Metafiction by
David Detrich
The Preface: On Scientific Knowledge discusses the desultory assertions which lead to a consideration of anatomy as a way of perceiving the truth, and with the metaphor of a blossom Hegel considers the stages of development for the abstraction of characterization which foreshadows the esthetic trend of the 21st Century innovative novel.
These stages are not merely differentiated; they supplant one another as being incompatible with one another. But the ceaseless activity of their own inherent nature makes them at the same time moments of an organic unity, where they not merely do not contradict one another, but where one is as necessary as the other; and this equal necessity of all moments constitutes alone and thereby the life of the whole.
G.W.F. Hegel
Religion, Being—not being in the centre of divine love, but the very Being of this centre, of the Absolute itself—from that point of view it is rather the opposite of the notional or conceptual form which would be required for systematic philosophical exposition.
The Phenomenology of Mind
G.W.F. Hegel
Theology and philosophy have become our emphasis this semester, as the symbolic form of the color field intensifies to an intellectual yellowish gray hue with a precise circle centered under the moving abstract birdlike forms which resemble a fleet of ufos moving gracefully in a precise formation. Jesus has revealed his own divinity as the absolute being of divine love which radiates this feeling of self-confidence, giving the modern mind a wisdom that is more enlightened than the tragic betrayal and crucifixion of the spiritual representative, who spoke with a sense of spiritual futuristic positivity.
The French and American Revolutions occurred in the years of Hegel's youth, and the Reign of Terror in Paris began in 1793 when the Republic decided to execute with the guillotine those who were enemies of the Revolution. In the present the abstract forms move across the color field of intense pink transforming into a deep red brilliance the words of The Phenomenology of Mind by G.W.F. Hegel, as the text is appreciated for its abstract esthetic qualities when accompanied by the abstract visual images of the graphics program.
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel was born in Stuttgart, Germany in 1770 and is known for The Phenomenology of Mind (1807) which he was finishing in Jena, where he had been invited to teach by philosopher Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, when Napoleon arrived to fight the Prussian troops in the Battle of Jena above the city on the grassy green plateau. Hegel wrote to his friend Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer:
I saw the Emperor—this world-soul—riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over the world and masters it ... this extraordinary man, whom it is impossible not to admire.
Hegel: A Biography
Terry Pinkard
Although the battle went well in Jena, the Napoleonic Wars of 1803 to 1815 disturbed Europe, and removed the Holy Roman Empire from Germany while revising the maps of Europe. France played a dominant role in Europe which is composed of ancient kingdoms, where the European languages remind the student of the fairytale legends of dwarves and giants.
That the truth is only realized in the form of system, that substance is essentially subject, is expressed in the idea which represents the Absolute as Spirit (Geist)−the grandest conception of all, and one which is due to modern times and its religion. Spirit is alone Reality. It is the inner being of the world, that which essentially is, and is per se; it assumes objective, determinate form, and enters into relations with itself−it is externality (otherness), and exists for self; yet, in this determination, and in its otherness, it is still one with itself−it is self-contained and self-complete, in itself and for itself at once.
The Phenomenology of Mind
"The Absolute is realized in the form of a monumental book which is the grandest conception of all written in the spirit of a literary movement with a phenomenological perspective that creates the appreciative interrelationship between the esthetics of abstraction and the prospective reader, creating a love for the abstract vocabulary which resonates in the mind of the listener, who may find a correlation between the concrete particulars of reality and the idealized concepts of the intellect which represent a step towards the fine art of abstraction as a linear plot envisioned in the color fields of emotional intensity," the discerning mind of the painterly figure in blue velvet frock coat speaks to the cool northern wind brushing across the blue tints of the powdery white snow which reflect the blue wavelengths of idealized oxygen, as the rabbit eats from the blue reflections of the stoneware dish.
From the small school in scenic Tübingen to the urban environment of Berne where the Alps create a dramatic background to the philosophical thought of Hegel, the sensuous content of reality is something which forms a narrative line within the abstract reasoning of philosophy making the Phenomenology of Mind an intellectual adventure that is close to the spirit of Jesus when one considers theology and the divinity in mankind. The life of Jesus represents the spirit of positivity found in religion and in options trading, where the potential for wealth creates a sense of optimism that may help humanity achieve its goals of spiritual enlightenment and enduring prosperity.
The writing style of Hegel reminds one of the ancient cultures where the esthetic theory of Neo-Classicism prevails, and this trend can be found in the poetic writings of his friend Friedrich Hölderlin. The romanticism of Jean-Jacques Rousseau inspired Europe, while the spirit of modernism is anticipated in a trend towards abstraction of philosophical thought which has become the idealized language of the conceptual. The idea of philosophy as a science is something Hegel develops in his next book the Science of Logic (1817) where he discusses chemistry and astronomy as a way of illustrating the concepts of philosophy where the infinite exists in relation to the particulars of matter.
Infinitude reveals that the original estimate of psychology as a study of consciousness should be revised to overcome the fears of the beginner, who may take unnecessary precautions which represent the fear of the unknown. For the philosopher of consciousness to consider the esthetic theories of the future, as Hegel has done with an elegant formalism which anticipates those artists and innovative novelists whose works have been influenced by the trend of abstraction. From early modernism we evolve to Surrealism which is an esthetic theory that seeks the give a psychic reality to literature and painting with the technique of psychic automatism introduced as a way of approaching the transcendence dreamed of by philosophy, where reality becomes more meaningful in the juxtaposition of multiple layers of signification which create a psychic awareness of infinitude as a metaphor for an enlightened consciousness.
G.W.F. Hegel has made a profound contribution to philosophy with The Phenomenology of Mind which takes the lead in the field of phenomenology with his understanding of abstraction in both the study of being and in esthetics, so that the subtle particulars of logical reasoning create a linear plot development with a narrative time frame extending to ancient Germany in the usage of ancient language, and to the distant future when abstraction has transformed modern art and innovative fiction into a more sophisticated way of conveying semantic density and emotional intensity.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in Weimar was also writing world class literature during the years of the American and French Revolutions, and with the publication of Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1795) Germany produced a trend of intelligent cultured writing which contrasted with the Reign of Terror in France, so that a positive spirit prevailed that anticipates the cognitive psychology of today. Philosophy has developed from Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, Husserl, and Heidegger to the work of Jacques Derrida, whose monumental Glas (1974) has brought philosophical writing into the context of innovative design with variations in typographic font as a large scale collage of three narrative essays. The writing of Hegel has foreshadowed the genre of philosophy as a fine art, so that we read The Phenomenology of Mind with esthetic appreciation for the universal education that it provides for the student of philosophy.
David Detrich lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where he has just completed The Convergence of Two Narrative Lines Ascending, an ultramodern Surrealist novel written in minimal squares. He is working on Dream the Presence of the Circular Breast Starfish Topography, a monumental Surrealist novel written with innovative typographical design. His first novel Big Sur Marvels & Wondrous Delights (2001) is available from Amazon. He edits Innovative Fiction Magazine, and Surrealist Star Clustered Illuminations.