Sublation is an English term used to translate Hegel's German term Aufhebung. The German word Aufhebung literally means "out/up-lifting." Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 - November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany. ...

In Hegel, the term Aufhebung has the apparently contradictory implications of both preserving and changing (the German verb aufheben means both "to cancel" and "to keep"). The tension between these senses suits what Hegel is trying to talk about. In sublation, a term or concept is both preserved and changed through its dialectical interplay with another term or concept. Sublation is the motor by which the dialectic functions.

Hegel's Logic

Sublation can be seen at work at the most basic level of Hegel's system of logic. The two concepts Being and Nothing are each both preserved and changed through sublation in the concept Becoming. Similarly, determinateness, or quality, and magnitude, or quantity, are each both preserved and sublated in the concept measure.

Hegel and History

For Hegel, history, like logic, proceeds in every small way through sublation. For example, the Oriental, Greek and Roman Empires, in which the individual is ignored or annihilated, then recognized, then suppressed by the States, are both preserved and destroyed in the German Empire, which - for Hegel - placed the individual in harmony with the State.

At the level of social history, sublation can be seen at work in the master-slave dialectic. ^[1] // The Master-Slave dialectic (Herrschaft und Knechtschaft in German) is a key element in Hegels philosophy. ...

Hegel and the History of Philosophy

Hegel approached the history of philosophy in the same way, arguing that important philosophical ideas of the past are not rejected, but both preserved and changed as the subject develops.

The Contradictions of Reflective Thought

In Hegel's view, in reflective philosophy one can always find another thing upon which some "absolute" ground relies, eg, with Fichte's ultimate ground, the "I," or "ego," one can immediately see that this relies upon the "non-I." The "non-I" allows Fichte to distinguish what he means by the "I." Reflection is circular, as Fichte unapologetically acknowledged. The Thinker by Auguste Rodin: An artists impression of Homo sapiens Human self-reflection is the basis of philosophy and is present from the earliest historical records. ... Johann Gottlieb Fichte Johann Gottlieb Fichte (May 19, 1762 - January 27, 1814) has significance in the history of Western philosophy as one of the progenitors of German idealism and as a follower of Kant. ... eGO is a company that builds electric motor scooters which are becoming popular for urban transportation and vacation use. ...

For Hegel reflective thought, because of its circularity, is to be avoided since it leads to going around the same problems again and again for each generation of philosophers, a philosophia perennis. Instead Hegel calls upon speculative thought: the two contradictory elements are held together, uplifted, sublated, without them completely destroying each other. Speculative thought seeks to avoid the idealism inherent in reflective thought and allows him to think in concrete terms about how things work out in the real world and in history. The Thinker by Auguste Rodin: An artists impression of Homo sapiens Human self-reflection is the basis of philosophy and is present from the earliest historical records. ... The notion of perennial philosophy (Latin: philosophia perennis) suggests the existence of a universal set of truths and values common to all peoples and cultures. ... Speculative reason is theoretical (or logical, deductive) thought (sometimes called theoretical reason), as opposed to practical (active, willing) thought. ... This section may require cleanup to meet Wikipedias quality standards. ...

Hegel and Marx

Whereas in Hegel, sublation shows the movement of Geist, often translated as mind or spirit, Marx identifies it as the manner of development of material conditions. See dialectical materialism. According to many followers of the theories of Karl Marx (or Marxists), dialectical materialism is the philosophical basis of Marxism. ...

Sources

1. ^ "Hegel: The Difference Between the Fichtean and Schellingian Systems of Philosophy" (New York: Ridgeview Pub Co 1978).

See also

• Sublimation