Hegelitis.

The unreality of seperateness: basically, every singular entity that we can see holds a 'spirit' of the whole (spirit being the object in and of itself) and so, is not ever wholly real, with different degrees of reality given to objects that particiate more or less in 'reality'.

So, if you were able to view an object in every perceivable way all at once, then you would see the object in and of itself as the 'real' part of the 'whole'.

The analysis of 'logic' by Hegel is somewhat unclear. Either, Mr A, as an uncle, shows that we can never see him as his real entity which is part of the whole; or that due to the many different views and perceptions of Mr A he is not a part of the whole as he is just a combination of perceptions that is an illusion.

The 'whole' is called the absolute, which encompasses everything that exists. This absolute, in knowing itself, knows reality in it's pure form.

Whether this renders metaphysics as unreal, due to the fact that it is purely generated by thought without perception of other things, e.g. a god. If so, is this not a loophole, as the idea that what we see is not reality and that there is a reality that we cannot see is metaphysical?

Thought provoking stuff...

Philosophy masterclass

Yesterday (Tuesday), I embarked upon an academic journey through time and, theoretically, space. The expedition into these realms was very capably lead by none other than Jack Webb, a fellow student of journalism. We began in the pre-Socratic era, with Thales, a philosopher who was the very first recorded mathematician and Philosopher, famous for his prediction of the eclipse. However there are no written records of his work. Anaximander was the next topic of discussion, with his theory of the world being made of all elements rather just water, this was later discredited by Aristotle, but a good effort nonetheless. Pythagoras was next, the namesake of the infuriating mathematical theory, not only this, Pythagoras worked out the mathematical links between the universe, music and maths as well as being the head of his own religion, such was the contemporary importance of his works at the time. Parmenides and Hericlitus, the former of which argued that everything was made of one substance as opposed to the latter who argued that everything was kept in balance by two equally matched opposites, were next. Needless to say, the two were not best friends.

We then moved on to all things post Socrates, including Socrates himself, who, although we have no written evidence of his work, was extremely influential, tutoring Plato who in turn tutored Aristotle. Socrates died as a result of accused impiety and was thus forced to drink large quantities of poisonous substance (lovely). Plato, being next in the line of great philosophers was the number one student of Socrates, whose great work consisted of a plan for a seemingly utopian future society, exploring the nature of justice, politics and statesmanship. This as well as proposing the big questions of how and why anything exists, suggesting that there is a perfect other world that this world merely shadows, and that philosophers were the only few who could access the knowledge in that other realm, possessing the 'ultimate innate knowledge' (sounds like a big ego to me, but he was a smart guy). The student of Plato was Aristotle, perhaps the most well-known Greek philosopher, who argued with Plato on the origin of knowledge and that it was acquired through experience as opposed to Plato's idea of innate knowledge. Aristotle was also, the origin of logic and a master of metaphysics, physics, ethics, biology and politics to name a few.

After the death of Aristotle, stoicism became more prevalent in Greek culture, with the idea of a wonderful immortal life awaiting those who would live in a good way. However, after a while these theories were overtaken by a re-ignition of Plato and Aristotle's theories. In other news, shorthand is going alright.