036 - Sublation: The Driving Wheel of Hegelian Dialectics

Hegel called sublation one of the most important concepts in all of philosophy.  Hegel scholar Stephen Houlgate calls it "the absolute immanent 'method' of speculative philosophy."

The English word "sublation" is a translation of the German work "aufhebung."  But the English term is more or less a placeholder for the Hegel's German word, as there is no direct equivalent term in English.  That is because it has two definitions: to preserve, to maintain, as well as to cease, to end.  

How does such apparent contradiction get resolved into a key concept of all philosophy?  This podcast episode explores this important notion from several standpoints.  

Transcript

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Hello, this is Gregory Novak. This is the cunning of Geist episode 36. Welcome back, please follow our Facebook page for this podcast at cunning of Geist and also on Twitter at cunning of gut. As we say at the beginning of each episode, the purpose of this podcast is to present a Galean philosophy that is understandable to non-academics and especially to the many seekers out there that are looking to find more out of life, and most important. I try to present Hazel's philosophy in a way that one can personally benefit from. I do this by trying to demonstrate that we all have a creative and free mind that can guide us to purposeful action in our lives. So with that being said, I just want to take a moment and thank all of you who have been listening to this podcast. We have quite a number of people listening from all over the world, and I really want to thank you and thank you for your, your engagement. Now under the current episode, in this episode, we'll be discussing a key element of Hegel's philosophy and that is the notion of sublimation or Offy bung in German. Now Hagle makes it very clear how important this concept is. He calls it one of the most important concepts in all the philosophy. And we'll be taking a deep dive here on this notion because it's so simple. To, to what Hagle is all about. And also it's essentially an understanding the true nature of reasoning as well, which we'll get into. But first let's take a brief definition of, uh, of sublimation. It's the English translation of the German word, Offy bomb. And this German word has a dual meaning. It means to negate as well as to lift up to negate something as well as to lift up something. And, but it preserves it in this lifting up. Now I know this sounds very contradictory and we'll be getting into this in detail in this episode. But first, I just want to step back here and say, why am I talking about simulation? Why are we doing a full episode of the cutting of Geist on one particular term? And how will this understanding be important to anyone? How can anyone benefit from this? Well, here's why. We did an entire episode, episode 10 on the divided brain, the left brain versus the right brain. And what that means in his book on the subject, which I went into a lot of detail on that episode, Ian McGill credit. Compares this to a master and his Emissary, the right brain is the master. It is more holistic and it's thought it tends to be more purpose-driven, but it relies on the left brain to analyze the situation to be as Emissary. If you will, to break it down into its component parts, and then return the raw data back to the master of the right brain to make the correct interpretation. And decision we discussed back then how our Western civilization is becoming more and more left-brain oriented over the centuries. We tend to divide and separate everything. We don't see unity. We focus on division and this was becoming increasingly clear in our world today. We, for the most part, lack a holistic re-interpretation of the information, the tremendous amount of information that's being given to us every day by the left. And this tends unfortunately, to lead to less purpose and less meaningful action in our lives and more empty life. Okay. There was no such thing as left brain, right. Brain research back in Hagan's day. But his notion of the understanding versus reason for stunt versus Vernon in German has a similar meaning. So we've discussed the understanding for Scott represents common thinking it divides and analyzes, whereas he's Vernon is more holistic and sees the unity and things. It comes up with a meaningful conclusion, a purpose and a direct. Now a central theme of the Galean philosophy is to put the emphasis back on reason, back on Vernon and less so on the understanding, which can often miss the big picture. True. We need the understanding. We need to break things down to figure them out, but we also need to reincorporate that back into the big picture. As we've said, in previous episodes, the left brain understanding is the map. Whereas the right brain reasoning is the actual territory. Now what I'm hopefully going to show in this episode is that this notion of ablation is this very active reasoning at work. It's the right brains work. It's the master's work. So to speak as opposed to the Emissary, uh, it's about finding unity from disparate. You know, in Rosa crucial aneurysm, which we've talked about a couple of times in these podcasts episodes, there's a notion of the master within an interestingly, although he's not a spiritual teacher, the success coach, Tony Robbins talks about awakening the giant within, and this has to do with reasoning. That is the giant within, um, that's the master within that's the holistic right brain. And what we'll be covering here is sublimation is its engine it's it's driving, right. I believe that understanding this notion of ablation will help you understand how reasoning itself works. I know it helped make, and you can see it more in your own life instead of relying solely on the left brain, dividing everything into either we're thinking, incorporating right brain reasoning can, it can make a huge difference in a person's life. As we sat here many times before, you're not just a result of blind forces, acting, acting randomly, you know, protons, electrons, neutrons, bouncing around with no purpose. You have the gift of mind. You have the gift of reason, which you can use to better yourself, to better your family, to better your community, to better your broader society. And as they say, it's a cliche, but to make the world a better place, this is what this podcast is all about. This is what the cutting of Geist is though. Now with that, let's get into this concept of ablation. This is key concept. First let's discuss where the word ablation came from. Actually it came into existence when translators were trying to work on Hazel's writing and they needed to come up with a word for offi bunk, which is a German word. And there wasn't an exact equation. Um, in English, like so many other German words. Now it's interesting. Hagle actually provides a very detailed definition of the word in his science of logic. And I'm going to quote halal here, quote to sublimate has a two-fold meaning in the language. On the one hand, it means to preserve, to maintain and equally, it also means to cause to cease, to put an end, to even to preserve includes a negative element, right. That something is removed from its influences in order to preserve it. That's what is ablated is at the same time preserved. It has only lost its immediacy, but it is not on that account. Annihilated. The two definition have to sublimate, which we have given can be quoted as two dictionary meanings of this word, but it is certainly remarkable to find that a language that has come to you as one in the same word for two opposite things. It is a delight to speck of thought to find in the language words, which have in themselves a speculum, meaning the German language has a number of such the double meaning of the Latin word. Tulare does not go so far. It's affirmative determination. Signifies only lifting up something is sublimated only in so far as it is entered into unity with its opposite and cook. Well, there you have haggled straight from the horses. Now it's interesting that he mentions the Latin word told there. And when the English translator back in the day, we're looking to Latin to find an appropriate word, to translate and often bond, which they often did. They'd look, go back to the Latin, uh, in, in Latin, there's a word So blade us a S U B L a T U S, which is the past participle of tole, lower Tulare, the word Hagle referred to, to take away to lift it. So that's where they came up with the term sublimation it's from the Latin word. So bladeless, uh, and that's what they use to signify the German word off of button in English. Now there were some recorded uses of the term off a bung before Hagle and German philosophy, but it was haggled who really took the concept and owned it and put it on the map. Now, let me provide a little bit of personal reflection on this word. the English words ablation really doesn't convey anything to me and probably nobody else. It really is just a placeholder for the chairman word, Offy bunk. It's a place sorta for this word and studying Hagle. Yeah. I do not speak German and I don't know what offered connotes for a German speaker. However, I'm thinking this through, I came up with some examples in English that I think might be relevant. They're kind of interesting. First is the English term to take something. As in, I took up golf or I took up a study of Hegel's philosophy. It means becoming interested in a pursuit of some sort, beginning, a new activity and focusing on it. it also can be used, uh, as follows. Someone could say, you need to take that up with the department head, or I don't know. To take up any more of your time, or I don't want to take up any more space in my living room, not the use of the word take up here. And this is why I think it's similar to Offy bunk in both cases. The thing being referred to is a given, special attention or space in a personal manner it's being lifted up. So to speak into a different. Realm of meaning and recognition. It's not what it was before, but it's not been an isolate. It's just in a different meaning. Now golf before one takes it up is just a game others played. But once when takes up golf and now has a special meaning to them, it's a new perspective, which golf did not have before. Now that they're actually playing the game. And I think this is in line with what the term Offy bung referred to. Now there's another phrase in English, which I think is similar and that's to pick something up and no, I'm not talking about lifting something off the floor, picking up a piece of paper that fell on the floor. I'm talking about using the word pickup is as follows. I picked up a hitchhiker yesterday when I was driving, or I picked up a guy at the bar last night, or I picked up a nasty cold on vacation. Or can you pick up some wine on the way home from work? Again, picking up here means moving something to a special personal situation. and that one did not have before. It does not mean literally lifting something up. You do not actually pick up a hitchhiker, lift them up off the ground. You do not lift up the person off the ground that you met. but pick up as the connotation of a new, special relationship. As I said, that did not exist before the hitchhiker now is in a different relation to you. It's still the same person, but before they were unknown, now they are known, I believe these examples help us to understand a bit of the nuance, but the term of Offy bump. Now let's get into Hagar's use of them. Um, his, his use is quite ubiquitous in the science of logic alone. He uses the term 710 times and compare this to the term dialectic, which he uses 119 times. So it's a, some six or seven times more likely that he uses, uh, It's ablation than it does actual dialectics and, and dialectics is a term most associated with, with Hagle. But, um, as we see here, the, the key, the, the, the key behind dialectics is really sublimation. Now just want to return to the definition of ablation, that Hagle provider in the science of logic that I quoted her. And he, he notes that the two opposite meetings are wonderfully combined in one word, one concept. And he importantly attributes this to speculative thinking, let me quote him again, just part of that quote, but it is certainly remarkable to find that a language has come to use one in the same word for two opposite meanings. It is a delight to speculative thought to find it in a language words, which have in themselves a speculative, meaning the German language has a number of sides. And so this goes back to what we referred to earlier with Hagle says speculative thought, when he says that word speculative, he means reason for not, not the common understanding for stock. And as we discuss reasons, spec of the thought tends to think holistically seeing the forest from the trees, combining different concepts into central themes or ideas overcoming opposites. Now when something is subplated is negated, but it is not an isolated completely. And this is very important. It is transforming. It's independent. No more. It no longer has the separate existence, but it's carried up into a new concept, into a new meaning. Take our golf example. One negates the notion of golf as a sport, other people play or that watching on TV as follows. It's now a sport that I, along with others play. So the meaning of golf to the person that's taking it up, that's related. It is different golf now has a new meaning to me it's still golf, but it means something. A hitchhiker standing on the side of the road is a random person. It could be anyone, but when you pick up that hitchhiker, now they're no longer a random human being in the abstract. uh, that's been the gated. They now become an individual to you. It is the randomness that is negated, but the same individuals now elevated to a different name. And you can probably think of many examples on your own, but rather than talking about golf and hitchhikers, let's move on to Hegel's first use of the term in the science of logic. Uh, and this is right in the beginning where he talks about being and nothing being some bladed into the concept of becoming now pure being and pure nothing, lose their purity and become the new determination of becoming. So there is a mutation here, if you will being and nothing. But it's important to note that being nothing remained his moments within becoming and Hagle scholars, Stephen Holgate, expresses this very well. And I quote Offy bunk does not cast anything aside as the absolute imminent method of speculative philosophy. It carries everything along. What gets lost is the purity of the category. The idea that the category is purely and simply itself, and nothing more Heiko believes that every subsequent determination will simply preserve its predecessors as a moment of itself. So now. Just to back up a little bit, who gates' quote here leads to a bigger thought, I think, which is, you know, covered it handles overall system goes from logic to nature to spirit. Logic is prior to nature and not in a time sense, but in the structural sense. And so we must not realize that since logic is logically, prior to nature, any finite thing we see in nature or rock a book, a house, any final thing has its foundation. It's predecessor in the logical idea. This is important to keep in mind. Now, a couple of other distinctions about simulation. It's not just negation. As I quoted Hagle above. Thus, what is subplated is at the same time preserved. It has only lost its immediacy, but is not on that account. Annihilated and court. So it's not gone. It's not an isolated, it's just been uplifted into Newman's. And just as importantly, it's not just a synthesis, Ralph POM. This is nicely in his dissertation on Hagen ablation. And here is referring to the section and the ScienceLogic, uh, entitled the idea of the true I quote Palm here. Quote, Hagle defines truth as the unity of concept and reality. For Hagle subjective cognition is inadequate because it's resolved as synthesis defined is a unity of things that are originally separate and only externally. So conjoined subjective cognition does not attain the level of truth because synthesis isn't external unification does not complete the unification of concept and reality, right. So Hinkles truth. Here is this ablation of concept and reality into one truth. Now, as an aside, and we've talked about this before this again, this quote points to the inadequacy of the thesis, antithesis synthesis, that's so commonly incorrectly, attributed to Hagle. So ablation is not synthesis, as we've just said is go, notes in this. Passage from the science of logic. Now want to deal with an important question here? Can something be both preserved and changed in one process? Is this a blatant contradiction? Well, to answer this, let's examine the being nothing, becoming example, a little more detailed being nothing start off as presuppositionalist notions, but in further examination, they appear to be the same. That one becomes the other and vice versa. So becoming now enters the picture. We now becoming as this ablation of being in nothing, being in nothing or preserved, however, as moments within becoming they are now different than originally conceived rather than being presuppositionalists the opposites, which are found to be identical, they are preserved distinct moments through sublimation in this new determination. Of becoming, and this, this process goes on and on throughout the science of logic throughout the entire, encyclopedia of philosophical science. Now an important point here. So it is not something that is put into something from outside. It it's not a separate mind or a separate force or a separate philosopher. It is what something turns out to be logically. It does not have a goal, a direction or a purpose. it is inherent within the determination when reason is brought to bear. Um, it's not trying to balance to make peace or to synthesize. it is seeing something for what it is in actuality. I want to back up again and go back to reason versus understanding. Now that we've reviewed some ablation in some detail, you can better see these two different approaches. Uh, I hope, the understanding would only see being or nothing either. Or that's why this question, why is there something rather than nothing is a false question. And we did an entire episode of this in episode 20. It is the reason that sees being in nothing as both being moments within becoming this is important. of course, either we're thinking is necessary, as I said earlier, but reason itself through sublimation is the higher form. Thank you. Now what's this it really means is this isn't just some logical exercise. It's ablation is driving the dialectic movement of history with the world. I mentioned before that Hagle system consists of three parts, the logic nature, and then spirit now the logic and its mitigation nature are both moments in the historical development of spirit Geist in German, in the world. This is the world we live in. This is the world of spirit. We discussed this in detail in episode 20, realizing the purpose of history. Spirit is developing through history through us, following this dialectic process of which simulations the engine, not just one other point. It's interesting. You couldn't even look at, Christianity through this notion of simulation, the Christian truth. Now we've talked about Hagle as a very different take on, um, Christianity from traditional religion. So that's important to keep in mind. but for more information on this, please see the full episode that I did on this entitled. Hago the law of three in the Christian Trinity. That was episode 18, but for now let's take a look. There's God, the father and God, the father is logically prior to Christ the son. And, and galleon ism Christ. The son is the negation of God. And, uh, Christ the son is embodied now in a human being Jesus. And then Jesus is in turn negated. He dies on the cross. And so now you have a negation of the negation, if you will. And this is some ablation pure and simple, and it doesn't end there. Of course the Christ spirit is reborn. It is lifted up and there you go again with that word, lift it up and become spirit here with it. Community. It's the risen Christ that lives within us all. So thus God, the father and Christ, the son are some bladed moments of spirit within us here. Okay. So just to summarize, we've seen how simulation is a critical part of Hegel's philosophy. We've seen how it corresponds to holistic right brain reasoning rather than left brain, either or analysis. We've seen how it runs through Hegel's philosophy as the heart of the dialectic movement of spirit within history. And hopefully you can see how you may have overcome various challenges in your own life as this process was occurring, and it will continue to do that. So that's it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. Please share links to this episode and on social media, wherever you, you do your social media. And, um, as, as before, uh, all the references that I cited here will be listed at the Cunningham Geist Facebook page at cunning of Geist. I'm Gregory Novak. This is the cunning of Geist CNX time.