I. DID SOPHIE IMPLANT AN IDEA OF REBELLION IN HILDE’S MIND? (p. 357)
IF SO, SHE WOULD HAVE TO EXIST (RECALL DESCARTES)

II. SOPHIE: HEGEL -A CHILD OF THE ROMANTIC MOVEMENT IN GERMANY WHO WANTED TO GET PHILOSOPHY 'DOWN TO EARTH' AGAIN, (P. 358)

A. HE SEES THE ROMANTIC SPIRIT AS EVOLVING THROUGH HISTORY (PLATO)

B. ALL KNOWLEDGE IS HUMAN KNOWLEDGE--TRUTH IS A PRODUCT OF HUMAN EXPERIENCE AND THEREFORE SUBJECTIVELY DYNAMIC. THERE IS THUS AN 'EVOLUTION' TO TRUTH SINCE IT IS EXPERIENTIALLY DERIVED. RECALL HERACLITUS' COMMENT ABOUT THE RIVER.

III. HEGEL’S PHILOSOPHY IS A PROCESS FOR UNDERSTANDING HISTORY

A. EXPERIENCE CHANGES FROM EPOCH TO EPOCH

B. REASON IS A DYNAMIC PROCESS OF GENERATING AN OPPOSITE (PLATO). WHAT CAN BE CONCLUDED REGARDING THESE 'FACTS'?

1--the world is flat
2--the sun goes around the world
3--slavery is economically OK

IV. HISTORY IS FLUID LIKE CONSCIOUSNESS--THE UNFOLDING OF WORLD REASON-- Click here for Dr. Edward Younkins' Hegel's Authoritarian State as the Divine Idea on Earth.

A. PLATO TO KANT--REASON IS PROGRESSIVE.

B. ARISTOTLE TO LOCKE--EMPIRICISM IS PROGRESSIVE.

C. HISTORY HAS A CONSCIOUSNESS, AND IT DEVELOPS TOWARD SELF-AWARENESS AS A CHILD DOES.

D. THIS VIEW IS CALLED THE DIALECTIC (PLATO), IN WHICH THE FLUIDNESS OF CONSCIOUSNESS CONTINUOUSLY FINDS ITSELF IN CONFLICT WITH OTHER ELEMENTS.

E. EXAMPLE FROM PREVIOUS PHILOSOPHERS, (p. 360 ff.).

1. THESIS: ELEATICS--change is not possible, but yet the senses say there is change:

2--ANTITHESIS: HERACLITUS--the essence of reality is change:

3--SYNTHESIS--EMPEDOCLES--CHANGE OCCURS AS A RESULT OF THE ELEMENTS IN COMBINATION AND NOT THE SUBSTANCES THEMSELVES.

V. WE THINK DIALECTICALLY BY RELYING ON SENSES (LOCKE) AND RATIONALISM (DESCARTES). KANT PROVIDES THE SYNTHESIS.

A. REALITY IS CHARACTERIZED BY BEING AND NONBEING (Plato--Parmenides).

B. THE INDIVIDUAL AND THE COMMUNITY MERGE: Macbeth’s “two truths are told....”

VI. STAGES OF THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE WORLD SPIRIT:

A. THE SUBJECTIVE SPIRIT--THE WORLD SOUL FIRST BECOMES AWARE IN THE INDIVIDUAL

B. OBJECTIVE SPIRIT--THE WORLD AND THE STATE

C. ABSOLUTE SPIRIT--CULMINATION IN RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY.

VII. SO PHILOSOPHY IS THE MIRROR OF THE WORLD SOUL OR RELIGION: Recall the brass mirror in the cabin and later taken by Sophie to her room. Examine Abrams' The Mirror and the Lamp. The title suggests one of the root metaphors of Romanticism. If art imitates life, and we see ourselves reflected in its mirror, what role does the lamp play?

VIII. HOW DOES THE CHAPTER CONCLUDE? WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR SOPHIE AND HILDE?

A. THE MIRROR METAPHOR APPEARS AGAIN, SUMMING UP A GREAT DEAL: "YOU COULD SAY, PERHAPS, THAT PHILOSOPHY IS THE MIRROR OF THE WORLD SPIRIT." (P. 367)

B. WHY IS THAT LINE ONE OF THE NOVEL'S MOST IMPORTANT THEMES?

THESIS--GOD KNOWS ALL
ANTITHESIS--MAN CAN {SHOULD?} REBEL--recall Campbell on Genesis
SYNTHESIS--SHOULD MAN LEAVE THE GARDEN? p. 360, and does so doing mandate contact with the SHADOW? See Carl Jung: The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Chapter one.
See Paradise Lost, Book III--what does God reveal about his foreknowledge and man's choice?
Hilde has a plan, but must the major know?

MIND / MATTER
REALISM / NOMINALISM
REFLECTION / SENSATION