Form 2

Absolute concept is like a diamond bullet to the skull. Perhaps it's what Hegel meant by "pure negativity," but 'negativity" is such a misleading word here. Concept is an other to sensation-emotion. If sensation and emotion are being, sometimes called "spatial being," then concept is a sort of nonbeing.

If we look to the difference between analog and digital information, we see that digital information in non-spatial. The spatial aspect of the digital is husk, not kernel. Digital is made of perfectly precise chunks, bites, or bits of information. Digital doesn't have to be binary. But it often is. And binary is the minimum digital form.

We go to a party and hope some pretty girl is there (unless we are married of course). If she is not there, we feel this, because we can see her in our head. She is present as an absence. She is present as a memory which is also a fantasy.

Indeed, strong arguments have been made that time is nothing but this nonbeing, this concept. Some say that time is change, but fail to consider what makes the perception of change possible. I suggest that without memory, we cannot experience change. If we lived entirely in the present, and I mean entirely...we would not see movement. Indeed, there would be no "we" for our consciousness would be nothing but that which we perceived. The "we" / "I" is invented by mirrors and concepts. And most of our concepts come from others. They talk to us as if we can hear them, and we return the favor. Sometimes.

So concept is a non-spatial kind of being, sometimes called nonbeing or negativity. Why would someone use the word "negativity"? I think I know. Perhaps I'm wrong. Let's play.

What is abstraction? Let's use Fluffy the cat. First of all, we are already seeing one cat, and not a bunch of cat parts. If we see cat parts, they are parts because we already conceive of them as a unity. Another thing we take for granted is that we aren't looking at the same cat from moment to moment. It eats and sh*ts. Old cells die. New cells are born. It moves. It behaves in different ways. It was born once. It will die. And yet all of this we refer to with one word.

What do we ignore in order to fit all this experience-of-catness into one concept? What do we negate in order to synthesize this concept? And why is Fluffy a cat, and not just Fluffy?
Our entire reality is organized by sets or groups that all upon close examination reduce to sensation and emotion. Our conceptualization is so automatic that we hardly notice it. After all, our survival depends on it. And survival is a practical matter, usually, and not a philosophical matter.