The Hole in Hegel’s Bagel

Abstract

The Hole in Hegel's Bagel Bill Livant 1. Hegel's great insight is that the truth is the whole. 2. What about the hole? Is this hole part of the whole? 3. On first sight, it appears that it isn't, that in the hole there is nothing. But this is deceptive. 4. The etymology of the word 'hole' refers not to an empty place, but to a place where something is hidden. 5. Recall that Marx claimed that if everything were immediately perceptible, there would be no need for science. Finding what is hidden requires work. 6. For Marx, too, the hidden parts of anything are often what is most important for grasping both their systemic and dynamic character. 7. This is at the heart of the distinction he makes between appearance and essence, and explains the priority he gives to the latter in his studies. 8. How does one get to the hole in the center of the bagel? Only by eating your way through, by moving. But if your mind can't walk, can't move, you can't get there. And if you can't get there, there seems to be nothing there. Appearances seem to be all that there is. 9. Only by analyzing-getting into and then going beyond-appearances can we arrive at the essence of anything. 10. In sum, the whole without a hole is really a part in drag trying to pass itself off as everything, which, come to think of it, isn't a bad definition of ideology. 199 B. Ollman et al. (eds.