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Full Idea
Everything deserving the name of philosophy has constantly been based on the consciousness of an absolute unity, where the understanding sees and accepts only separation.
Gist of Idea
True philosophy aims at absolute unity, while our understanding sees only separation
Source
Georg W.F.Hegel (Logic (Encyclopedia I) [1817], §213)
Book Ref
Hegel,Georg W.F.: 'Logic (from Encyclopaedia)', ed/tr. Wallace,W. /Finlay,J.N. [OUP 1975], p.276
A Reaction
Puzzled by the role of 'understanding' here. I tend to cite that as the highest aspiration of philosophy. Hegel seems to offer a higher understanding of unity, and a weaker analytic understanding, which is part of our limited psychology.
| 370 | Philosophy is a purification of the soul ready for the afterlife [Plato] |
| 14523 | We should come to philosophy free from any taint of culture [Epicurus] |
| 18450 | Philosophy has its own mode of death, by separating soul from body [Porphyry] |
| 19073 | True philosophy aims at absolute unity, while our understanding sees only separation [Hegel] |
| 21776 | Philosophy aims to reveal the necessity and rationality of the categories of nature and spirit [Hegel, by Houlgate] |
| 6928 | Only that which can be an object of religion is an object of philosophy [Feuerbach] |
| 15586 | When philosophy makes itself intelligible, it commits suicide [Heidegger] |
| 15585 | Later Heidegger sees philosophy as more like poetry than like science [Heidegger, by Polt] |
| 23885 | Philosophy aims to change the soul, not to accumulate knowledge [Weil] |
| 3241 | It seems mad, but the aim of philosophy is to climb outside of our own minds [Nagel] |
| 1595 | Philosophy aims to satisfy the chief human desire - the articulation of beauty itself [Roochnik] |
| 9779 | Philosophy is transcendental questioning (not supporting science or constructing ontology) [Zizek] |