HCJ2 - Seminar 2.

After being quite confused about Kant and Hegel, I was hoping that the seminar would help me figure out what they were going on about (especially Hegel). I may have sat through the seminar with a gormless look on my face, but the seminar definitely helped me to get my head round the content, especially as Nadine's seminar paper was so good.

First of all, let's start with Kant:

In Kant's 'Critique of Pure Reason', he explains the difference between Hume's a priori and his own. Hume said that a priori is a proposition that can't be denied without contradiction e.g. 'a circle isn't round'. However, Kant's a priori is a proposition that can be 'figured out' with reference to an experience but is not true by definition e.g. 'all physical objects have some weight' - this is called 'scientific knowledge' and called 'synthetic a priori' by Kant.

'The synthetic a priori proof of the reality of space and time'.

Space and time are necessary pre-conditions for existence, nothing could exist that does not exist. God is the only thing that could exist out of time and space, Kant moved into agnosticism.

Kant puts together Hume's empiricism and Descartes rationalism. Kant said that the world is both a mental phenomena and a 'thing' in itself.

Phenomena is the object in your mind, what you personally see.

Noumena is the real 'unpercieved' object.

This is called the Copernican revolution in philosophy. Previously it was assumed that objects (created by God or having a first cause) that existed 'unpercieved' and the mind was needed to represent the object to the mind itself.

Kant says "Instead of asking how our knowledge can conform to objects, we must start from the supposition that objects conform to our knowledge". Knowledge = a priori + a posteriori, as well as categories of possible ideas.


After the 'easy' bit, let's go onto Hegel:

According to Hegel, nothing is completely real except for the whole/absolute and only the parts that relate to the absolute are 'true'.

In every age, one nation is responsible for carrying the rest of the world through into the next age.

Society should be organic and people must be forced to be free. Until the Organic Society comes about, all states must be judged against it.

Everyone should be ruled under the control of a Totalitarian state, similar to that of the Prussian state in the 19th century. It would be irrational to disobey the Organic State.

Hegelians believe that holidays are unnecessary because the state that people live in is perfect anyway, so why would you want to go away from that?


TB 2012