Hegel and Doubt

In his introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit,  Hegel details the distress that follows the realization that no truth can be perceived by an individual.  In this regard we have an inability to point to something, and detail it for what it truly is, but instead only the qualities it entails in our observation.  With this said, we realize that we cannot separate ourselves from our cognition, for as soon as we make an attempt to examine the manner in which we know, we are using a subjective instrument to do so.  I think this is what Hegel is explaining when he states that the separate entities that we claim responsible for different forms of knowing, i.e seeing, and thought being separate entities, are actually one large condition.  Any attempt to separate out and examine a certain aspect of our cognition would be futile as it takes the whole to examine it, as one always connects to and is affected by the other.

This seems to be the cause for Hegel to make an attempt to define aspects of our experience by what things are not.  If we have an inability to define something for what it truly is, perhaps we can make determinate negations to better understand the truer properties of our surroundings.  By claiming what things are not, when we are unable to claim what things are, we are engaging in some form of a productive activity, instead of falling into the negative consequences of doubt without end.