How to make post-Lion Finders find special directory . and ..?
If you simply want to go 'up' in Finder, you can use the keyboard shortcut ⌘↑.

This is the equivalent of cd .. which is what you would achieve by 'going' to the .. folder. Alternatively, you can select Go → Enclosing folder from the menu bar. A custom keyboard shortcut can be assigned to this menu item using App Shortcuts.