Hegel's Introduction (version 1)
After the Preface we get... the Introduction, of course. I guess I will have to look up exactly what the difference is between a preface and an intro. Anyway, the introduction seems concerned with the methodology of Phenomenology of Spirit and the ideas associated with the methodology. Crucial to this discussion is the nature of thinking and cognition. Partly, Hegel sees philosophy as stumbling upon its assumption that thought and cognition are instruments we use to apprehend the truth; for as soon as we take this approach, then thought and cognition are separate from reality and so must fail in being able to grasp it. I'll start with a paragraph where Hegel explains this eloquently.
"Meanwhile, if the fear of falling into error sets up a mistrust of Science, which in the absence of such scruples gets on with the work itself, and actually cognizes something, it is hard to see why we should not turn round and mistrust this very mistrust. Should we not be concerned as to whether this fear of error is not just the error itself? Indeed, this fear takes something -- a great deal in fact -- for granted as truth, supporting its scruples and inferences on what is itself in need of prior scrutiny to see if it is true. To be specific, it takes for granted certain ideas about cognition as an instrument and as a medium, and assumes that there is a difference between ourselves and this cognition. Above all, it presupposes that the Absolute stands on one side and cognition on the other, independent and separated from it, and yet is something real; in other words, it presupposes that cognition which, since it is excluded from the Absolute, is surely outside of the truth as well, is nevertheless true, an assumption whereby what calls itself fear of error reveals itself rather as fear of truth"
Hegel's path, instead, is to take cognition or consciousness as itself part of reality. We have forms of consciousness, forms of thought, that we take up and examine: "The series of configurations which consciousness goes through along this road is, in reality, the deatiled history of the education of consciousness itself to the standpoint of Science."
These forms of consciousness will indeed be untrue -- and we shall see what that means, exactly -- but this passage through untruth is what itself constitutes the progression of philosophical thought. In Hegel's words, when we show a form of consciousness to be untrue, we negate it; and what results from this negation is not a mere nothingness but "the nothingness of that from which it results", a determinate negation. So that when our sense-certainty of Here and Now are shown to be contrary to what we mean, we are thrown forward into the realm of perception.
"Meanwhile, if the fear of falling into error sets up a mistrust of Science, which in the absence of such scruples gets on with the work itself, and actually cognizes something, it is hard to see why we should not turn round and mistrust this very mistrust. Should we not be concerned as to whether this fear of error is not just the error itself? Indeed, this fear takes something -- a great deal in fact -- for granted as truth, supporting its scruples and inferences on what is itself in need of prior scrutiny to see if it is true. To be specific, it takes for granted certain ideas about cognition as an instrument and as a medium, and assumes that there is a difference between ourselves and this cognition. Above all, it presupposes that the Absolute stands on one side and cognition on the other, independent and separated from it, and yet is something real; in other words, it presupposes that cognition which, since it is excluded from the Absolute, is surely outside of the truth as well, is nevertheless true, an assumption whereby what calls itself fear of error reveals itself rather as fear of truth"
Hegel's path, instead, is to take cognition or consciousness as itself part of reality. We have forms of consciousness, forms of thought, that we take up and examine: "The series of configurations which consciousness goes through along this road is, in reality, the deatiled history of the education of consciousness itself to the standpoint of Science."
These forms of consciousness will indeed be untrue -- and we shall see what that means, exactly -- but this passage through untruth is what itself constitutes the progression of philosophical thought. In Hegel's words, when we show a form of consciousness to be untrue, we negate it; and what results from this negation is not a mere nothingness but "the nothingness of that from which it results", a determinate negation. So that when our sense-certainty of Here and Now are shown to be contrary to what we mean, we are thrown forward into the realm of perception.