Totality

The relation of the many and the one, difference and identity, multiplicity and unity, particularity and universality, and finally that of negativity and negativity of negativity through reason and history is the core of Hegelian Absolute which is still an inevitable philosophical source to deal with most of the contemporary ontological problems. The article’s claim consists of two parts: Absolute is internally a retrospective totality of the System, on the one hand, and it is intertwined with a prospective negativity in a reciprocal relationship, on the other hand. Therefore, Absolute would be an absolute totality and an ongoing openness to the future at the same time. This article explains how Hegel’s articulation of the absoluteness is still a challenging ontological problem since it would simultaneously include both totality and negativity.

Abstract: Hegel’s absolute knowing is an immanent subjectivity since all the knowledge and human history are included within it as the absolute subjectivity. Some Hegelians stressed the sufficiency of the absolute’s totality; contrariwise, others interpreted absolute’s immanent openness in terms of ongoing negativity, which renders human history an ongoing movement. The article attempts to propose a new conception of the absolute knowing in which there is a totality of conceptuality and openness to the future not only as negativity but also as a prospective totality. It would be entitled “open totality of the absolute knowing”, and the article explains the two characteristics focusing on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and Hegel’s Science of Logic in addition to some crucial and prominent commentaries. My interpretation of Hegel’s absolute knowing is based on the openness of the knowing process, which is a part of my PhD thesis entitled Hegel’s Absolute: Suspension of Perspectives.