Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 1 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
The first principle of that Philosophy which has taken its place in
Christendom is thus found in the existence of two totalities. This
is a reduplication of substance which now, however, is characterized
by the fact that the two totalities are no longer external to one
another, but are clearly both required through their relation to one
another. If formerly Stoicism and Epicureanism, whose negativity was
Scepticism, came forth as independent, and if finally the implicitly
existent universality of both was established, these moments are now
known as separate totalities, and yet in their opposition they have
to be thought of as one. We have here the true speculative Idea, the
Notion in its determinations, each of which is brought into a totality
and clearly relates to the other. We thus have really two Ideas, the
subjective Idea as knowledge, and then the substantial and concrete
Idea; and the development and perfection of this principle and its
coming to the consciousness of Thought, is the subject treated by
modern Philosophy. Thus the determinations are in it more concrete than
with the ancients. This opposition in which the two sides culminate,
grasped in its widest significance, is the opposition between Thought
and Being, individuality and substance, so that in the subject himself
his freedom stands once more within the bounds of necessity; it is the
opposition between subject and object, and between Nature and Mind, in
so far as this last as finite stands in opposition to Nature.