The substantiality of determinate knowledge: Hegel´s conception of determinateness and the unboundedness of reason

FERREIRO, HÉCTOR

Chicago

Exposición; German Idealism Seminar; 2010

Univesity of Chicago

Hegel’s thesis of the unity of being and thought entails the thesis of the illegitimacy of a general problematization of the fact as such of contentful knowledge. Knowledge is, for Hegel, the infinite substance, that for that very reason has no absolute beginning nor is contingent, but is cause of itself and remains identical to itself in all its differences. This strange, counter-intuitive thesis is the core of Hegel´s absolute idealism and has immense consequences for the way one should, according to Hegel, approach and solve the central problems of epistemology, such as the relation between sensibility and intelligibility, receptivity and spontaneity, and the problem of truth and justification, among many others. The thesis of the unity of being, determinateness and thought is for Hegel, namely, the first principle that leads the way to building truthful concepts and to deciding which type of reality corresponds each: Hegel´s System -specially his Logic- is an impressive attempt to fulfill this task.