ON THE ABSOLUTE RATIONAL WILL  

The latest actual philosophy that sublates Hegel's philosophy is bound to preserve the whole content of that great philosophy and develop it. Such a work should be written in the most speculative scientific Hegelian language because both Hegel's philosophy and his way of expression clearly deserve to be saved from obscurity and to be strengthened their position in the world. Hegel's philosophy deserves to be sublated, i.e. to be preserved its absolutely true content, which unquestionably belongs to the Absolute Truth, but is still not the final and absolute content of the latter and, therefore, with absolute necessity has to be developed to a higher level of its self-development. As each other philosophy, Hegel's philosophy has inherently in itself the roots of its own self-sublation. Beyond question, sublation is the result of the overmastering Will of the Absolute to develop itself, to possess, cognise and rules itself. Man, the living Absolute, has the overmastering desire to sublate the highest apex of philosophy he has attained to so far; a philosophy of a pure scientific form and scientific meticulousness. It is the infinite Volition of the Absolute to develop itself further that manifests itself in-and-through the process of its immanent speculative dialectics  and - due to the latter, - actually develops itself raising its infinitely rich content to a higher level. For only through sublation of its highest stage can the Absolute enter into a deeper possession of its own material-rational Will nowadays.

We aim at revealing the dialectics of the principle "Cognise yourself", which in and through itself reduces itself to its true form as a subordinate moment of a higher principle. Hegel frequently says in his Lectures on the history of Philosophy that each stage of philosophy - i.e. the philosophy of each great philosopher, - is necessary; it is a step forward, but at the same time, it also has its defective side and that is what the following epoch has to accomplish, and really accomplishes: to indicate the defective character and the one-sidedness of the preceding philosophy, to sublate the latter, and in so doing, to advance to a newer and higher principle. This is exactly what we have to do if we want to express the need of our time. We set ourselves the task of bringing out the defect of Hegel's philosophical system, its deficiency of material actuality; we aim at developing the principle of his philosophy. The latter investigates the reason and the self-consciousness, the cognition, the principle of the absolute "Cognise yourself"; his philosophy is the product of work of brilliant scientific value. This hard work of the spirit is absolutely necessary; it has had to be done.

Hegel claimed that “the Greek world developed thought up to the Idea, while the Christian or Germanic world has grasped the thought of spirit. It is Idea and Spirit which mark the distinction between the two.” It is true - moreover, it is perfectly true from the point of view of Hegel's objective idealism, but the latter is not the ultimate word in philosophy. Hegel threw materialism overboard and did not take it into consideration at all in spite of the fact that materialism developed freely and out of the bounds of philosophical idealism. A very considerable number of brilliant philosophers worked hard and tirelessly trying to bring materialism to perfection; no wonder that this philosophical doctrine also produced wonderful fruits. On their own account, either of these doctrines of the absolute - the idealism and materialism, - was the true, and at the same time either of them was defective and deficient, because it had not yet developed to totality in which it becomes its other, unites with its other and achieve the absolute in its truth and right. 

From the very beginning philosophy did not have a greater task – even if philosophers were not fully aware about it, - but to unite and reconcile these two infinitely contradicting to one another doctrines - idealism and materialism, - in a unified science of the absolute. However, none of the philosophers has accomplished this deed so far, the simple reason being that each of them remained firmly only within the confines of idealism or only within the confines of materialism. Aristotle was the philosopher, who laid the beginnings of the philosophical revolution of unifying idealism and materialism. He was the first to introduce the category of entelechy, but in his philosophy the entelechy is still a very poor determination of the material actuality, the reason being that it is only in the beginning of its development. It is true that in the whole history of philosophy no one has busied himself in developing this superb Aristotelian category; however, the fact remains that at the same time all philosophers developed its determinations in one way or another. Thus the world spirit has never stopped its great work as it infinitely strives for founding a unified philosophical science of the absolute. Beyond question, it has made great advances in reaching its goal; its forward movement is insuperable.

We have the Will to develop Aristotle's entelechy. True, Aristotle's entelechy has the end in itself and is the realization of this end, yet Aristotle failed to attain to the standpoint that entelechy manifests the ends of the absolute Volition, i.e. of the absolute material-rational Will. At his time the category of Will was not used in the way we widely use it today; we cannot want the ancient Greeks to have discovered this category. It was not the task of their time. It is now that we can revive and develop Aristotle's excellent category. Now we can define the absolute material entelechy as having the Rational Will to realise its complete reality.  Everything in nature has Volition and nothing in nature is done without the Will; the latter is immanent. The world is the living manifestation of the purposes of the Absolute Rational Will. It is the goal of the Will that is moving, e.g. an acorn to become an oak, a puppy to become a dog. 

Aristotle defines the entelechy as an end (aim) in itself and the realisation of the end. However, for him matter is only potency, and therefore, it is devoid of entelechy (actuality), that the form is actuality and matter is the passive substratum of the form. Here we see the brilliant work of Understanding, which analyses the Absolute in great details, anatomizes it and separates its moments without being able to bring them back to their substantial unity. For this reason Aristotle fails to examine matter and entelechy in their absolute unity, which is higher than each of them. Thus, he does not yet attain to the standpoint that the Absolute Material Entelechy has its ends and manifests them as laws of its Absolute Volition, i.e. of the Absolute Rational Will. Volition - not the good, - is the central or supreme category of a philosophy that deals with the Absolute Rational Will.

Of course, bearing into consideration that Aristotle's philosophy was just the beginning of the philosophy of Will, neither can we want Aristotle to have examined matter and entelechy in their unity nor to have introduced the categories of Volition and Will. This tremendous development was still to take place. As a matter of fact, both Aristotle and Hegel failed to premise and attain to the idea that material entelechy, - the actual matter or the material actuality, - is absolutely creative and capable of self-development, and  possesses its self-forming principle in-and-for-itself. They did not arrive at the principle of vitality of self-organizing matter. Hegel correctly asserts that, in the general and in the whole, what philosophy claims has to be in conformity with the points of view of the public at large, but all the more philosophy has to be in conformity with the facts of natural history. Hegel's Idea is the true as such. It is utterly simple and immaterial; Hegel disregards the material aspect of the absolute. He examines only the pure actuality, the pure entelechy without its immanent material nature.

Hegel's philosophy is based on the principle of each cognitive philosophy "Cognise yourself."  He is interested only in the pure activity of the Absolute, in its actus purus, in the ideal side of the Absolute and, consequently, his concept (Notion) is not based on the Absolute Material Entelechy. That is exactly the defect (the insufficiency) of Hegel's philosophical system and that is what has to be sublated and deserves to be sublated ; it contains in itself the "Why" and the "How" of its own self-sublation and dialectical development. The newest principle "Will yourself" is the cornerstone of the immanent self-sublation of Hegel's philosophy. The presumption that true philosophy can be only idealistic is wrong. It wasn't an accident that the first philosophers were materialists. In its highest apex a true speculative idealistic philosophy becomes a completed totality and comes into its own Other - i.e. it becomes materialistic as well, - and this is exactly the case with a true materialistic philosophy, which inevitably also comes into its own Other and becomes idealistic as well. 

Hegel did not examine the Will and its principle. For this reason, he failed to reveal the inner dialectics of the principle of each intellectualistic philosophy - "Cognise yourself," - which in and through itself overcomes itself to its true form in which it is only a moment of a higher principle - the principle of Absolute Rational Will "Will yourself." This is the internal contradiction which Hegel is not aware about. The newest principle contains in itself as sublated all the previous determinations of Hegel's philosophy, which in turn is the developed result of the whole history of intellectualistic Philosophy. Thus, the Philosophy of Absolute Rational Will affirmatively inherits and contains in itself the great legacy of Hegel's philosophy, enters in total possession of it and uses the wealth of its content as its own.

The objective idealism - by and large the best achievement of philosophy so far, - makes the principle of thinking “Cognise yourself” a principle of the world. This is absolutely true; we accept it thoroughly. Nonetheless, as we have already pointed out, it is a moment of the truly higher principle “Will yourself”. Thus the great, true and speculative philosophy of Hegel is entirely retained. The principle of his philosophy is sublated; it is an immanent and perfectly true moment of the absolute. What is refuted is Hegel's claim only that his philosophy and his principle are the highest determinations of the absolute. But precisely in the sublime moment of sublation - or refutation, - of a philosophy the absolute begins vigorously and freely to develop its new, higher principle and to create new, unknown until then categories. What was an unrealisable wish of Will and insoluble mystery of Spirit, and therefore, was only in itself, now comes out of the darkness of the unknown and becomes for itself; now it becomes well-known as much as it used to be unknown. In no way do we have to invent these categories arbitrarily. They are inherent moments of the absolute. Sublating its previous principle, the latter frees them; it needs them as it wants to come into absolute possession of its Rational Will and to rule itself for itself.

For Hegel, what is refuted when a philosophy is refuted is not the principle of that philosophy, but only the claim of its principle to be ultimate and absolute and, as such, to have absolute validity. The refutation, therefore, consists in the further development of the principle, and in thus getting rid of its defectiveness. The old principle is taken up into the new one so that the latest philosophy preserves all the previous principles and contains them into itself and as something that deserves to be eternally alive since they are moments of the Absolute truth. Modern philosophy cannot make a genuine headway until it sublates Hegel's philosophy. Hegel's principle is not the highest one; it is not the ultimate, the absolute determination. It is only a moment subordinate to the higher principle "Will yourself," which Hegel failed to attain. In my work I set myself the task of showing that by virtue of the principle "Will yourself" we can elaborate the concept of Will, and furthermore, we can develop and make the science of Rational Will through and through, wholly and completely concrete; development which the latter deserves to the highest degree. Not only is this development unconditionally desirable - for only in and through it can we prove that “Will yourself” is the truly universal principle while "Cognise yourself” is a moment subordinate to this truly higher principle, - but, as we will see, it is also absolutely achievable.

The era of this new development has come. Now we regard Hegel's objective determinations of thought such as they are on their own account, namely as material Volitions and cognise the absolute on the basis of its higher principle “Will yourself”. Thus Hegelian Concept - Reason, Spirit, - is not the highest principle of the absolute but the entelechial Rational Will is. Hegel has every right to claim that the reason, the spirit is the form of forms. However, the good is infinitely more than that - it is the absolute unity of form and matter. Rational Volition is higher than Hegel's absolute concept (Notion) and contains in itself  the latter as sublated.