Category Archives: Philosophy

The Conscientious One

Posted on April 29, 2023 by Lee

“I am the one I must be,” says Zarathustra. He accepts himself fully the way he is. And he walks with a carefree step. So carefree that in fact he is sometimes careless. And walking through the swamp he steps … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Waiting

Posted on March 23, 2023 by Lee

It’s difficult to wait for something. How many times in your life have you really had to wait? Usually if something you look forward to is happening in the future, you pass the time until then. The show is on … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction, Philosophy | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Editor and the Escritoire

Posted on January 28, 2022 by Lee

A less extraordinary mind would have been incapable of worrying so much about an old desk and would never have made the discovery. Victor Eremita, fictitious editor of Søren Kierkegaard’s Either/Or, tells the story of how he came across the … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Hegel, Reason, and the Unhappy Consciousness

Posted on November 9, 2021 by Lee

As the sun sets in Canto II of Dante’s Inferno, the pilgrim, Dante himself, explains that he is not worthy to undertake the journey, through Hell and Purgatory, to Heaven. I lack the strength and skill, he says. The poet … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

The “Specific Shape” of Stories (Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§678-679)

Posted on October 25, 2021 by Lee

For Hegel, the limitation of religion is that it relies on “picture-thinking.” A religion is based around the interpretation of a number of stories, images, and rituals designed to show the human spirit the truth about itself and its place … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Conscience and the Perfection of Religion (Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§677-678)

Posted on October 22, 2021 by Lee

Conscience holds the moral truth within itself. Instead of waiting for the day of judgement, conscience judges its own actions in the here and now. But conscience is fooling itself. The universal law that the moral self-consciousness holds within itself, … Continue reading →

Posted in books, Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§674-677: Heaven and the Underworld

Posted on October 21, 2021 by Lee

In the ancient Greek conception of “the underworld,” the shades that dwell there are individual souls still, as they were in the world above. They are still cut off from the unknown, unknowable, and universal “fate” that determines the outcomes … Continue reading →

Posted in Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Notes on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit §§673-674

Posted on October 20, 2021 by Lee

“Religion” is a concept that Hegel develops throughout his Phenomenology of Spirit. Here I’m going to look at the most abstract concept of religion that Hegel provides, the most minimal notion of what a religion must be in order to … Continue reading →

Posted in Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Pendulum

Posted on July 15, 2021 by Lee

In Chapter 5 of his book about the philosopher Leibniz, Gilles Deleuze ponders whether he should keep working this evening, or go to a nightclub. He’s not firmly in favour of either and he seems to prefer first the one … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

A Short Note on Reason’s Certainty

Posted on August 29, 2020 by Lee

In Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, having “reason” means being certain that you are “all reality”, knowing that the whole of the world can be found in your “I”. This self-certainty is well-founded in a sense: idealism is true, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Hegel, Philosophy | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment