Hegel and the Problem of Self-Consciousness Essay

For he enters his own experience as a self or individual, not directly or immediately, not by becoming a subject to himself, but only in so far as he first becomes an object to himself just as other individuals are objects to him or in his experience; and he becomes an object to himself only by taking the attitudes of other individuals toward himself within a social environment or context of experience and behavior in which both he and they are involved.

For he enters his own experience as a self or individual, not directly or immediately, not by becoming a subject to himself, but only in so far as he first becomes an object to himself just as other individuals are objects to him or in his experience; and he becomes an object to himself only by taking the attitudes of other individuals toward himself within a social environment or context of experience and behavior in which both he and they are involved.

Our modern understanding of the human mind is much different than it was in the 17th to 19th century, all the results from scientific research on brain studies during the Decade of the Brain. Before, Mind was viewed as a real object but now we realize that people process information somewhere, someplace in the brain. It was a creator of ideas with the personality. Today we realize that it is what the rain does, an expression of neural networks processing information. And indeed computer programs are being built to emulate that process. It is not an ethereal entity that can create memories nor complete pictures on a scratchpad but along neural fibers that reconstruct outlines of pictures. There are various states of consciousness and using language we hypothesize ideas, which are then checked out on the opposite side of the brain against reality. And sometimes the physiology falters and Mind goes berserk. But what that describes is a natural process with information provided from the senses. It is not in communication with higher beings. It is simply engaged in working out problems. Mind is thus a process and in fact dialectics is the very process that engages Mind. Self recognition that Hegel had in his mind was looking for what was outside the

In Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), Hegel wrote that ideas are continually in juxtaposition or'dialectic' (dialogue) (Selden, cited by Graves 1998). Opposing ideas that seem different, like that of the concept of the master and the slave are instead revealed to be critically interlinked. Without the notion of the 'master,' after all, there is no 'slave,' and vice versa. The master is dependent upon the existence and consciousness of the slave. Unless the slave recognizes the master, there is no master and unless the slave is recognized as a slave there is no slave. But once, despite this mutual recognition and interdependence, the master recognizes the slave, according to Hegel, the master and slave are linked in struggle to the death. They view one another's existence as in opposition to one another, and yet the notion of slavery and mastery is dependent upon both of their existences. Just like the word 'man' makes no sense without a definition of 'not man' (woman), there is no master without a slave

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel wrote about his master-slave dialectic in the Phenomenology of the Spirit, though the more official translation from the original German phrase (“Herrschaft und Knechtschaft”) would be “Lordship and Bondage”. After sharing his personal insights into the idea of consciousness (as many have done before him), Hegel brings up his own thoughts on a newer concept: self-consciousness. He understands, as other idealists do, that consciousness implicates the necessary awareness of an object in “itself”. “Itself” would be the idea of “self”, as in, what it really is in the universe, which in turn entails being aware of its position in the same universe. Because a subject can think outside of its proverbial box, it can fully understand what “it” and its “box” is—that, is consciousness.

In his Phenomenology of Spirit, G.W.F. Hegel lays out a process by which one may come to know absolute truth. This process shows a gradual evolution from a state of "natural consciousness" (56) (1) to one of complete self-consciousness - which leads to an understanding of the "nature of absolute knowledge itself" (66). By understanding the relation between consciousness and truth, one may come to know the true nature of our existence. Hegel proposes to answer these questions in one bold stroke; he relates them in such a way as to make an infinitely complex and indiscernible universe a unitary whole. This process from a natural state to a kind of transcendence

Sense-Certainty to Hegel is the immediate knowledge given between our mind and the object within the world. This type of knowledge is immediate which means its known as soon as our mind connects or sees the object and it is also receptive meaning we can accept the knowledge the object gives through signals or stimulus. The first appearance of knowledge is therefore the simplest possible relation between us and the object in question. Sense-certainty aims to avoid universality as it distorts the world in its simplification whereas particulars will portray the true world. Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of spirit’ is written in a dialectic form in which he presents an argument before providing an immediate critique which then results in the argument being developed.

The self is dwarfed by the imposition of an alter-reality—it is the constant self-reflective cogito imposed on us by the Other that alienates us from thetic self-consciousness. Imprisoned in the Other’s gaze, I am the product of not only my own experiences, but also of my fellow man’s, each of us responsible for all humanity—we are “half victim and half accomplice, like everybody else” (Sartre DH 184).

When the word consciousness is used regarding human beings, the word itself usually implies that those individuals are conscious of being conscious. Many individuals assume that the mind, the brain, and the body react as one. But the idea of the mind is not related to the concept of the brain or the body. These differences allow philosophers to determine a people’s consciousness in the world around them. Individuals derive the concept of consciousness from their experience because consciousness itself comes from one’s youth. Consciousness can be described as an individual’s ability to become aware of his or her surroundings including both the external and internal world which they are present in. The idea of consciousness can be explained by obtaining something simple and changing it into something complex, also known as the emergent property. The process of emergent property can be achieved in two steps that allow philosophers to determine who and what possess consciousness.

Human beings realize the aims of their existence through the medium of self-consciousness. Their possession of the faculty of self-consciousness enables them to exercise the capacity to transcend the sheer flux and flow of sensual experience and to reflect upon the nature of their existence, its origins, and the direction they wish it to take.

Hegel’s argued that the creation of life is based on phenomenology and that the nature of life is based on our senses. He argues that it is more than just phenomena, it 's complex phenomena.Without the mind, we would not have existed in the world and without knowledge we would not be able to survive.  Our body communicates with our mind and without our mind we would not be able to function , we would not be able to survive without knowledge either because without any knowledge we wouldn’t be able to take care of bodies medically or even naturally. It is natural to gain knowledge on seeking our senses.Our senses give us the power of knowledge and always lead us to create and produce different

Daniel Dennet’s short story Where Am I, focuses on the metaphysical, and physical dilemma in where the idea of the self truly supervenes, in which there is a displacement of the self, which is broken into four possible locations at the end of Dennets story. Furthermore this paper will firstly summarize his story, afterwards view each possible location and explain why it’s possible. Thirdly I will thereafter interpret these ideas further with a philosophical view in how they cope, or violate them, and than refute why Dennet is none of these locations.

Georg Hegel (1770-1831) is one of the more difficult philosophers to read and understand. His works, though, had an extremely important effect on the European and American philosophers from the 18th century on, and one of the more important changes in the post-Industrial Revolutionary World, Marxism, had Hegel to thank for a basic overview of historical systems. In general, Hegel developed a basic paradigm (system) that accounts for the manner in which nature and mind or for him, subject and object, were all related. This included history, philosophy, society, art, music, and culture. It was the idea that while all things were interrelated, they were also set up to form a series of contradictions that caused conflict for humans. Hegel's manner of dissecting these issues was using logic a dialog between idealism, history, and the self in which the very process of history plays the dominant role in the development of humanity (Besier).

And, as Hegel himself says: "although the terror inspired by the Master is the beginning of wisdom, it cannot be said that in this terror Consciousness exists for itself, but it is not yet Being for oneself ".

The mind is the owner of consciousness due to its independent self-awareness from the body; the uniqueness of the first-person perspective of self rather than the third-person as physicalists see it.