In reading Hegel and about Hegel, one often comes across
statements about “THE WORLD” as if the world were some
unified, united thing. Statements like this, “As the world itself is rational”
This is a problematic thought at best. The human tendency is to
create unity where none exists. I have stated, more then once,
that everything is connected and it is, but that doesn’t make the “world”
a unified, world of thought or reason. The world exists, and we are participants
within that world, but the world in which we exists isn’t in some way
unified or prone to human conceits like being “rational”. The world is
and we are… but any rationality we might see comes from us, not from the world.
The world/universe runs on its predetermined rules and laws and forces like gravity
and the 3 laws of motion and the 3 laws of thermodynamics.
The world/the universe is “genetically” engineered to work in a certain way
just like animals have their genes and instincts which drive how they
operate. Just as we cannot attribute to animals rationality because of
their DNA operating instructions, we cannot attribute to the world/universe,
any rationality because it is simply obeying what it must obey in following
the force of gravity or the 3 laws of motion……….even evolution is simply
guidelines for the rules of how animals grow from simple creatures to more
complicated creatures……. The “guidelines” of evolution is simply
a picture of how animals become more complicated in nature………
It is a set of rules of how animals achieve this complication.
Now don’t mistake the “rules” of evolution as being some sort of
rationality, it isn’t. When we speak of the world, we simply speak
of individuals, either people or animals, or both, and the plant life
which follows its own rules………… The world, properly understood
is simply a collection of individuals. Now these individuals may have
rationality, but the “world” in which these individuals operate in, does not
have rationality. so it is important to keep separate this notion of “The world”
and the individuals within that world……
So the “THE WORLD” does not have rationality or purpose or design, the
world simply exists and it is those creatures that exists within the world
that create the meaning/purpose or rationality of “THE WORLD”.
We must be careful in giving 'THE WORLD" meaning and purpose that
doesn’t exist within “THE WORLD”. “THE WORLD” is and we are,
and the 2 don’t necessarily support each other or create meaning
for each other.
So our understanding is that when people state, “The world is a harsh
and cruel place” that is an incorrect statement. It is us as operators of
the world that has created the conditions of being “harsh and cruel”.
The world has done nothing of the sort, being “harsh and cruel” for
the world is simple following those rules and laws that the “THE WORLD” must
follow, just as animals must follow their DNA and their instincts.
Anthropomorphism is the human trait which is the attribution of
human traits, emotions, intentions, values to non-human entities.
And our thinking the world as being rational is just one such
example of Anthropomorphism.
So for reading of Hegel, we see that he too Anthropomorphize
“THE WORLD” and thinks that it is some “rational world” when
in fact the world is nothing of the sort. Hegel’s failure is
assuming facts not actually present. He has created
a fictional idea which is the Anthropomorphism of “THE WORLD”
and given “THE WORLD” traits and intentions that the world doesn’t have,
like rationality and purpose and intent.
Hegel’s thought is flaw from the very beginning because it is based
on a flawed idea, that “THE WORLD” is somehow human in nature
and it isn’t. “THE WORLD” just is and it is us that create value and meaning
in the world. We make the world a “harsh and cruel” place. We should
finally own up to this basic fact. That we humans are the creators of the world,
in our actions, words and interactions between each other. If the world is a
“harsh and cruel” place, we are responsible for it and we are the remedy
for the world being “harsh and cruel”. The answer to the question of what
kind of world do we exist in, is simple our actions and interactions between
ourselves and our fellow human beings, that create what kind of world we live in……
Kropotkin