Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3) — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
Hegel's Lectures on the History of Philosophy: Volume 3 (of 3)
Georg Hegel · en
We may say that nothing can be more superficial than this derivation of
ideas. The matter itself, the essence, is not touched upon at all. A
determination is brought into notice which is contained in a concrete
relationship; hence the understanding on the one hand abstracts and
on the other establishes conclusions. The basis of this philosophy is
merely to be found in the transference of the determinate to the form
of universality, but it was just this fundamental essence that we had
to explain. As to this Locke confesses of space, for example, that he
does not know what it really is.[227] This so-called analysis by Locke
of complex conceptions, and his so-called explanation of the same, has,
on account of its uncommon clearness and lucidity of expression, found
universal acceptance. For what can be clearer than to say that we have
the notion of time because we perceive time, if we do not actually see
it, and that we conceive of space because we see it? The French have
accepted this most readily and they have carried it further still; their
_Idéologie_ contains nothing more nor less.
γ. When Locke starts by saying that everything is experience and we
abstract for ourselves from this experience general conceptions regarding
objects and their qualities, he makes a distinction in respect of
external qualities which was before this made by Aristotle (De anima,
II. 6), and which we likewise met with in Descartes (_supra_, pp. 245,
246). That is to say, Locke distinguishes between primary and secondary
qualities; the first pertain to the objects themselves in truth, the
others are not real qualities, but are founded on the nature of the
organs of sensation. Primary qualities are mechanical, like extension,
solidity, figure, movement, rest; these are qualities of the corporeal,
just as thought is the quality of the spiritual. But the determinations
of our individual feelings such as colours, sounds, smells, taste, etc.,
are not primary.[228] In Descartes’ case this distinction has however
another form, for the second class of these determinations is defined
by him in such a way as that they do not constitute the essence of
body, while Locke says that they exist for sensation, or fall within
existence as it is for consciousness. Locke, however, no doubt reckons
figure, etc., as still pertaining to reality, but by so doing nothing is
ascertained as to the nature of body. In Locke a difference here appears
between the implicit and being ‘for-another,’ in which he declares the
moment of ‘for-another’ to be unreal—and yet he sees all truth in the
relation of ‘for-another’ only.