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THE UNITY OF IDENTITY AND DIFFERENCE AS THE ...

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necessary, therefore, if we use the term at all, to speak of nature as the system of<br />

unconscious thought, or, to use Schelling’s expression, a petrified intelligence.<br />

And in order to prevent misconception, ‘thought-form’ or ‘thought-type’ should<br />

be substituted for the ambiguous term thought. 83<br />

In this passage Hegel describes thought as the “inward function of things.” The basic<br />

structures of thought – basic thought-forms or thought-types – exist in nature. In slightly<br />

different terms, objects possess conceptual structures that determine their function, norm,<br />

or telos.<br />

A second passage, one from the Philosophy of Nature, confirms this<br />

interpretation. Hegel says:<br />

If subjective truth is the correspondence between sensuous representation and the<br />

object, objective truth is the correspondence of the object, of the fact, with itself,<br />

so that its reality is in conformity with its Notion. 84<br />

Like the first passage quoted above, this passage contrasts Hegel’s view of truth with the<br />

correspondence theory of truth. Hegel refers to the latter as an account of “subjective<br />

truth,” since it merely examines the relationship between the thoughts or “sensuous<br />

representation[s]” of the subject and the objects in the world. Hegel contrasts “subjective<br />

truth” with what he calls “objective truth,” with the “correspondence of the object…with<br />

itself.” Hegel’s philosophy focuses primarily on the second kind of truth, on what Hegel<br />

refers to as “objective truth.” Both the correspondence and the coherence theory of truth<br />

construe truth and falsity as properties of thoughts, sentences, or propositions. In contrast<br />

to both of these theories, Hegel construes truth and falsity as properties of the objects in<br />

the world. He designates this kind of truth as “objective truth” – i.e. as the truth of the<br />

object.<br />

83 Encyclopedia Logic, paragraph 24Z.<br />

84 Philosophy of Nature, paragraph 246Z.<br />

68

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