The Master-Slave Dialectic

The Dialectic Method

The Master-Slave Dialectic Explanation

The dialectical method is discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject, who wish to establish the truth of the matter guided by reasoned arguments.

The end-point of Master-Slave Relationship

2) Gradual changes lead to turning points.

3) Change moves in spirals, not circles.

1. Every thing (every object and every process) is made of opposing forces/opposing sides.

Human consciousness is an inherently social process, and one cannot be fully certain of their consciousness unless that consciousness is "mediated" through another entity. Basically, a person must receive acknowledgment of their consciousness from another person in order for that consciousness to exist.

the two opposing forces in a process of change push against each other.

No object could hold together without an opposing force to keep it from flying apart.

Dialectics argues that these cycles do not come back exactly to where they started; they don't make a perfect circle. Instead, change is evolutionary, moving in a spiral.

the emergence of stoicism or "the unhappy consciousness".

The Roles of MASTER and SLAVE

The benefit to the slave is that the slave doesn't have to die.

The benefit of the master is that, they have slaves who can provide conscious mediation for them.

However, this relationship turns out to have some of the same difficulties. Hegel emphasizes the importance of work and action, and here is no exception. Through the slave's work, the slave has learned that he has some control over the world; he has gained mastery over the world of objects and is thus regaining his consciousness.

Three dialectical stages of development

Synthesis

Antithesis

Thesis

Consciousness of other as self; consciousness of not-self as self: Thinking of the other in terms of the self.

Consciousness of other as other; consciousness of not-self as not-self: Thinking of the other in terms of the other.

Consciousness of self as self: Thinking of your self in terms of your self.

" The result of the slave's turning into a craftsperson is that the master also turns into one: the master and slave both realize that they each benefit more from mutual exchange of services rather than from domination.

At first the encounter between the two self-consciousness is perfectly symmetrical: the self-consciousnesses are so far exactly identical, so they can't distinguish themselves from one another. Am I you? Are you me? So far, there's nothing to differentiate us. We're totally alike.

Antithesis: The Asymmetry of Master and Slave

Thesis: The Symmetry of Equality

Synthesis: The Symmetry of Cooperation

The symmetric opposition of self-consciousness is now broken; it is asymmetric: "The outcome is a recognition that is one-sided and unequal." The slave is like a mirror that reflects the master; but the master is like a mirror that reflects only his or her own image.

Hegel puts it like this: "Self-consciousness exists in and for itself when . . . it so exists for another; that is, it exists only in being acknowledged."

The dialectic of Force and the Understanding is repeated here at a higher level.

The only way to settle the matter is in a fight to the death, in which one self-consciousness wins (lives) and the other loses (dies).

The problem is that if one self-consciousness kills the other, the dead self-consciousness can't do anything at all, so it can't do anything for the other. In order to be FOR ANOTHER, self-consciousness has to be somewhat FOR ITSELF.

One of the two self-consciousnesses "is the independent consciousness whose essential nature is to be for itself, the other is the dependent consciousness whose essential nature is simply to live or to be for another. The former is lord, the other is bondsman."

The slave is gradually being "transformed into a truly independent consciousness."

Put two self-consciousnesses face-to-face and it's like putting two mirrors face-to-face: each reflects itself in the other, each sees itself in the other.

The symmetry of mutual recognition is unstable. The symmetry must be broken so that of the two opposed self-consciousnesses, one is going to be only recognized (master), the other only recognizing (slave).

The life-or-death struggle is what distinguished one self-consciousness as master and the other as slave

The dialectic has balanced the relations between master and slave.

The Master-Slave Dialectic

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel