The Dispersal of Spirit

Hegel spends a good portion of section c. on the notion of the ‘Dead Spirit’. He begins this section by describing the destruction of the universal unity (referring to the Greek Sittlichkeit destroyed by war) and the emergence of The Dead Spirit as ‘the universal split up into the atoms of absolutely as many individuals’. One can picture the split as the Greek Sittlichkeit (or the universal) and the subsequent creation of the innumerable atoms as the Roman Sittlichkeit.

This Dead Spirit is what constitutes the I in Roman ethical substance (along with Stoicism and Skepticism). This I is the untrue conception of self-consciousness through which the citizens believe they know their essential selves. This, Hegel argues is untrue since Substance contains the ‘form of fulfillment and content’ and the lack of Spirit has sent this content (in substance) into disarray. This I take to mean that the atoms from which the citizens are deriving meaning cannot truly hold any meaning because they lack the true original point [universal] which has some part in it where one would extrapolate a notion of self. So form and content change in each historical setting but they are always contained in substance?

This notion also designates the being as subsisting in and for-self since these multiple atoms are split into ‘an equality in which everyone counts as each one, that is, as persons’ (Of course not including slaves and women). Yet if everyone is equal, why is the Lord of The World necessary as a divine being; more specifically, why can he not just be the wisest or the exemplar of these equals instead? I suppose Hegel would call me a simple/abstract skeptic but the way he leaves out the Why question is rather annoying sometimes...

Finally, we shall speak on this Lord of The World. Hegel describes the multiplicity of atoms converging into one point which is the L.O.T.W. Yet this Lord is an ‘inactual impotent self’ mainly because he is not the realization of the godliness his subjects suppose. This I think could hypothetically be like a commoner off the street being recognized as The Lord of The World for illustrative purposes. The fact that all of the other people recognize this Lord of The World as such is the only thing that makes this true. This Lord of The World knows upon reflection that it in fact is not some divine collective point, but is bound to play his part. He is consequently sent spiraling into the lustful world in which Hegel describes the L.O.T.W. being subject to at the end of the chapter.

The image of this split of innumerable subsequent atoms helped me a lot in trying to picture the interconnectedness of the Roman community to the concept of Spirit. Whereas I felt the previous chapters (which) utilized the Greek plays were rather flat, I got a much better sense of how spirit is this over-arching thing from this chapter which was enhanced by the image; for example, I got a better sense of how the parts were constantly referring back to the whole and how the whole is cyclically held together by these parts by his referral to the points and atoms to the dead spirit. Yet Hegel does (of course) still confuse me because sometimes it seems like he is referring to the atoms (or points) as if they are the individuals themselves while other times they seem to be those shattered parts of the Greek’s ‘beautiful concord’; but hey it is Hegel, who says you’re supposed to actually be sure of anything?