DOGMATISM AND ABSOLUTE KNOWING

Hegel's own pithy account of the nature of philosophy given in the "Preface" to his Philosophy of Right captures a characteristic tension in his philosophical approach and, in particular, in his approach to the nature and limits of human cognition. He says there, "Philosophy too is its own time apprehended in thoughts."

On the one hand we can clearly see in the phrase "its own time" the suggestion of a historical or cultural conditionedness and variability that applies even to the highest form of human cognition, philosophy itself. On the other hand, there is the hint that such contents are being raised to some higher level, presumably higher than the more everyday levels of cognitive functioning; those based in everyday perceptual experience, for example. This higher level takes the form of "thought," a

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conditional; in the form of the categorical imperative, its voice is unconditionally authoritative and its command is unconditionally a law of human conduct. It speaks to us immediately, for we are conscious of its commands. Here, Kant rests the freedom of the will, the existence of God, and the immortality of the soul. First, the will is free; for moral law, in saying "You ought," implies that "You can." We have no immediate consciousness of freedom, but we have immediate consciousness of the moral law which implies freedom. I can because I ought, and I know that I can because I know that I ought. Freedom is, therefore, the ratio essendi of the moral law, and the moral law is the ratio cognoscendi of freedom (CPrR:II,132ff). Secondly, moral law postulates the existence of God; for the imperative nature of the moral law implies that there exists somewhere a good which is not only supreme but complete, an embodiment, so to speak, of that perfection which is the sum of all the conditions implied in the moral order. Thus, while theonomic ethics supposes the existence of God, autonomic morality "proves" His existence (CPrR:II,149ff). Thirdly, moral law postulates the immortality of the soul. Theoretical reason, as we have seen,
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Approximate Word count = 10280
Approximate Pages = 41 (250 words per page)

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