Hegel, Nietzsche And The Relationships Between Language And Reality: Computational Comparison Of The Texts Phenomenology Of The Spirit (1807) And Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883-85)

Abstract

This article addresses the philosophical debate between Hegelian idealism and Nietzschean vitalism that arises within the framework of modern philosophy. It is a transition in which the conception and use of language and grammar come to have fundamental ontological connotations, which can be appreciated very well in the contrast of the main texts of each author: Phenomenology of the spirit and Thus spoke Zarathustra, which have made up the corpus of this study. To observe their grammatical structures, an analysis using the new computational tools and approaches suggested from the most recent approaches of the digital Humanities has been seen opportune. It is a quantitative approach that tries to complement the close reading that a specialist can carry out. Specifically, natural language processing (known as NLP) has been applied, through a pre-trained model and by programming in R. It has been possible to detect the type of terms used in both texts, distinguishing their different grammatical functions, the dependencies between terms and the verb tenses. The article shows, quantitatively, how distant the two philosophers are and how they use grammar equally tenaciously to express and give to understand their ideas. From their philosophies it can be affirmed that grammar and ontology form a unit: grammar is used to reinforce philosophical ideas as much as these ideas are already derived, formed, in the grammatical structures themselves. Finally, computational tools prove to be, through this article, a pertinent complement for philosophical analysis.