Can someone translate this for me into normal terms or simplistic english? Just explain it in differently.

Question

1. “Everything depends on grasping the truth not merely as Substance but as

Subject as well.” This means that what is true, what is real, is not merely that

which is thought of, but that which thinks. Thus, what is most real—the

Absolute—is thought thinking of itself.

2. Hegel’s idealism is different from Berkeley’s. For Berkeley, the objective

world in fact exists in the minds of individuals. For Hegel, the objective

world is an unfolding or expression of infinite thought, and the individual

mind is the vehicle of infinite thought reflecting on itself.

3. Reality, the Absolute, for Hegel, is not a group of independent particulars

or states of affairs, but rather like a coherent thought system such as mathematics

it is an integrated whole in which each proposition (each state of

affairs) is logically connected with all the rest. Thus, an isolated state of

affairs is not wholly real; likewise, a proposition about this or that aspect

or feature of reality is only partially true. The only thing that is totally true

(or totally real, because these amount to the same thing) is the complete

system.

4. The Absolute, the sum total of reality, is a system of conceptual triads. To

formalize Hegel’s system somewhat artificially: for proposition or concept

A there is a negation, not-A; and within the two there is a synthetic unity,

or synthesis, B. B, however, has a negation, not-B, and within B and not-B

there is a synthesis, C. And so on. Thus, the higher levels of the system are

implicit in the lower levels—for example, C and B are both implicit in A.

In this way the entire system of thought and reality that is the Absolute is an

integrated whole in which each proposition is logically interconnected with

the rest.

This is theory of Hegel

Answer 1

OK, so can I describe you by just listing your features? For example, 2 blue eyes, one straight nose, one mouth, brown hair, and so on. Of course not. It is your face as a WHOLE that another person can EXPERIENCE and therefore TRY to describe - the expressions, the smile etc. Thus all truth and reality is only seen as a WHOLE - which is always greater than the sum of its parts.

Answer 2

1.  Properly grasping reality (whatever that means exactly), means taking into account the perception of the person seeing, as well as what is seen "out there".  The writer of this sentence then links this up with an abstract "Absolute", which is something to do with the thinker being aware aware of thinking, or even thought itself being aware "it is thinking".

It's very vague like this - needs more context.   Even my explanation, which closely follows what was written, doesn't really make sense!

2. You just need to have grasped Berkeley's "to exist is to be perceived".  For Berkeley there is no externbal world beyond people's perception of it.

Hegel is talking at a more cosmic, abstract level.  You need more detail to understand what this is saying. (and don't be frightened to suggest it isn't saying anything coherent at all!)  

3.  So this is all about Hegel.  It seems to mean that it's not a lot of seperate things, but a mass of interconnected things.  Everything in maths is coherent - you would not get one mathematical statement which contradicted the rest of maths  (like 2+2=5).  It wouldn't work.  Equally everything in reality has to be kind of consistent with everything else.

And then it says this means to have a *really* true statement about the world, it would have to include *everything*. If that's not possible, only the thing out there is true - not anything you can say about it.

4.  I don't know much about Hegel.  I think this is quite a difficult one to give you.  But it carries on the theme of the last one.  It's his theory of thesis, antithesis, synthesis - he thought history progressed like this - the Absolute preogressing towards knowledge of itself.  

But normally in logic if A is true, not A is untrue and we don't have to find a synthesis between them.  

I think the key here is reading introductory material on Hegel, get some ideas you find interesting and want to write about.  There is a lot in Hegel - you can connect things into this.

You don't need even to understand everything you've put here to write about this.  Hardly anybody does understand it fully. And even they don't all agree on what it means.

Answer 3

Only the third postulate is even remotely reasonable. The others are, as is usual in philosophy, obfuscatory c**p.

Answer 4

uh,yes, I'd be glad to.........there's a lot of needless "c**p" theory and there's the simple things in life....major on the simple things in life and enjoy them, instead of trying to turn life into quantum physics!.     Peace!

Answer 5

To sum it all up- truth and reality are absolutes and not dependent on the perception or belief system of the observer.  Something is either true or it is not.  Something is real or it is not.