**Hegelian preliminaries** p. 3 The kind of knowledge-claims (our ideas, our propositions, our sentences ) that we make can be said to match up with the objects that they purport to be about. p. 4 Two forms of skepticism follow: (1) generalized skepticism: whether knowledge claims can or do match up with real things; (2) result of adopting such a view: these knowledge-claims become the intermediaries between the thinking subject and the world. From this arises the problem of self-certification (certainty, that is being certain, infallibility, that is being infallibly known, indefensability, that is being necessary). The theory of such a ground would be a science in the sense of "vetenskap". p. 5 Since each side of these disputes already make assumptions in making knowledge-claims, each of these kinds of theories as Hegel puts it is only a appearance "utseende", a historical phenomenon. p. 5 To look at accounts as appearances is to look at them as formations, gestalts, perspectives of consciousness. p. 6 For Hegel that ground is called essence or absolute essence of the formations of consciousness. What is "given" or "object" is these authoritative grounds. p. 7 self-consciousness is connected to "social space" and the position taken within it. p. 8 a "social space" have "ground-rules" both implicit and explicit which forms the ground for activities within it. Spirit is the inferential relationship between self-conscious subjects that grounds them for example the substance of a culture.