort of aliveness. Hegel’s language
is another real world view, and narrates about nature with extraneous
seeing which are not evident in contemporary formal logical scientific
writings. This philosophy of nature interprets concepts in the minds
of scientific people by observing the scientific minds, and narrating about
it as an outsider using its own terminologies known as the dialectical
terminologies such as individuality, being, being-for-self, being-for-other,
being-in-self, determinate being, internalities, externalities, sublation,
relations, process, opposition, motion, hierarchy, level, sphere and notion,
. The scientist sees the external world and comes out with new ideas.
Hegel’s philosophy of nature is the dialectics of the ideas of nature of
these scientists. It is a philosophy of the special sciences not alone
but as a general and universal whole. So is the way of this type of
philosophication
of the special sciences. Hegel speaks about Physics as: “Matter has
individuality to the extent that it is determined within itself by having
being-for-self developed within it. It is through this determination
that matter breaks away from gravity and manifests itself as implicitly
self-determining. This is its immanent form, by which it determines
spatiality in the face of a gravity which formerly received this
determination as something opposed to matter, and as a centre to which
matter merely aspired.” “Physics has as its content: a) The universal individuality of immediate, free, physical qualities. b) The particular individuality of the relation of form, as a physical determination, to gravity, and of the determination of gravity by this form. c) Total or free individuality. “Physics qualities in their primary immediacy are
external to one another in an independent manner as the heavenly bodies,
which are now physical determined. Secondly, they are related to the
individual unity of their totality as the physical elements. Thirdly,
they are the process, which gives rise to what is individual in these
elements – the meteorology process.” “Heim,…… has attempted to show that in the era
which preceded the geological revolutions of which we have evidence, the
form of the Earth must have resembled that of the Moon. The Moon is
crystalline, but it lacks water, and it might be said that by attempting to
quench the thirst of its rigidity by integrating itself with our sea, it
causes the ebb and flow of tides (with the aid of Mr. Gravity) and through
him the water rise, having a mind to escape to the Moon, and the Moon is
about to clasp them unto itself. (Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature, Volume
II, Addition by Dr. Michael John Petry, p. 28, George Allen and Unwin Ltd,
1970) Hegel speaks of a cosmology in the spirit somewhat
similar but not too exaggerating as the oriental cosmology of celestial
beings directing, administrating, operating and reciprocally maintaining the
universe. 5
Vibrations in nature, as according
to Dr. Michael John Petry (Addition)
in the Philosophy of Nature and also that
of Hegel in essence. i. “Vibrations
are the tremulations of matter within itself. Matter is not
annihilated within its negativity, but maintains itself as sonority. A
sonorous body must be a material physical surface or line; it must also be
limited, so that the vibrations travel along the whole line, are checked and
returned.” Sociocosmic vibrations are the tremulations of the
individual human beings within themselves after biocosmic reproduction.
The individual is not annihilated (or there is no more sociocosmoses to talk
about) within its negativity, but maintains itself as sociority. A
sociorous body must have sociocosmic stopinders (sociocosmic concentrations
of the individuals, groups and organizations of various types including
families, businesses, states, nations and the world of nations). It
must have the boundaries and limits, so that the sociocosmic vibrations that
travel along the whole boundary are checked and returned. Sociocosmic
stopinders (notes) are identification and modifications of the general
sociocosmic vibration for its sociocosmic concentrations to present the
regularity of this sociocosmic vibration according to the laws of octave.
The complete calibration of the whole of the sociocosmic vibration shows its
fundamental sociocosmic periodicity in the form of sociocosmic music. ii. “A stone
merely sounds when it is struck; there is no sonorous tremulation, because
although shock certainly propagates itself, it does not return to itself.” Here a sociocosmic individual comes into the
sociocosmic vibration through a biocosmic input but in a pair of opposites
(man and woman) as the material basis for the sociocosmic activities.
The sociorous bodies are produced through this biocosmic reproduction of
human beings. So sociocosmic shocks arising from the individuals will
propagate through sociorous tremulation to all the sociocosmic stopinders.
However, the propagation can be limited by the number of human beings, the
geographical distance, the psychological distance, the degree of development
of communication technology and the “thickness” (the degree of security) of
the boundaries of the individuals, the group, the family, the organization,
the state and the nation. 6
On dialectical idealism of Hegel (The
science of Logic) 1. log2 8 2.
3 3.
log2 8 = 3 4.
3 5.
log2 8 6. 3 = log2 8 7: and so on and so forth Summary: 1 : Pure being 2: Pure nothing 3 : The becoming (the determinate being &
determinate nothing) 4 : Determinate nothing into pure being 5 : Determinate being into pure nothing 6: The becoming (the determinate being & determinate nothing) 7: and so on and so forth
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