What is philosophy? This is one of the most fascinating and confusing questions. Hegel, the master of dialectics and the master of german classical philosophy, has made many vivid and intriguing metaphors for philosophy, and carefully tasting these vivid metaphors can not only make us understand the profound meaning of philosophy, but also make us realize what philosophical thinking is in appreciation and taste, and obtain the dialectical wisdom of philosophy. Now I take a few of Hegel's metaphors about philosophy to appreciate together.
01
The gods in the temple
02
Battlefield of fighting
The entire history of human philosophy is full of struggles by philosophers to criticize, overthrow, and replace each other, and on the basis of this objective fact, Hegel figuratively compares the history of philosophy to a "battlefield of slaughter." Hegel said: "The whole history of philosophy thus becomes a battlefield, piled high with the bones of the dead. In Hegel's view, philosophy always develops in self-criticism and self-denial, because philosophy is "the age grasped in thought." Philosophy expressing the new era necessarily acquires the dominance of philosophy through the criticism of the philosophy of the old era, and thus constitutes the "battlefield of slaughter" in the history of philosophy.
03
Flower buds Flowers fruits
04
Minerva's owl
"Minerva" is the goddess of wisdom in ancient Greco-Roman mythology, Athena, the owl that perches around her is a symbol of thought and reason, Hegel said, philosophy is like Minerva's owl, it does not soar in the blue sky when the sun rises in the east, but quietly takes off when twilight falls. Here, Hegel uses the metaphor of minerva's owl taking off at dusk to illustrate that philosophy is a "reflective" activity, a contemplative rationality. "Reflection" is the "understanding of knowledge", the "thought of thought", which is the thought of thinking in reverse with itself as the object. If "knowing" and "thinking" are likened to birds soaring under the blue sky where the sun rises in the east or the sun is shining, "reflection" can only take off quietly when twilight falls. Hegel likens philosophy to an owl that takes off in the twilight, and there is a deeper meaning, which is that philosophical reflection must be deep and self-contained. Hegel said: "The hardships of the times make people attach too much importance to the interests of the ordinary trivialities of everyday life, and the high interests in reality and the struggle for these interests have greatly occupied all the power and power of the spirit and the external means, so that people are not free to pay attention to the higher inner activities and the purer spiritual activities..."
05
Digestion and physiology
According to Hegel, philosophical reflection is not what some people think "is the primary, or even the only, condition for us to attain eternity or truth." "This statement, he said, is tantamount to thinking that we cannot eat without knowing the chemical, botanical, or zoological nature of food; and that we cannot digest it until we have completed our anatomy and physiology studies." This statement is clearly counterintuitive. Therefore, the role of philosophical reflection should not be infinitely exaggerated, thinking that the existence of human beings is related to philosophy. A more objective way of saying that you can think without studying philosophy, but you can think better by studying philosophy. Physiology is not what teaches digestion, and philosophy is not what teaches thinking. The study of philosophy is the training of the mind for other purposes.
In this metaphor of Hegel, there is also a critique of Kant's philosophy. The main subject of Kant's philosophy is to examine the limits within which forms of thought can attain knowledge of truth. Kant specifically called for the ability to test knowledge before examining the search for knowledge. Hegel thought this would give rise to a misconception that he knew it before he had acquired knowledge, and he used another parable that meant "not to swim before you have learned to swim." Hegel proposed that "in the process of knowing we must combine the activity of the form of thought with the critique of the form of thought" and that "it is up to it (the form of thought) itself to define its limits and reveal its own defects". This is what he calls the "contradictory development" of thought.
Beware of metaphorical pitfalls! Imagine that a thought can be used in different metaphorical ways, and a metaphor can be used to expound different ideas. How can we believe in the persuasiveness of metaphors? Metaphor is only a rhetorical word, metaphor itself can be true, but thought is not more true and more convincing because of metaphor. Terrible metaphor! For example, metaphors do not correspond exactly to the logical constants of thought, but the ideas of metaphors themselves often deviate from their own orbit and fall into the orbit of their own thoughts, thus moving towards error.
It is true that it is not indigestible not to study science, but it is undoubtedly dangerous to take the plunge into the water without knowing how to swim. Kant's "demand for the ability to test knowledge before examining knowledge" is to seek a solid starting point for philosophy, thus enabling the establishment of a reliable "other world." Kant was undoubtedly prudent. But Hegel may be influenced by his metaphorical own thoughts and similar ways of thinking, thinking that the starting point can be a hypothesis, and letting the mind think about this hypothetical thought, the mind examining the mind itself, and then returning to the starting point. This kind of "contradictory development" of the thought itself can indeed reveal its own defects, but how can it prove its own truthfulness, and how can it achieve its "absolute" and "truth"? Marx saw the flaws here and proposed to test ideas in practice. Nietzsche was disappointed with Hegel, believing that all human knowledge was merely a fiction of ontology, and thus proposed to revalue all values.
06
Same motto
Hegel says that the same maxim, uttered in the mouth of a weather-beaten, tormented old man, and uttered in the mouth of an innocent, lovely, unworldly child, has a fundamentally different meaning. "The old religious truths, although the child can also speak, but for the old man, these religious truths contain the meaning of his whole life. Even these children understand the content of these religious truths, but for him there is a whole life and a whole world beyond this religious truth. This passage of Hegel tells us that philosophy is not merely a deliberate reason, but a genuine emotion of experience; philosophy is not merely the movement and development of a series of concepts, but also the profound experience of life. If people want to truly enter into philosophical thinking, they must also have the experience, epiphany, and taste advocated by traditional Chinese philosophy.
07
Animals listen to music
Philosophy is not ready-made knowledge, and if philosophy is accepted as ready-made knowledge, although it can make people acquire certain philosophical concepts, they never know what philosophy is, and therefore cannot really enter philosophical thinking. "Like certain animals, they hear all the tones in the music, but the consistency and harmony of these tones does not pass through their minds" (Hegel). Through this metaphor, Hegel sharply but profoundly reveals the wisdom that forms philosophical wisdom. Hegel once said: "There are often people who take the study of philosophy too lightly, although they have never devoted themselves to philosophy, but they can talk about philosophy as if they are very skilled..." These people "talk about philosophy", of course, just like animals listen to music, they can hear "all the tones in music", but they cannot hear the "consistency and harmony" of these tones. This metaphor tells us that philosophy is not a conclusion of ready-made knowledge, and that if we only memorize certain philosophical knowledge or use certain philosophical concepts, it will be like "animals listening to music", and can hear all kinds of "tones" but cannot hear the real "music".