Although contingency, as it has thus been shown, is only one aspect in
the whole of actuality, and therefore not to be mistaken for actuality
itself, it has no less than the rest of the forms of the idea its due
office in the world of objects. This is, in the first place, seen in
Nature. On the surface of Nature, so to speak, Chance ranges unchecked,
and that contingency must simply be recognised, without the pretension
sometimes erroneously ascribed to philosophy, of seeking to find in it
a could-only-be-so-and-not-otherwise. Nor is contingency less visible
in the world of Mind. The will, as we have already remarked, includes
contingency under the shape of option or free-choice, but only as a
vanishing and abrogated element. In respect of Mind and its works,
just as in the case of Nature, we must guard against being so far
misled by a well-meant endeavour after rational knowledge, as to try
to exhibit the necessity of phenomena which are marked by a decided
contingency, or, as the phrase is, to construe them _a priori._ Thus
in language (although it be, as it were, the body of thought) Chance
still unquestionably plays a decided part; and the same is true of the
creations of law, of art, &c. The problem of science, and especially of
philosophy, undoubtedly consists in eliciting the necessity concealed
under the semblance of contingency. That however is far from meaning
that the contingent belongs to our subjective conception alone, and
must therefore be simply set aside, if we wish to get at the truth.
All scientific researches which pursue this tendency exclusively,
lay themselves fairly open to the charge of mere jugglery and an
over-strained precisianism.
146.] When more closely examined, what the aforesaid outward side
of actuality implies is this. Contingency, which is actuality
in its immediacy, is the self-identical, essentially only as a
supposition which is no sooner made than it is revoked and leaves
an existent externality. In this way, the external contingency is
something pre-supposed, the immediate existence of which is at the
same time a possibility, and has the vocation to be suspended, to
be the possibility of something else. Now this possibility is the
Condition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account