Going to share three conversations set in 1805 from a play inside my novel We Are Like Fire between two close friends: the German poet Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843) and the young philosopher Georg W.F. Hegel (177-1831). Both are 34 years old.
I should be clear I’m not dealing with Hegel’s philosophy in its mature form. This is what Holderlin and Hegel came up with together in the 1790s — in their twenties — as they founded the philosophy called German Idealism. They didn’t agree on many things, and they challenged each other in profound ways.
They were classmates and 1793 graduates of the Tubingen Seminary. What I find most fascinating is that they explored questions of Deity, Infinity (what most of us today would call the Field), the soul, and consciousness — all four. This is especially interesting to people like me who believe in all four and who tend to go through life each day aware of all four. But I think it’s interesting to almost any inquiring mind with a mystical or spiritual bent — and I’ve tried to make their insights as succinct and accessible as possible.
Mike
(Hegel above, Holderlin below)
Act II, Scene 4
Holderlin and Hegel sit facing each other on the couch.
“We still agree on so much, Hegel,” says Holderlin. “We both want to know how a finite being like us can uphold a true relationship with what is infinite. I still call it Love. Or Life. Or the Spirit.”
“I also still call it the Spirit,” Hegel replies. “Or the Absolute.”
“We share the conviction that the Spirit is the primary reality.”
“Yes,” says Hegel. “And the supersensible world is the world that is enduring and true.”
“We agree that the Infinite Spirit is transcendent yet immanent. It is the pure, universal, and boundless Essence. And it pervades and permeates all.”
“Yes. The Spirit is as present as the air we breathe. It is omnipresent. It is at the center of all things. It is the bloodstream of the universe. It is the soul of the world.”
“And we agree that each human being is a unity contained within that universal Unity?”
“Of course, Friedrich. We are joined to the Spirit as every part is joined to a greater wholeness.”
“And the unity of Spirit forms the horizon of our consciousness.”
“Yes. The horizon for our entire conscious life.”
“Precisely,” Holderlin tells him. “And prior to all divisions in our awareness, our fundamental orientation should be toward the deep primordial unity of the Spirit.”
“We agree, my dear friend.”
“We agree on so much, Wilhelm. And yet you are still intent on articulating as much of the Spirit as you can as conceptual truth.”
“I am. You know that my grand project is to show how the Spirit works.”
“There is no one more audacious than you, Hegel.”
“I continue working out my system. I aim to blend philosophy, religion, nature, society, and culture into a single whole. No dualisms. No reduction of reality. Always aware of pure Being. Always recognizing the Spirit. But accounting for the relationship between the Spirit and everything else.”
“You are conceiving a lofty design, Hegel. But I will never abandon the sweet land of the Muses.”
“No one is asking you to.”
“I approach the Spirit directly, my dear Wilhelm. I participate directly in that pure luminous realm. And in that supreme reality, my being is unified with infinite and Divine Beauty, Harmony, and Love.”
“My dear Friedrich, I am not pitting my system against your spiritual experiences.”
“I suppose not.”
“However, in my view, there is no way for us to be completely united with Spirit.”
“How can you be so sure?” Holderlin challenges him. “The unity of Spirit is fundamental. It precedes everything else. Before anything is separated from It, before anything is divided from It, before anything is thought about or reflected on or deliberated or judged, before we are even aware of It, the unity of Spirit is there.”
“All right, yes,” Hegel agrees. “And the Spirit cannot be dulled or interrupted by any difference.”
“Then all we need, Wilhelm,” Holderlin replies, “is a sense of the universal Spirit that includes our own consciousness and everyone and everything else in the universe.”
“Yes.”
“That is not enough for you?”
“I see the need for more.”
“I never will,” Holderlin responds. “As long as we have that fire in our eye, we have no need for the resolute grasping of our intellect. We take in a vision of Beauty from the Spirit, and we may identify that Beauty with truth. But let us worship that Beauty. Let us not try to grasp the Spirit with our conceptual mind. The Spirit lies beyond our concepts.”
“Something is missing in your approach, Holz.”
“Nothing is missing, Wilhelm. Every experience of the Spirit leaves our mind in a state of perfect lucidity. The Spirit takes us into Its gentle embrace, so wondrously, and gives us all the education we need.”
“So you have no interest in the articulation of the Spirit?”
“No interest in articulating It with concepts,” Holderlin answers. “Not even with reasoning. The Spirit is one. It is unified perfectly. Leave it unified. Our experience of connection to the Infinite cannot be repeated in concepts. To even try to do so is to set a boundary that ought not be set. Rational thought is inferior to our pure intuiting of that unity. The Spirit is not some concept you can manage, Hegel.”
“You make good arguments, Holderlin.”
“Unity without divisions. Infinite Spirit should not be separated in our mind. When we do so we damage Its Essence.”
“My system will show that we need to make judgments.”
“Your judgments, Hegel, cause a rupture in the unity of Spirit. All judgments do.”
“All ruptures in the unity of Spirit are caused by our thinking?”
“Yes.”
“But what if that rupture is inevitable?” Hegel asks. “Not caused by us? What if all thinking involves tensions with the Spirit? What if these tensions and even these ruptures are implicit in the very nature of Spirit itself?”
“No,” declares Holderlin.
“You still apprehend pure Being without any concepts?”
“Yes. Because pure Being comes before all concepts.”
“Spirit contains no ideas? Are you really so sure?”
“All we need do is draw close to infinite Life with all Its Harmony and Beauty and Love – and unite with It.”
“Doing that is not enough, Holz, it is just not enough. We must use our intellects. We must think.”
“Pure Being precedes all truths,” Holderlin parries. “Pure Being exists prior to any articulation of truths. The unity of the Spirit is ultimately victorious over all manifested forms.”
“Something’s not quite right in your view, Friedrich,” Hegel says. “I request your patience. Will you grant me until this evening to gather my thoughts?”
“After dinner, my dear Wilhelm. See you then.”
Two blind men describing an elephant approaching from different sides. When the two bump into each other POW!!!!