Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 2 (of 3) — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 2 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
only, whose movement consists in their making themselves the other of
themselves, and thus showing that only their unity is what is truly
justified.
Plato makes Socrates say, as regards the meaning of the unity of the
one and many, “If anyone proved to me that I am one and many, it would
not surprise me. For since he shows me that I am a many, and points
out in me the right and left side, an upper and lower half, a front
and back, I partake of the manifold; and again I partake of unity
because I am one of us seven. The case is the same with stone, wood,
&c. But if anyone, after determining the simple ideas of similarity
and dissimilarity, multiplicity, and unity, rest and movement, and so
on, were to show that these in their abstract form admit of admixture
and separation, I should be very much surprised.”[33] The dialectic
of Plato is, however, not to be regarded as complete in every regard.
Though his main endeavour is to show that in every determination the
opposite is contained, it can still not be said that this is strictly
carried out in all his dialectic movements, for there are often
external considerations which exercise an influence in his dialectic.
For example, Parmenides says: “Are either of the two parts of the one
which is—I mean the One and Being—ever wanting to one another? Is the
One ever set free from _being_ a part (τοῦ εἶναι μόριον) and Being set
free from the _one_ part (τοῦ ἑνὸς μόριου)? Once more, each part thus
possesses both the one and Being, and the smallest part still always
consists of these two parts.”[34] In other words: “The one is; from
this it follows that the one is not synonymous with ‘is,’ and thus the
one and ‘is’ are distinguished. There hence is in the proposition ‘the
one is’ a distinction; the many is therefore contained in it, and thus
even with the one I express the many.” This dialectic is certainly
correct, but it is not quite pure, because it begins from this union of
two determinations.