Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 1 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
_c._ As to the third division of the Sanc’hya, the more particular
consideration of the forms of knowledge as regards the principle, I
shall make a few more remarks, which may perhaps have some interest.
Of the various kinds of knowledge already given, that of reasoning, of
the connection existing with the conclusion through the relation of
cause and effect, remains the chief, and I will show how the Indians
comprehend this relation. The understanding and all other principles
derived from it are to them effects, and from these they reason to
their causes; in one respect this is analogous to our inference, but
in another different. They perceive that “effects exist even before
the operation of the causes; for what does not exist cannot be made
explicit in existence through causality.” Colebrooke says, “This means
that effects are educts rather than products.” But the question is just
what products are. As an example of how the effect is already contained
in the cause, the following is given:—Oil is already existent in the
seeds of sesamum before it is pressed out; rice is in the husk before
it is thrashed; milk is in the udder of the cow before it is milked.
Cause and effect are in reality the same; a piece of a dress is not
really different from the yarn from which it is woven, for the material
is the same. This is how this relation is understood. A consequence
derived from it was the eternity of the world, for the saying “Out
of nothing there comes nothing,” which Colebrooke also mentions, is
opposed to the belief in a creation of the world from nothing in our
religious sense. As a matter of fact, it must also be said, “God
creates the world not out of nothing, but out of Himself; it is His
own determination, by Him brought into existence.” The distinction
between cause and effect is only a formal distinction; it is the
understanding that keeps them separate, and not reason. Moisture is the
same as rain; or again we speak in mechanics of different movements,
whereas motion has the same velocity before as after impact. The
ordinary consciousness cannot comprehend the fact that there is no real
distinction between cause and effect.