Hegel
(2010, p. 58) begins the Section 1 with the comment denoting that “Being
is the indeterminate immediate; it is free of determinateness with respect to
essence, just as it is still free of any determinateness that it can receive
within itself. This reflectionless being is being as it immediately is only
within.”
This
kind of understanding consists in the abyss of being. Hegel does probably aim
to consolidate the idea that that which could be the first step of philosophy
has to be presuppositionless in regard to its basic structure and spreading or
starting point. In this context, what is aimed at this point is to be the first
inference deriving from the origins of thinking process. According to this very
reception of starting point, Hegel refuses all kind of assumptions which is
unhesitatingly based on any unproved proofs, i.e. Descartes’ or Kant’s
presuppositions claiming that there is an absolute subject preforming the act
of thinking and perceiving respectively.[1] To
refrain from any assumption, Hegel does, as being the first of all system of
philosophy, mention “With What Must the Beginning of Science be Made?”
Being as the indeterminate immediate is the necessary starting point of any
possible systems of philosophy.
However,
after all of this, indeterminate immediateness of being[2]
turn out to be having the possibility of determinateness to carry out the
starting spark of logic, and, by doing so, that of philosophy. According to
Hegel (2010, p. 58), “Determinate being thus comes to stand over and
against being in general; with that, however, the very indeterminateness of
being constitutes its quality. It will therefore be shown that the first
being is in itself determinate, and therefore, secondly, that it passes
over into existence, is existence; that is latter, however, as
finite being, sublates itself and passes over into the infinite reference of
being to itself; it passes over, thirdly, into being-for-itself.”
In this context, what must be seen is nothing but the movement of being being
from absolute indeterminateness to determinate mediatedness. Therefore, being
does, as the indeterminate immediate, imply the basic structure of becoming
in Hegel’s philosophical system.
The first moment of being is
apparently nothing but indeterminate immediateness which should vitally be
conceptualised as the constitutive or preparatory phase of the whole
philosophical investigation of Hegel. However, it is clear that there must
always be a tricky putty in any moment to sublate itself and to be re-formed to
reach another moment; actually, this is what dialectical speculation is. At
this point, it turns out to be visible that the indeterminate immediateness is,
at the same time, to be what is qualitative or determinate in terms of being
determined as being indeterminate.
Through this kind of
sublations, we mainly bear witness to passing over into the upper moments in
Hegelian thought. By being determinate in itself as being indeterminate, being
becomes existence. The reason why it becomes existence is basically the
leak of determination into the indeterminate immediate; and this process should
totally be understood conceptually. At the end of the day, this existence as
finite being passes over into infiniteness of being-for-itself by
separating itself from the other and obtain its individuality.
Bibliography
Hegel, G. W. F., (2010), The Science of Logic,
[tr. George di Giovanni], New York: Cambridge University Press.
[1] By speaking clearly of these
assumptions, we basically and respectively refer to cogito ergo sum of
Descartes and original apperception of Kant.
[2] It is quite important to emphasise
that being as indeterminate immediate cannot be referred by the words such as
‘this’, ‘that’, ‘here’ and so on. The reason for this is obviously nothing
other than the intention to keep it safe and indeterminate as it was in itself.
