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Appearance & Essence

Hegelian Dialectics & Ontology · 4 concepts · 4 talks · 7.2 hours · 2012–2021

Some appearances are not subtractable epiphenomena; the appearance is so crucial for the consistency of what appears that removing it loses the thing itself.

2012: 1 talk 2014: 1 talk 2015: 1 talk 2021: 1 talk
≤2000talks carrying this idea, per year2026

In his words 1

“What if there is an appearance which precisely as appearance is crucial for the consistency of that which appears? So that you take away the appearance and you then get the thing itself, you lose the thing itself.”
35:08 Being and Subjectivity: Act and Evental Enthusiasm · appearance constitutive of reality — subject as irreducible semblance

The stories that teach it

the jokes and anecdotes he reaches for when he works in this idea, ranked by how many of its talks they turn up in; each card is one story, with every retelling on its page

anecdote · in 1 of its talks

Mexican Revolution, Pancho Villa and Zapata occupy Mexico City and go home

Pancho Villa and Zapata seized power in Mexico City, debated for a week or two without knowing what to do, and then went home, a historical example of a blank revolution without a master signifier.

example · in 1 of its talks

The Glass Eye (Hitchcock TV)

In Hitchcock Presents' 'The Glass Eye' a lonely woman falls for a handsome ventriloquist, Max Collodi; when she finally approaches and touches him, the big man collapses as a doll, the true living being is the small dummy, and a desperate midget steps out of the costume.

anecdote · in 1 of its talks

Yugoslav army chaos

A self-described lover of order, he was shocked by the chaos, nasty rituals and unwritten rules of his Yugoslav military service, proof that every civilization has a dark, transgressive underside.

Where it comes up 4

4 moments located in the transcripts, click a timestamp to play from there

2:22:16 appearances are all we have
… You know? So as, I think was it Doctorow or which American contemporary writer who said something like, "The appearances are all we have, so let's treat them gently." You know? This is why I was always—that's why I hate Actor's Studio, incidentally.
~1:16:47 the bent stick, ideology as structural illusion
being what you think you are the way you perceive yourself and what you really are. When you change your self-perception in a way you change the way things really are. But what Brandom does not do here he should have done this I’m returning …
~34:26 appearance constitutive of reality
said "oh but I look into your brain I find no subject," of course not idiot, there is no subject there, subject is an effect of appearance. But nonetheless this doesn't mean that subject is just an appearance of some deeper mechanisms and so on …
~1:19:21 appearance and in-itself
that's why I use to indicate this the famous times repeated by me example of two Greek painters Zeuxis Parrhasius. Appearance is never that's the big lesson of Hegel appearance is not just what appears appearance always creates a supposed in itself what is behind …

The company it keeps

thought with
alongside works

Nearest in meaning

Concepts in this idea 4