The Complexities of 'being'

Having studied both Kant and Hegel a little more over the last week, I've come to the conclusion that it is really impossible to avoid a brief discussion of one of philosophy's deepest and most thought-provoking debates; the theories of existence itself.

As was touched upon in last week's post, Kant's views were based largely upon his noumenal and phenomenal worlds. This was what became known as the Copernican Revolution, i.e. rather than sharing the belief in the influence the world has upon us, he essentially believed in the power of the mind, shaping the universe into how we know it. Or how we think we know it.

Indeed, one of the most interesting parts of the seminar this week was the discussion on whether or not every individual perceives objects within the universe in exactly the same way. I think that by Kant's philosophy, he would agree that everyone would see a tree, for example, in exactly the same way. But I would suggest that there is room for an argument, which says that the perceptions of over six billion people cannot surely be identical. It might very well be possible that my perception of the colour blue, is actually yours of the colour green. Perhaps Kant's yellow is my red. It may even be possible to take the argument a step further and suggest that the way in which we conceive dimensions will be somewhat differing. Perhaps my world is stretched entirely out of proportion to that of another person's? It certainly becomes a dizzying subject and one that can perhaps be left to the scrutiny of our modern philosophers.

My closing point considers a philosophical view of Hegel's. He believed in the universe as being one entity, or one organism, which he called the 'Absolute'. In it, everything is directly and undeniably related to God. This is perhaps one idea that I simply cannot agree with, as through such logic, nothing within the universe could be distinguished at all, as nothing would have a singular quality to define it. I find much of his philosophy to be far fetched in this way, including his belief in the ultimate perfection that the universe is inexorably heading towards - though as our seminar leader pointed out, perhaps this is just me being pessimistic.

In any case, as I anticipated, there is much room for debate around these subjects, which I'm sure shall continue for some time into the future, however, both Kant and Hegel are sure to have influenced many philosophers' views to date and shall continue to do so.