Hegel's Philosophy of Mind — Georg Hegel — John Shaqi
Hegel's Philosophy of Mind
Georg Hegel · en
There is probably another sense, however, in which psychology comes into
close relation with ethics. If we look on man as a microcosm, his inner
system will more or less reproduce the system of the larger world. The
older psychology used to distinguish an upper or superior order of
faculties from a lower or inferior. Thus in the intellectual sphere, the
intellect, judgment, and reason were set above the senses, imagination,
and memory. Among the active powers, reasonable will, practical reason and
conscience were ranked as paramount over the appetites and desires and
emotions. And this use of the word “faculty” is as old as Plato, who
regards science as a superior faculty to opinion or imagination. But this
application—which seems a perfectly legitimate one—does not, in the first
instance, belong to psychology at all. No doubt it is psychically
presented: but it has an other source. It springs from an appreciation, a
judgment of the comparative truth or reality of what the so-called
psychical act means or expresses. Such faculties are powers in a hierarchy
of means and ends and presuppose a normative or critical function which
has classified reality. Psychically, the elements which enter into
knowledge are not other than those which belong to opinion: but they are
nearer an adequate rendering of reality, they are truer, or nearer the
Idea. And in the main we may say, that is truer or more real which
succeeds in more completely organising and unifying elements—which rises
more and more above the selfish or isolated part into the thorough unity
of all parts.