Thinking of the World for Itself: Hegel’s Positivism
In his thoughts on development, Hegel recognised a process in nature in which things evolve from a thing in itself to become a thing that is for itself.
In an organic-whole Universe (which is also a Hegelian concept) this idea of the for itself would logically amount to being for the Universe. A Universe that has evolved into a being for itself, is one that has developed from being the thing that is, to being the thing that is because it knows it is, and knows what it is for. In other words, a Universe that exists for itself is a thing imbued with purpose.
Our suggestion on this point is that our own Universe has evolved in this for-itself way through the creation of life-forms with sensory abilities and intelligent consciousness, that make them capable of knowing what and where they are, as well as, ultimately, what and what for the Universe itself is.
Through its power of reason, humanity is therefore tied directly to the Universe’s evolution into the thing that is for itself, or the Universe imbued with meaningfulness.
It is reason as well, as such, that distinguishes the maturity of human beings and the human faculty that must be most meticulously developed if we can ever evolve into the most mature form of human (sapiens) beings.
Individuals can and have managed to achieve this maturity, but authentic human maturity can only come about when humanity itself develops its reasoning powers and knowledge collectively, and by doing so living up to the title of homo sapiens.
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To describe his concept of development, Hegel used the analogy of a plant:
“The bud disappears in the bursting-forth of the blossom, and, one might say, the former is refuted by the latter.”[i]
In the same way, the future mature sapiens species will refute the homo economicus that walks the earth today. To interpret this in Hegelian terms would imply an optimism. Hegel saw the bud and the flower as being mutually incompatible manifestations of the plant, although necessary ones.
It is easy to conclude that the life-process stages of a plant are necessary because we know that the process is generally a success. Nevertheless, the evolution of humanity is an unknown factor. Whether what we are now is truly a necessary step towards what we should become, is a highly hypothetical proposition. If the goal of humanity is to develop into a highly evolved, reasoning species, we cannot wait for our material desires to naturally evolve us that way. Such an assumption is as blind as any other faith. If humanity is not looking for any goal it would be absurd to expect it to find one. But the truth is it doesn’t need to look anywhere to find authentic purpose, for we all know we possess the gift of reason.
Now, as we approach the steep cliff of the existential horizon that we know that our own supposedly rational civilisation has created, it is as good a time as any for humanity to acknowledge its reasoning powers as a positive force embedded in our authentic purpose as human beings, and by so doing allow a development to begin that will move us toward the mature form of that reasoning, knowing entity.
Sadly, these ideas are not that different from Hegel’s metaphysics, and if an influencer like Hegel was not able to spark a revolution for a humanity forged for-itself then we can probably expect to see little hope of stopping the homo economicus juggernaut now. Hegel’s metaphysics are, and have been, basically ignored by all except the most die-hard Hegelian scholars. But Hegel himself was writing at the end of a positivistic age – an end that opened the doors unto our own nihilistic era. Hegel’s brand of positivism and belief in purpose now seems like a breath of fresh air, gasping for revival. A positivistic vision of human evolution is necessary now, if we are ever to break out of our nihilistic bubble.
We do not say this in order to suggest any blind imposition of a Hegelian worldview. Our own ideas differ radically from Hegel’s, especially in the idea that cosmological evolution is an infallible process of rational necessity. There is a rationality involved in the Universe, and the cosmological fine-tuning indicated by physicists points to the idea of the Universe created for itself, but, we believe, the mechanical control that the Universe possesses is certainly not infallible, otherwise complex life would be a far more frequent and expanded phenomenon in the Universe than it is. If we examine the Universe, as we should, from the physical mechanics of it, it is a volatile, violent place – the seeming antithesis of the serenity needed for an evolution of rationality.
The rational maturity that we talk about here is still to come, but only if it can. In order for that maturity to be feasible, an authentic sapiens must evolve, and the best candidate we know of for such an evolution has to come via humanity – it depends on us.
And to do that, as we all know, we ourselves need to make a giant leap forward in favour of our identity as a species imbued with the vision of making a world that exists and functions for itself.
[i] G.W.F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind, 2/2; 3, 12
