SCIENCE  AND  PHILOSOPHY

         By    Franz J. T. Lee

PANDEMONIUM  BOOKS & PUBLICATIONS.

Merida, Venezuela, 1999.    COPYRIGHT: Franz J. T. Lee.
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                    CHAPTER  SEVEN

                 EINAI-FOR-ITSELF

Taking-Off : In-Itself

To simplify our philosophic endeavour somehow, let us ask an obvious childlike question : What is in-itself, an sich, en sí ?

 All these concepts, more precisely, all these percepts have a Greek-Latin origin and they are derived from kath’ hautó, in se, ipse in re. "Itself " is what something is; it denotes its being. In our sense, itself expresses the cosmic essence of something. of anything, of any thing.

 As we have indicated before, it reveals the and-Bezug, the non-relation, the indifference of anything to another thing. Strictly speaking, if it has any relation at all, then it is a non-relation, a self-relation. This is what a "thing-in-itself" means. The formal-logical Law of Non-Contradiction, that A can never be non-A, exhibits this non-relation, this A-at-rest, in a magnificent manner. However, it is important to note that a non-relation is also a type of relation which can be identified as such, namely as a "non-relation", as that what a relation is not ; it is simply the non-relation of a relation and of nothing else.

 It is necessary to understand the above in order to comprehend at all the meaning of a "thing-in-itself" or an "itself", or an "it-in-itself". In brief, all Sätze underline the in-it-self of anything, that is, its cosmic essence. Hence all the following Percepts are Cosmic Beings, Cosmic Essences, Essential Beings : Cosmos, Essence, Being, Human Being, Cosmos-In-Itself, Being-In-Itself, Human Being-In-Itself, Thinking-In-Itself, Action-In-Itself, Praxis-In-Itself, Nature-In-Itself, Society-In-Itself, Einai-In-Itself, Nothing-In-Itself.
 
 

Cruising : For-Itself

With childlike curiosity we now ask : How does "For-Itself" exist ? Of course, Hegel is the philosophic genius to explain "für sich" (for-itself) and "an-und-für-sich", or if we simply use the domesticated version of this concept in everyday German, to indicate what "anundfürsich" really denotes. However, we will try to elaborate our specific meaning whenever we think this concept, which ab ovo is a diagory, namely, it exists as In-Itself a n d For-Itself; it exists as Gegensatz! In the following illustration of this concept it is pertinent to bear this always in mind.

My Love For You !

 Here "for" does not have the general ideological content, like, for example, in the famous phrase : "Government of the people, by the people, and for the people". Also, it does not have the following meanings: "My Love For You", or "for better, or for worse". For Us, "for" presupposes a certain minimum degree of consciousness, active consciousness, a consciousness of any cosmic activity. "For-Itself" indicates "conscious of its own activity"; "conscious of its own relations"; "for-ourselves" means self-consciousness of our own acts, of our cosmic essence. This is performed by Einai-In-Itself, by Thought as Intellect, as thinking about cosmic things or activities; as thinking about our own cosmic action, about our natural praxis. It is Thought related to Cosmos but not to Thought-For-Itself ; it does not exist as Thought about Thought, as Thought-In-A n d-For-Itself, as Thought about Einai, as Reason. Also, to be conscious simply means to think about cosmic activity, about essential activity, about natural praxis; to be self-conscious, means to perform this thinking by oneself, that oneself thinks, and not that the thinking is done for us by others, in other words:
 "Think It Yourself !".

 Now it is very clear what "In-Itself" means, and what "For-Itself " denotes.

 In the next chapter, we will deal with :

EINAI-FOR-ITSELF.

CHAPTER  EIGHT