Abstract

DIAZ, Jorge Aurelio. ABSOLUTENESS IN ABSOLUTE KNOWING. Eidos [online]. 2009, n.11, pp. 10-34. ISSN 2011-7477.

This paper addresses 'Absolute knowing', the process whereby the experiences of consciousness reach their highest point, as Hegel discusses in the Phenomenology of Spirit. The objective is to analyze this concept both in its epistemological and Cartesian perspective, that is, as fundamental knowledge and in its religious meaning, that is, as knowledge of the absolute. With these two perspectives Hegel seeks to open the path towards speculative thinking where subject and object find their final identity and towards the 'sublating' (aufheben) of Religion into Philosophy in the threefold sense of suppressing, elevating and preserving it. This paper also deals with some of the main objections to the above mentioned twofold perspective in Phenomenology.

Keywords : Hegel; absolute knowing; speculative thinking; religion.