A Copernican Revolution in Philosophy

Yet, today we cannot be Hegelians anymore; and I mean it exactly in the sense in which Hegel says in numerous occasions that "we cannot be Platonians or Aristotelians anymore." And he goes on saying that "today the Spirit has different needs and we cannot think about God, Freedom, etc. in the way Plato and Aristotle used to think." The same refers to Hegel. Today we cannot think about the Absolute, God, in the way Hegel used to think. We have to change the direction in which philosophy is being developed.

In his "History of Philosophy"Hegel states that the Pythagorean philosophy made the transition from realistic to intellectualistic philosophy. However, now it is high time we made philosophy a realistic science once again. In line with the method of his speculative thinking, Hegel derives everything in the World from the Notion. Pure Hegelian type speculation cannot be stronger and more powerful than Aristotelian thinking empiricism as well as the method of the Natural Sciences. As far as in the fourth century B.C. philosophy included the whole of science and Aristotle understood, integrated and systemized it. It wasn't by accident that the British and the French scientists before Hegel used to call physics and all empirical sciences Philosophy. Philosophy has to be practically verifiable; it has to be able to incorporate the whole wealth of the Natural Sciences if we want to elevate the rang and importance of philosophy in the culture of modern civilization. Hegel is right to claim that "The sensuous consciousness is certainly the more conrete, and if poorer in thought, at least richer in content. We must thus distuinguish the naturally concrete from the concrete in thought, which on its side, again, is wanting in sensuous matter." (Hegel, Lectures on the History of Philosophy, volume 1, Greek philosophy to Plato, translated by E. S. Haldane, introduction by Frederick C. Beiser, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln and London, 1995, p. 40) For the philosophy of Absolute Rational Will, what the natural concrete is rich with is material and, at the same time, rational entelechiality - the Absolute, God, as it is in-and-for-itself.

In nature we have to search not only for Reason - as Hegel does, - but first and foremost for Rational Will. Hegel closed Philosophy within the boundaries of his Science of Logic. We have to break the shackles of his Speculative philosophy in order to find freedom in the infinite and universal Rational Will of the Absolute.

The manifestation of Will in action is nothing else but realisation of the Absolute actual (willing) matter. Now we have to start developing modern philosophy from the point of view of acting - willing as well as thinking, - matter, which has the need to cognise itself and does cognise itself, thinks itself, but cognition, Spirit, is only a moment of the Absolute and not at all the highest determination of the Absolute, from the standpoint of which (determination) everything else has to be understood.

DEVELOPMENT OF ARISTOTLE'S ENTELECHY: Aristotle defined entelechy as having an end and developing it to its complete reality. The standpoint of the philosophy of Absolute rational Will is that Aristotle's par excelellence category of entelechy is only the very first step of developing the category of Absolute Will. The modern reader has to take into consideration the fact that in Aristotle's time - and generally speaking, in Ancient Greece, - Will was not discovered yet. We cannot want the ancient Greeks to have known this category. It was not the task of their time. Hannah Arrendt seems to be right that Apostle Paul was the one who introduced the category of Will in the theology of his time and from that moment on Will started its triumphal march in Western philosophy and theology. Now it is time to revive and develop Aristotle's excellent category; we can define material entelechy as having the Will to realise its complete reality. Everything in nature has a 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.

In the philosophy of Absolute Rational Will the practical and the theoretical are one-and-the-same for the Absolute is immanently as much volitional as it is rational - the volitional is rational and the rational is volitional. Yet, in this philosophy the primacy of the the practical over the theoretical is unquestionable. The sphere of the practical is out-and-out different. In it the thinking, the theoretical, serves the practical. In it everyone wills to achieve their welfare and become free. For this reason the philosophy of Absolute Rational Will is identical with the universal practical philosophy of mankind. In the sphere of the practical it is not the principle of intellectual philosophy "Cognise yourself" that is important but the principle of practical philosophy "Will yourself." The latter contains in itself the first as sublated. It is not we who sublate "Cognise yourself" - the principle of all intellectualistic philosophies. Our task has been to show its own dialectics; the latter is clearly presented in my online book on the philosophy of Absolute Rational Will. It is "Will yourself" - the universal principle of the the totally practical, - that contains in itself "Cognise yourself" as sublated.

The self-movement of Absolute Rational Will towards True Freedom is practically verifiable for it manifests itself in its infinite variety of actions. In the sphere of the practical the Will manifests all its energy. Practical philosophy vindicates the rights of Volition; it is the solution of the dialectics of the theoretical and the practical. Here I am not talking about the practical as practical consciousness - only the mental abilities of the soul; the soul as single spirit, - but the practical taken in its totality of Material Entelechy. What is important for practical -i.e. applied, - philosophy is not the Idea of Absolute Truth but true concrete knowledge serving the Will in its practical activities.

In practical philosophy it is the Will of the Absolute and its Supreme Good that has Truth as sublated into itself. In it as a result of sublation of Cognition the latter is united with Volition, so that the practical good is the realised Absolute End. In line with its own approach practical philosophy lays down the inherently rational Volition as its foundation and wills to present the total wealth of its own self-development

True, for theoretical philosophy Truth is the absolute object of philosophy. However, this is not the End (Goal) of men of deed and practice - everyone is a man of deed and practice in real life. Men have absolutely practical Ends in their practical lives; they will the Good and desire their welfare as Ends of objective Volition. In their practical philosophy the primacy of the practical over the theoretical is unquestionable. This practical philosophy is outside the University auditoriums, because only outside the cold walls of the Universities green and living is the tree of life.

In practical philosophy Will strives for Truth as a means for achieving its Freedom and sovereignty. The very first act as well as all permanent acts of Will are practical life and satisfying all the needs - both material and spiritual, - but primarily the material needs of the willing nature of Man. The aim of the Practical is not philosophising or cognising but rational voluntary actions; the latter are the deeds of the absolutely entelechial matter.

It is true Freedom that sublates the opposition between Cognition and Volition. True Freedom is the absolutely actual for it is the unity of the Will for itself (of Volition) and Spirit as the self-cognised Rational Will; the latter (Spirit), however, is only the Will in-itself. True freedom sublates these two moments and as the Will in-and-for-itself contains them in their unity, and, thus, is the highest form of the Absolute Rational Will.

ON THE ABSOLUTE RATIONAL WILL