Just to let my readers know....I started this network of blog sites back in July of 2006 and gave this network of blogsites -- which can be viewed as an evolving philosophical treatise and philosophical forum a name. I called it Hegel's Hotel. Before I created my first blogsite and started to write my first essay, there was no 'Hegel's Hotel' on the internet. You could almost certainly 'google' or 'yahoo'... 'Hegel's Logic' or 'Hegel's Dialectic' or 'Hegel's Philosophy of Right' or Hegel's Idea of Freedom or Hegel's Aesthetics or Hegel's View of The State or Hegel's Absolute Knowledge...or Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit...and to be sure...you would get quite a few 'hits'...significantly more so today....
But you wouldn't get a hit if you punched in 'Hegel's Hotel'....There was no such thing...
My idea, my vision, was to offer a new and updated, 21st century integrative philosophical treatise -- with much the same goals and vision as Hegel's original masterpiece: The Phenomenology of Mind/Spirit ('Geist' in German). With my own modifications -- both subtractions and additions.
I wanted to focus on the philosophy of Hegel as the centrepiece of my work.
Indeed, I wanted to show that Hegel's Dialectic Philosophy could very easily be viewed as the 'Centrepiece of Western -- and indirectly Eastern -- Philosophy'. Every other philsopher's work both before and after Hegel, both Western and Eastern, could be tied to Hegel's most important and famous work: The Phenomenology of Spirit, (1807).
Hegel essentially was to philosophy what Darwin was to biology -- an 'evolutionist'. Indeed, Hegel created a theory of social, historical, philosophical, and ontological evolution before Darwin created his (in)famous theory of biological evolution (1859). Furthermore, Darwin's theory of evolution can easily be 'encompassed' by Hegel's broader theory of evolution.
Others before me -- and myself in other essays -- have pointed out many or most aspects of Hegel's massive influence. Below are some of these massive influences with some overlap...
1. Marx and the evolution of Eastern Marxism and Communism;
2. Existentialism: Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre...
3. Deconstruction(ism), and The Philosophy of Power and Marginalization: Nietzsche, Derrida, Foucault...
4. The Philosophy of Narcissism and the Irrational: Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud...
5. Political, Economic, and Legal Philosophy (The Philosophy of Power): Marx, ''The Left', 'The Right', 'The Middle', Communitarianism, Anti-Communitarianism;
6. The Birth of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy: Nietzsche, Freud, Jung, Perls, Berne...
7. The 'Master/Slave' Relationship: The Philosophy of Power, Marginalization, Humanism, Existentialism...
And these are only some of his main directions of influence off the top of my head without researching this any matter further...
So in creating 'Hegel's Hotel', I wanted to create a philosophical work -- a 21st century extrapolation of Hegel's most famous work (The Phenomenology of Spirit), and in so doing, I wanted to keep Hegel's Spirit alive and pulsing -- indeed, if anything, I wanted to give it even more of an 'enlightenment-romantic-humanistic-existential kick' or stimulus.
I wanted to downplay 'Hegel the Abstractionist' ...and Hegel's whole concept of 'Absolute Knowledge' because this was mainly where Hegel was getting most of his criticism from practically every philosopher it seemed who critiqued him -- from Schopenhauer to Kierkegaard to Marx to Nietzsche -- all the way up or down the line to me...
My goal was never to 'bang heads' with the 'head bangers' -- the abstractionists, the cloud chasers...the 'professional philosophers' -- at least not in the outer solar system of Hegelian metaphysics...
Rather, my goal was to bring Hegel down to earth, to concretize him, to pragmatize him, to apply his ideas on a day to day basis, here, there, and everywhere -- politics, psychology, economics, law, business, equal rights, biology, physics, biochemistry...and so on...on a layman's level, or an introductory philosophy level, in a way that most intellectually oriented people could/can understand...That was my goal back in 2006 and it remains my goal today....
I am not into 'Absolute...Anything'...not Absolute Knowledge, not Absolute Ontology, not Absolute Religion and Spirituality....Not Absolute Capitalism...not Absolute Socialism...not Absolute Liberalism, not Absolute Conservatism, not Absolute Righteousness, not Absolute Narcissism, not Absolute Piety, not Absolute License and Freedom...all Balderdash in my ears and eyes...
Rather, everything in Balance....Internal and External Balance...I don't want to see people dying on the street because they can't afford health insurance, or they can't find a job...Nor do I want to see America with a 50 Trillion dollar debt...Has it reached 30 Trillion yet?
I am like a biochemistry student playing around in a chemistry lab, mixing this, and mixing that...observing what works and what doesn't, what seems to improve knowledge and what doesn't...
I believe in Integrative Knowledge -- not Absolute Knowledge...
I believe that Hegelian Dialectic-Integrative Logic is often superior to Aristolean 'A is not B' logic...
And yet we keep trying to force Aristolean logic into contexts and situations where Hegelian dialectic logic should be used; not Aristolean 'A is not B' logic.
This is a male and this is a female...Well, sometimes, even in sexuality, boundaries overlap...Some species can change sexes...other species have both sex organs...Even in humans, the term 'hermaphrodite' integrates the boundaries of male and female sexuality...And sometimes men and women want to change sexes; indeed, even all of us have both male and female hormones in us (testosterone and estrogen) in different proportions...and the term 'bi-sexuality' didn't come out of nowhere....Some people 'swing both ways'...
Here is a wolf. And here is a coyote. According to Aristolean logic, a wolf is a wolf, a coyote is a coyote, and a wolf is not a coyote. Nor is a coyote a wolf. Except a problem enters into this picture. A combination of Hegelian Dialectic Logic and Darwinian Evolution -- right before our very eyes. A new species is formed. It is combination of a wolf and a coyote. It is larger and stronger than a coyote. But it is not as afraid of human as a wolf generally is. It hangs around farms and attacks farm animals like a coyote...What is is? A coyote? Or a wolf? According to a newspaper article I just read not too long ago, this new species is called a 'Colf''!!! Maybe you can find the article on the internet. And wasn't there an animal on The Tonight Show that was a 'Cabitt' -- part cat and part rabbit? I think I saw it hobbling around in Johnny Carson's studio...Correct me if I am wrong....
Either/Or? Aristole only understood 'Either/Or' -- Black or White -- Logic at least as he applied it to his famous syllogisms. But he didn't properly understand Hegelian Dialectic Logic and/or Darwinian Evolution. Biodiversity. The reproducing of different species...and sub-species...and different classes of animals....Not to mention the reproducing of blacks and whites and brown in the human species as the world of civilization becomes more and more genetically and ethnically diverse -- and integrated... All of this genetic reproductive activity has done much to throw Aristotlean Logic out the window. Aristotle didn't account for the 'excluded middle' -- the 'overlapping boundaries' between two different things, two different animals, two different processes, two different people....A man and a woman have a child. Does the child have the father's genes? Or the mother's genes? Or both? Obviously, the answer is both -- and again we have an example of the 'excluded middle' that Aristotle overlooked. And no two integrations are exactly alike just as no two children from the same parents are exactly alike, even 'identical twins'.
And that brings us to the world of 'concepts' and 'ideas' and 'theories' and 'models' where the same principle applies: Hegelian Dialectic Logic is often superior to Aristolean 'A is not B' Logic...
First there was the 'particle' theory...Then there was the 'wave' theory...And then came a 'dialectic integration' of the two models....which led us to the 'particle-wave' model...and what we now call 'quantum physics...Don't ask me to explain it...because I don't pretend to know quantum physics....
Anyways, to go back to my starting point, Hegel's Hotel...was non-existent when I created the name and started this project...
The first essay...the first brick in Hegel's Hotel....was put in place, metaphorically speaking, on a 'tiny island on the internet' with the first blog site and the first essay bearing its name...Hegel's Hotel...
I can't even find that essay today but I did find one of my first ones...
However, before I bring back the earliest essay I can find, I will just say this...google Hegel's Hotel now and you can find a 'much larger Hegel's Hotel' on a 'much larger island on the internet'....indeed, with many, many Hegelian and Post-Hegelian and Anti-Hegelian 'hits'...
To be sure, not all these 'hits' are mine but that is fine...I am happy to see other Hegelian essays and blogsites blending around my work, forming around the base of Hegel's Hotel, making up the rest of my 'Hegelian Island'...
Still, I have probably over 500 essays on Hegel's Hotel now...I don't even know how to go back and find them all, let alone organize them chronologically and/or by subject matter to my general satisfaction...It has taken enough work just to get here let alone to try to go back and trace my tracks...I cringe at the thought...
Anyways, 'google' Hegel's Hotel right now...and here is the number you are likely to see on top...
2,780,000....
God only knows where that number came from...but that is what it says...
I'd say that's not bad from 3 years ago when that number was at zero...
So in this regard, I thank all my readers -- the new ones and the old ones -- for visiting Hegel's Hotel...I hope you have found something that you like...
At different times, I have seen essays from Hegel's Hotel linked from websites and blogsites all over the internet...I've even seen some of my essays on the front page of other websites for extended periods of times...psychology essays, political essays, philosophy essays...
To all of you who have read and enjoyed my essays, I am proud to have created something that touched me -- and may have touched you...
I have taken you through my good days and my bad days, my 'topdog' and 'underdog' days, perhaps adding too much personal information to some of these essays...But it was those good and bad experiences that brought the essays alive for me when I wrote them...
And I thank 'Google' and 'Yahoo' and 'Blogger' and 'Helium' for continuing to carry my essays and/or blogsites...
I have a few more essays that I would like to finish by year's end...including one big one on 'Language, Epistemology, Evaluation, and Action: Central Ego Functioning and Dysfunctioning...
Before I sign off tonight...I will give you one 'little blast from my past'....the earliest essay I could find on Hegel's Hotel...
I include it below...
May the next three years of building Hegel's Hotel be as productive as the last three years.
I want to be finished Hegel's Hotel -- ideally have it published -- by either March 3rd, 2012 (my birthday, and the anniversary of the first day that Freud and Jung met), or April 2nd, 2009 (my dad's birthday and my girlfriend's birthday -- both of whom have been an inspiration to me in totally different ways...my dad for his visionary idealism...my girlfriend for her 'down to earth groundedness and pragmatic common sense' -- very much like my mom), or October 15th, 2012 (my son's birthday, Nietzsche's birthday, Foucault's birthday)
Obviously, I hope I have the health and energy and economic stability to keep building Hegel's Hotel at a solid, steady, consistent clip...Touch wood...we shall see..
Good night...
-- dgb, Nov. 9th, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain
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Intoxication: Creativity, Destruction, and Transference
This essay was stimulated by two passages out of Nietzsche's book, Twilight of The Idols (originally published in 1895).
The passages were on the connection between the psychology of the artist -- and intoxication (meant symbolically or loosely, not literally). This passage lays down the gravel for what Freud would later pave over with the latter's concept of 'sublimation' -- which connected man's work energy with underlying (unconscious) sexual energy. I will modify Nietzsche's-Freud's idea of sublimation by connecting artistic energy to 'transference energy' -- which we will define shortly and which may or may not include 'sexual energy' -- but to be sure, often does. In this regard, this essay will offer a brief introduction to the fascinating discussion of 'transference' which we will come back to in our later more extensive discussion of transference as it pertains to our discussion on dialectic psychology.
First, the two passages by Nietzsche from Twilight of The Idols (1895):
Towards a psychology of the artist. -- For art to exist, for any sort of aesthetic activity or perception to exist, a certain physiolgical pre-condition is indispensible: intoxication. Intoxication must first have heightened the excitability of the entire machine: no art results before that happens. All kinds of intoxication, however different their origin, have the power to do this: above all the intoxication of sexual excitement, the oldest and most primitive form of intoxication. Likewise, the intoxication which comes in the train of all great desires, all strong emotions; the intoxication of feasting, of contest, of the brave deed, of victory, of all extreme agitation; the intoxication of cruelty; intoxication in destruction; intoxication under certain meteorological influences, for example the intoxication of spring; or under the influence of narcotics*; finally the intoxication of the will, the intoxication of an overloaded and distended will. -- The essence of intoxication is the feeling of plenitude and increased energy. From out of this feeling one gives to things, one compels them to take, one rapes them -- one call this procedure idealizing. Let us get rid of a prejudice here: idealization does not consist, as is commonly believed, in a subtracting or deducting of the petty and secondary. A tremendous expulsion of the principle features rather is the decisive thing, so that thereupon the others too disappear.
In this condition one enriches everything out of one's own abundance: what one sees, what one desires, one sees swollen, pressing, strong, overladen with energy. The man in this condition transforms things until they mirror his power -- until they are reflections of his perfection. This compulsion to transform into the perfect is -- art. Even all that which he is not becomes for him none the less part of his joy in himself; in art, man takes delight in himself as perfection.
(Nietzsche, Friedrich, Twilight of the Idols/The Anti-Christ, Penguin Books, This edition with a new introduction published 1990.)
(*This raises the disturbing question: Much like today's baseball steroid scandal, and knowing that Freud was involved with cocaine, the question needs to be asked: How much of Freud's writing -- if any? -- was written under the influence of cocaine. How much would the answer to this question affect the credibiltiy of Freud and his work?; how many of yesterday's great performances by people -- athletes, entertainers, artists, musicians, intellects -- who we revere today for these performances -- were actually performing high, and to what extent would our judgment of these performers and their performances be judged differently if we knew that they were high? Should the performances still stand in their own right -- to be judged for what they accomplished in their own right -- or should we view and judge them totally differently, take away all the credibility of these performances, based on the context of what and where they came from?)
So let us step away from Nietzsche but borrow from him his idea that all forms of intoxication stem from a feeling of exreme excitability or agitation of either an extremely postive or extemely negative type. From this, we can summarize and, using partly Freudian terminology, say: All artistic intoxication stems from a feeling and an impulse of either narcissistic infatuation and fixation; and/or narcissitic tragedy or traumacy (that stimulates a 'compensatory' reaction, a narcissistic fixation, a level of 'intoxication', that often becomes a lifelong 'obsession' that we will call a 'transference fixation' and/or 'a transference complex' and/or a 'transference neurosis' depending on whether the 'degree of obsession' has a 'positive outcome' on self and/or society -- and/or the reverse.
I think for example off the top of my head of the mothers who started the MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) Program, and you don't have to reach too far to realize where the intoxication (poor choice of words in this case) energy came from and their resulting 'barrage of swollen compensatory transference activity'. Obviously, it does not take any more motivation than the death of a dearly loved family member or spouse to try to turn this horrible tragedy into something 'more positive' -- legislatively -- so that others who follow after you do not have to share your terrible pain.
A man's work -- and expecially his or her obsessive, creative work -- is a projection of who he or she is, what he or she is obsessively thinking about, feeling, striving for, at a conscious or subconscious level -- and the creative work, the art form, both hides and alludes to the nature of the person's underlying 'transference complexes'.
Scenes of peace are often compensatory measures for the artist's personal experiences of some level of war and strife.
The art form -- created through the progression of the transference complex -- becomes the individual's perhaps abstractified but very personal form of self-pschotherapy. The art form explodes from the narcissistic fixation -- until the narcissistic fixation can be properly worked through and integrated into the rest of the personality. The swinging pendulum again.
I will leave this area of thinking as a 'philosophical and psychological tease' for now but we will come back to it in the psychology section on 'transference'.
For now, jsut let me say that we all have to find a way to live in this world more peacefully and harmoniously with each other, and in this regard we always have first and foremost, a choice between attempted force, manipulation and/or coercion vs. creative diplomacy, democracy, and humanistic-existential negotiation. There is a very important difference between 'blind', short-sighted, narcisisistic' evolution (or regression) vs. humanistic-existential evolution in which certain particular human values of decency, democracy, compassion, and accountability are held to be of the highest importance. There is a difference of the utmost importance between Narcissistic Capitalism and Humanistic-Existential Capitalism just as there is a difference between Narcissistic Socialism and Humanistic-Existential Socialism.
One system -- regardless of whether it is based on Capitalist or Socialist principles -- cherishes human rights and values; the other system squashes them. It is not enough for some quasi and/or pseudo-democratic principles to exist in a political system; these democratic principles need to be constantly refreshed and expanded (or else they will constrict and disappear under the more negative human impulses of unadulterated narcissism and a personal and/or collective Will To Power. Plus these same expanded democratic principles need to be expanded in the legal system, in our businesses, and most importantly, in our homes. The dialectic needs to be developed and nourished in a creative, democratic, healthy fashion or it will disappear in the oblivion of unchecked human narcissism and a will to power.
dgb, August 21st, 2006, lightly edited and modified Nov. 9th, 2009.
David Gordon Bain,
Dialectical Gap-Bridging Negotiations,
Democracy Goes Beyond Narcissism
dgbainsky@yahoo.com
