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Hegel, the phenomenology of spirit, a guide in mp3 voice
21PleasureAndNecessity.mp3
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Pleasure and Necessity
Hegel begins his discussion of Active Reason with a subsection entitled 'Pleasure and Necessity', where consciousness holds that the best way to make itself feel 'at home in the world' is not by obeying custom and tradition (as 'the wisest men of antiquity' held), or by acquiring a theoretical understanding of nature (as Observing Reason held), but by turning to the world as a vehicle for pleasure and enjoyment: 'the individual is sent out into the world by his own spirit to seek his happiness'. It is therefore the first expression of the individualistic outlook adopted by Reason:
In so far as it has lifted itself out of the ethical Substance and the tranquil being of thought to its being-for-self, it has left behind the law of custom and existence, the knowledge acquired through observation, and theory, as a grey shadow which is in the act of passing out of sight. For the latter is rather a knowledge of something whose being-for-self and actuality are other than those of this self-consciousness. Instead of the heavenly-seeming Spirit of the universality of knowledge and action in which the feeling and enjoyment of individuality are stilled, there has entered into it the Spirit of the earth, for which true actuality is merely that being which is the actuality of the individual consciousness . . . It plunges therefore into life and indulges to the full the pure individuality in which it appears.
Hegel contrasts this outlook with the position of Observing Reason that preceded it by making reference to Goethe's Faust, alluding to the Faust Fragment, where he echoes Mephisto's words in making fun of knowledge and theory. Although, as we have seen, Hegel draws a parallel between the opening of this section and the opening of the 'Self-Consciousness' section, and talks here of 'an immediate will or natural impulse which obtains its satisfaction, which is itself the content of a fresh impulse', Hegel nonetheless distinguishes Faust's pursuit of pleasure from mere desire: for in his sexual relation with Gretchen, there is a greater degree of recognition, 'the vision of the unity of the two independent self-consciousnesses'. However, Hegel suggests that while Faust feels a kind of hedonistic attachment to Gretchen, she still remains for him a vehicle for pleasure, in the sense that 'the object which individuality experiences as its essence, has no content', so while he may want to enter into a more ethical relation with her, he finds his commitment to seeking pleasure means he cannot do so; he remains bound by the consequences of his pact with Mephisto. Rather than constituting the essence of the individual, pleasure-seeking now appears as an alien constraint on his happiness, a kind of external necessity or fate which seems set to destroy him. Consciousness thus moves from seeing pleasure as 'individual' to seeing it as 'universal', something which stands over against the individual and leads to his downfall: 'The abstract necessity therefore has the character of the merely negative, uncomprehended power of universality, on which individuality is smashed to pieces'.
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