Souerce Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit - Reason - B: The actualization of rational selfconsciousness by way of itself

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The split between the knower and its object is deeper than we usually expect. The supposedly mind-independent real cannot be accessed. It is only by a certain inference that we assume an objective world. Yet there is something that we assume to be objective, but obviously we do not grasp it as an immediate in the form of our senses, perception, nor in objective laws. Somehow on this path consciousness discovers itself as the way it structures reality. The task is then to grasp itself.

It is important to note here that this is not an Idealism in the sense that we are phantasizing. We have to acknowledge a certain objective force that is independent from us, but it is hard to identify this kind of force. Hegel's idea is that the real has to be grasped in the way of how consciousness works.

The problem then is, however, that consciousness if it tries to grasp itself cannot grasp itself in its original unit, but only grasps itself as an object.

This problem unloads itself in the master-slaves-dialectic. In the reason chapter, we find now the consequences of this pursuit of itself. For this reason Hegel writes:

"Self-consciousness found the thing as itself and itself as a thing; i.e., it is for self- consciousness that it is in itself objective actuality." (Hegel Phenomenology of Spirit §347)