A ∩ A^c = ∅

Where did history start – with an idea or with a material? This question seems to be the stepping stone from which Friedrich Hegel’s Dialectical Idealism stems from. This thought is said to come from Plato’s earlier Dialectics. At the heart of Hegel’s Dialectics lies the core proposition that time started with an idea; an idea that exists solely for its existence and has a separate existence from that of the path of the time-space continuum. The question of how an individual becomes conscious of his faculty for consciousness was the starting point of Hegel’s Idealism. All conscious beings would inevitably create a relation consisting of an object and a subject.  The discussion of how an individual becomes a subject followed suit. Hegel postulates that in the realm of thought there exists a master – slave relationship wherein an individual can only be of two states; first is being the subject and thus, the master in that relationship and second is being the object which the master-subject subjugates over. As Professor Fernandez puts it neatly, In the realm of knowing, one becomes a master if information is tested against rationality.

Only now that I look back into last meeting’s discussion that I fully appreciate the full spectrum of the possible applications of Hegel’s Dialectical Idealism and the theory of the construction of the subject. If one would look closely at the master-slave relationship that exists between the object-subject link, one would notice the most fundamental drive of all human existence. All human beings live to win and have the propensity to objectify. Delving deeper into this discussion, one would see its dire implication on the Spanish colonization of the Philippine archipelago. The Filipinos, at the time, greatly outnumber their colonizers and still kept allowed themselves to be subjugated under the Spanish rule. This historical tragedy of Filipino desistance greatly concerned and angered Rizal during his time. Indeed, the three century Spanish rule of the archipelago capitalized on this fact. Knowledge will make you free and ignorance is the greatest enslaver.

Hegel’s Idealism would eventually take us with the three laws of logic: the law of identity, the law of contradiction, and the law of extended middle. The law of identity was the focal point of discussion for the rest of the class. Hegel again states that the first law of logic (law of identity) was grossly unacceptable since it does not justly represent the true nature of reality. Hegel argues that the law of identity should be that of Statistics’ own law of complement which neatly gives this identity:  or simply, A and Not A is equal to null. This was rather different than what was earlier proposed that A is just equal to A. An object would inevitably undergo change and would not be the same object after that change. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus puts it, You cannot step twice into the same river.

Hegel’s Dialectical Idealism plays an important role in Rizal’s understanding of history. In Hegel’s Idealism, there is a thesis, an anti-thesis, and a synthesis where the last reconciles the contradiction of the first two. A being becomes conscious of his consciousness only through material consciousness where the Idea becomes the conscious of the self. In order for man to attain his rationality, one should be conscious of his consciousness. Rizal’s criticism of the Filipinos during the Spanish occupation is that Filipinos lacked the capacity to fully synthesize all the contradictions offered by the church and the real state of being. The Filipinos’ inability to reconcile all these contradictions became his own enslavement and their own downfall. (11/23/2010)