OCR
can also use the Book of John to understand Hegelian philosophy. It is no different in content from other creation stories, but íts use of the “Word” raises it to the level of philosophy: 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John. 1.1-5) Philosophy explains the splitting of the Word starting with the general form of judgment (Urteil) (S. - c - P.). It is important to examine the nature of judgment because this is what performs separation and connection. In the case above, the speaking of a word (Word) is itself a separation. And, of course, it is also a connection. Why? As early as Kant we find a distinction between certain forms of judgment (analytical, synthetic; therefore, many important figures of German idealism could not avoid this question. Judgment: the house (S) is brown (P). (The “c” is the copula, that is, the “to be” verb. Or this man (S) is (c) intelligent (P). (They are both synthetic judgments, but that is not important here.) This is most accurately described by Kant: In all judgments in which the relation of a subject to the predicate is thought (if I consider only affirmative judgments, since the application to negative ones is easy) this relation is possible in two different ways. Either the predicate B belongs to the subject A as something that is (covertly) contained in this concept A; or B lies entirely outside the concept A, though to be sure it stands in connection with it. In the first case I call the judgment analytic, in the second synthetic. (CPR p.141., Kants Werke 1977. IV.p.20.)