Freedom and Knowing: An Inquiry into Hegel's Metaphysical Idea of Freedom

Abstract

In Hegel's philosophy, the Absolute signifies Truth. On the one hand, there is such a thing as Truth, and the human being has the potential capacity to know what Truth is. On the other hand, the actuality (Wirklichkeit) of the consciousness of Truth constitutes the nature of knowing (Erkennen). The very self-consciousness of this actuality is nothing other than the freedom of consciousness. This thesis demonstrates that to be free is the self-knowing of oneself as free in the system. The truth of such knowing (Erkennen) belongs to the knowledge of the speculative identity in Hegel's system. To reach such recognition relies on the true recognition of the Absolute as identity, Spirit as difference, and the wholeness of the system as the identity of identity and difference. Through this interpretation, the consciousness of the wholeness of the whole, which lies at the foundation of the very being of the system, relies on the freedom of consciousness. In this respect, Chapter One demonstrates that the reciprocal recognition between temporal finite consciousness and eternal infinite Truth constitutes the very nature of Erkennen for the Spirit. Without this mutual recognition, there would be no Concept, no Knowledge, no Spirit, and no God at all, since the very nature of the Concept (Begriff) lies in the mutual recognition between finite consciousness and infinite Truth. The aim of Chapter one is, therefore, to demonstrate the self-knowledge of the Absolute as the knowing (Erkennen) of Identity by the finite temporal Spirit. However, this knowledge of Identity is not intelligible except through the act of self-othering for the temporal finite Spirit, which unfolds through the process of Negation. In this respect, Chapter Two is devoted to the exposition of difference as the negative movement of self-consciousness toward knowledge. This Chapter demonstrates that the inward negative movement of the self is intelligible only through the representation of the system, while, on the other hand, the recognition of the system relies on the negative movement of self-consciousness. That is to say, the constitution of the whole depends on its parts, while it is the whole itself that makes the being of its parts intelligible. The freedom of consciousness, therefore, must be grounded in the system; otherwise, in its linear movement, self-consciousness has no other destiny than the failure of freedom. Finally, Chapter Three presents the exposition of speculative identity, as the identity of identity and difference, which is the actuality and embodiment of Hegel's conception of the Absolute in the self-determination of self-consciousness. This chapter demonstrates that it is the transcendental self-reflective movement of consciousness that manifests itself as the reality of the system and, through its manifestation, demonstrates itself as the absolute freedom that being has through this activity. The final aim here is to affirm that the freedom of consciousness is attainable only through the return of the Absolute to consciousness: the phenomenological return that occurs in the Phenomenology through the mediation of Bildung, and the speculative return that occurs in the Logic through the mediation of method.