Observations placeholder
Hegel - Know thyself
Identifier
029350
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
A description of the experience
Enzyklopaedie der philosophischen Wissenschaften (1816; 1830) - Hegel
The significance of that 'absolute commandment', know thyself — whether we look at it in itself or under the historical circumstances of its first utterance — is not to promote mere self-knowledge in respect of the particular capacities, character, propensities, and foibles of the single self.
The knowledge it commands means that of man's genuine reality — of what is essentially and ultimately true and real — of spirit as the true and essential being.