第 59 节
作者:
匆匆 更新:2021-02-27 02:11 字数:9320
because the object itself is nothing but the totality of the Notion。 It is just as one…sided to represent
analysis as though there were nothing in the subject matter that was not imported into it; as it is
one…sided to suppose that the resulting determinations are merely extracted from it。 The former
view; as everyone knows; is enunciated by subjective idealism; which takes the activity of
cognition in analysis to be merely a one…sided positing; beyond which the thing…in…itself remains
concealed; the other view belongs to so…called realism which apprehends the subjective Notion as
an empty Identity that receives the thought determinations into itself from outside。 Analytic
cognition; the transformation of the given material into logical determinations; has shown itself to be
two things in one: a positing that no less immediately determines itself as a presupposing。
Consequently; by virtue of the latter; the logical element may appear as something already
complete in the object; just as by virtue of the former it may appear as the product of a merely
subjective activity。 But the two moments are not to be separated; the logical element in its abstract
form into which analysis raises it; is of course only to be found in cognition; while conversely it is
something not merely posited; but possessing being in itself。
Now since analytic cognition is the transformation indicated above; it does not pass through any
further middle term; the determination is in so far immediate and has just this meaning; to be
peculiar to the object and in itself to belong to it; and therefore to be apprehended from it without
any subjective mediation。 But further; cognition is supposed also to be a progress; an explication
of differences。 But because; in accordance with the determination it has here; it is Notion…less and
undialectical; it possesses only a given difference; and its progress takes place solely in the
determinations of the material。 It seems to have an immanent progress only in so far as the
derived thought determinations can be analysed afresh; in so far as they are a concrete; the highest
and ultimate point of this process of analysis is the abstract highest essence; or abstract subjective
identity … and over against it; diversity。
This progress is; however; nothing but the mere repetition of the one original act of analysis;
namely; the fresh determination as a concrete; of what has already been taken up into the abstract
form of the Notion; this is followed by the analysis of it; then by the determination afresh as a
concrete of the abstract that emerges from it; and so forth。 But the thought determinations seem
also to contain a transition within themselves。 If the object is determined as a whole; then of course
one advances from this to the other determination of part; from cause to the other determination
of effect; and so on。 But here this is no advance; since whole and part; cause and effect; are
relationships and moreover; for this formal cognition; relationships complete in themselves such
that in them one determination is already found essentially linked to the other。 The subject matter
that has been determined as cause or as part is ipso facto determined by the whole relationship;
that is; determined already by both sides of it。 Although the relationship is in itself something
synthetic; yet for analytic cognition this connection is as much a mere datum as any other
connection of its material and therefore is not relevant to its own peculiar business。 Whether a
connection of this kind be otherwise determined as a priori or a posteriori is here a matter of
indifference; for it is apprehended as something found already there; or; as it has also been
described; as a fact of consciousness that with the determination whole is linked the determination
part; and so forth。 While Kant has made the profound observation that there are synthetic a
priori principles and has recognised their root in the unity of self…consciousness and therefore in
the identity of the Notion with itself; yet he adopts the specific connection; the concepts of relation
and the synthetic principles themselves from formal logic as given; their justification should have
been the exposition of the transition of that simple unity of self…consciousness into these its
determinations and distinctions; but Kant spared himself the trouble of demonstrating this genuinely
synthetic progress … the self…producing Notion。
“Analytical Science”
(b) Synthetic Cognition
Analytic cognition is the first premise of the whole syllogism … the immediate relation of the Notion
to the object; identity; therefore; is the determination which it recognises as its own; and analytic
cognition is merely the apprehension of what is。 Synthetic cognition aims at the comprehension
of what is; that is; at grasping the multiplicity of determinations in their unity。 It is therefore the
second premise of the syllogism in which the diverse as such is related。 Hence its aim is in general
necessity。 The different terms which are connected; are on the one hand connected in a relation;
in this relation they are related and at the same time mutually indifferent and self…subsistent; but on
the other hand; they are linked together in the Notion which is their simple yet determinate unity。
Now synthetic cognition passes over; in the first instance; from abstract identity to relation; or
from being to reflection; and so far it is not the absolute reflection of the Notion that the Notion
cognises in its subject matter。 The reality it gives itself is the next stage; namely; the stated identity
of the different terms as such; an identity therefore that is at the same time still inner and only
necessity; not the subjective identity that is for itself; hence not yet the Notion as such。 Synthetic
cognition; therefore; has indeed the Notion determinations for its content; and the object is posited
in them; but they only stand in relation to one another; or are in immediate unity; and just for that
reason; not in the unity by which the Notion exists as subject。
This constitutes the finitude of this cognition; because this real side of the Idea in it still possesses
identity as an inner identity; its determinations are to themselves still external; because the identity
is not in the form of subjectivity; the Notion's own pervasion of the object still lacks individuality;
what corresponds to the Notion in the object is indeed no longer the abstract but the determinate
form and therefore the particularity of the Notion; but the individual element in the object is still
a given content。 Consequently; although this cognition transforms the objective world into
Notions; it gives it Notion…determinations only in respect of form; and must find the object in
respect of its individuality; its specific determinateness; such cognition is not yet self…determining。
Similarly; it finds propositions and laws; and proves their necessity; but not as a necessity of the
subject matter in and for itself; that is; not from the Notion; but as a necessity of the cognition that
works on given determinations; on the differences of the phenomenal aspect of the subject matter;
and cognises for itself the proposition as a unity and relationship; or cognises the ground of
phenomena from the phenomena themselves。
We have now to consider the detailed moments of synthetic cognition。
1。 Definition
First; the still given objectivity is transformed into the simple and first form; hence into the form of
the Notion。 Accordingly the moments of this apprehension are none other than the moments of the
Notion; universality; particularity and individuality。 The individual is the object itself as an
immediate representation; that which is to be defined。 The universality of the object of definition
we have found in the determination of the objective judgement or judgement of necessity to be the
genus; and indeed the proximate genus; that is to say; the universal with this determinateness that
is at the same time a principle for the differentiation of the particular。 This difference the object
possesses in the specific difference; which makes it the determinate species it is and is the basis
of its disjunction from the remaining species。
Definition; in thus reducing the subject matter to its Notion; strips it of its externalities which are
requisite for its concrete existence; it abstracts from what accrues to the Notion in its realisation;
whereby it emerges first into Idea; and secondly into external existence。 Description is for
representation; and takes in this further content that belongs to reality。 But definition reduces this
wealth of the manifold determinations of intuited existence to the simplest moments; the form of
these simple elements; and how they are determined relatively to one another; is contained in the
Notion。 The subject matter is thus; as we have stated; grasped as a universal that is at the same
time essentially determinate。 The subject matter itself is the third factor; the individual; in which the
genus and the particularisation are posited in one; it is an immediate that is posited outside the
Notion; since the latter is n