Knowledge in Hegel's early works

Abstract

Most contemporary work in the realm of the sociology of knowledge, it is here contended, has focused primarily on objectified forms and on the analysis of their relationships. In so doing they have evaded the real dynamics of knowledge and the links thereof between objectified knowledge and episte mology. Recent work, such as that by Berger and Luckmann, presents a more comprehensive approach. Nevertheless, an examination of Hegel's early theological writings reveals in more detail the complexity of the dynamic process of knowledge, its objectification and transformation. This essay takes for consideration the analysis of some of these dimensions present in Hegel. It focuses in particular on: the 'break' and re-unification; the relationship between immediacy and mediation, and the general structure of the context of knowledge and knowing. With regard to the usual conceptions in the sociology of knowledge this paper might appear unusual. The realm of the sociology of knowledge is generally identified in contemporary American sociology as having developed from Wissensozioloqie. This cultural transposition has interesting implications even at the linguistic level. The English translation for instance reduces to a single word both the verbal and substantive forms of Wissensozioloqie so that these dimensions become obscured. This ambiguity does not occur in other linguistic systems, for instance: