Hegel's Dialectic

This book was written in 1968, and defended as a doctoral dissertation before the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1969. It treats of the systematic views of Hegel which led him to give to the princi­ ple of non-contradiction, the principle of double negation, and the principle of excluded middle, meanings which are difficult to understand. The reader will look in vain for the philosophical position of the author. A few words about the intentions which motivated the author to study and clarify Hegel's thought are therefore not out of place. In the early sixties, when occupying myself with the history of Marxist philosophy, I discovered that the representatives of the logical-positivist tra­ dition were not alone in employing a principle of demarcation; that those of the dialectical Marxist tradition were also using such a principle ('self-move­ ment') as a foundation of a scientific philosophy and as a means to delimit unscientific ideas. I aimed at a clear conception of this principle in order to be able to judge whether, and to what extent, it accords with the foundations of the analytical method. In this endeavor I encountered two problems: (1) What is to be understood by 'analytical method' cannot be ascertained un­ equivocally.

1 Subject Matter.- 2 Relevance.- 3 The Fate of Hegel Interpretations.- 3.1 Dialectical Materialists.- 3.2 Dialectical Idealism.- 3.3 Criticism by Formal Logicians.- 3.4 Old-Hegelians and Later Interpreters.- 4 Divisions.- I / Dialectic.- 1 / Dialectic of the Real.- 1.1 Unity and Main Theme of the Dialectic.- 1.2 Negative Dialectic.- 1.3 The Presupposition of Dialectical Method: Idealist Individuation.- 2 / Positive Dialectic.- 2.1 Hegel’s Dialectic and Its Origin.- 2.11 ‘Dialectic’, ‘Dialectician’.- 2.111 Heraclitus and the Eleatics.- 2.112 Plato and the Sophists.- 2.113 From Aristotle to Kant.- 2.12 Criticism, Sophistry, Dialectic.- 2.13 The Circle of Being, the Most Abstract Form of the Dialectic.- 2.131 Technical Description.- 2.132 Presuppositions.- 2.133 Interpretation.- 2.14 Idealist ‘Exposition’ of the Absolute.- 2.2 From Subjective to Objective Idealism.- 2.21 Subject-K-F-H.- 2.22 Argumentation with Kant.- 2.221 The ‘Impulse from Outside’ and Immanence.- 2.222 The Method for Knowing the Unconditioned.- 2.2221 Kant’s Criticism of Metaphysics.- 2.2222 Dialectical Illusion.- 2.2223 The Significance of Critical Philosophy.- 2.23 Argumentation with Fichte.- 2.231 Identity in the Science of Knowledg?.- 2.232 Identity and Separation in Hegel’s Dialectic.- 2.2321 Identity and Separation in the Subject-Side-H.- 2.2322 Identity and Separation in the Object-Side-H.- 2.3 Intro-Reflection as the Essence of Self-Movement.- 2.31 The Expressions’ Self-Movement’ and ‘Intro-Reflection’.- 2.32 Determinations of Reflection.- 2.33 Intro-Reflection as the Nature of the Absolute Essence and as the Essence of Dialectical Method.- 3 / The Subject Matter of Dialectical Philosophy.- 3.1 Dialectic and the Starting-Point of Philosophy.- 3.2 The’ Soul’ of Dialectical Movement.- 3.21 Possibility of a Dialectical Logic.- First Interpretation: Hegelian Contradictions are Objective.- Second Interpretation: Modification of the Requirement of Non-Contradiction.- Third Interpretation: No Restriction of the Principle of Non-Contradiction.- 3.22 Hegel’s Theory of Contradiction.- 3.221 KpN? as Determinately Being.- 3.222 Sublation.- 3.2221 Logical Sublation.- 3.2222 Spatial and Temporal Sublation.- 3.2223 The Non-Contradictory Whole.- 3.223 Knowledge of the Understanding that Is Free from Contradiction.- 3.2231 Human and Absolute Understanding.- 3.2232 Dialectic and Knowledge of Facts.- 3.2233 Dialectic and Natural Science.- 3.2234 Dialectic and Formal Logic: Truth and Correctness.- 3.2235 Dialectic and Its Justification.- 3.2236 Ex falso sequitur quodlibet.- 3.3 The Goal of Dialectical Method.- 3.31 The System.- 3.32 The Development of the Absolute and the Development of the System.- II / Dialectic And Metaphysics.- 1 / ‘Metaphysics’ — A Philosophical Discipline.- 1.1 ‘Metaphysics’.- 1.2 The Logi? is a Metaphysics.- 1.21 The Metaphysical Content of the Logi?.- 1.22 Why Does Hegel Call His Metaphysics ‘Logic’?.- 1.221 Kant’s Influence.- 1.222 ‘Logic’ - ‘Logo?’.- 1.223 The Metaphysical is Logical.- 1.224’ Sublation’ of Metaphysics of Being into Logic.- 1.225 The Demythologizing of Metaphysics.- 1.23 Does Dialectical Metaphysics Replace Formal Logic?.- 1.231 ‘Ordinary Logic’.- 1.232 ‘Formal Logic’.- 1.233 Hegel’s Logic Is a Metaphysics of Being, and a Metaphysics of Knowledge Based Thereon.- 1.3 Hegel’s Entire System Is a Metaphysics.- 2 / Metaphysical Method in General.- 2.1 Positive Elements in the Method of Metaphysics of the Understanding.- 2.11 The ‘View of the Understanding’.- 2.12 Epistemological Realism.- 2.13 The Idea In-and-for-itself.- 2.2 Criticism of the Method of Metaphysics of the Understanding.- 2.21 ‘The Dead Product of Enlightenment’.- 2.22 Dependency on Imagination.- 2.23 Mathematical Metaphysics.- 2.24 Dogmatism.- 2.25 ‘Inferences of the Understanding’.- 2.26 Univocal Conception of Being.- 2.27 Multiplicity of Proofs.- 3 / Spinoza and Double Negation.- 3.1 Determinatio est negatio.- 3.2 Positio est negatio.- 3.3 Negation as Contradiction.- 3.4 Double Negation.- 3.5 Ambivalence of Spinoza’s Position.- 3.6 Substance and Thought.- III / Dialectical Metaphysics.- 1 / Infinity.- 1.1 The Finite and the Infinite.- 1.2 The ‘Bad’ Infinite.- 1.21 Infinity as Perennial Ought.- 1.22 Dualistic Infinity.- 1.23 The Bad and Untrue.- 1.3 True Infinity.- 1.31 The Finite Is Sublated.- 2 / Absolute Necessity.- 2.1 Accidentally and Necessity.- 2.2 Absolute Actuality.- 2.3 Substantiality and Causality.- 2.31 ‘The Substance’.- 2.32 Causal Relationship.- 2.33 The Sublation of Metaphysics.- 3 / Being is Thought.- 3.1 The Sum Total of All Realities.- 3.11 The Subjective Concept.- 3.12 The Metaphysical Concept.- 3.121 The Identity in the Metaphysics of the Understanding.- 3.122 The Critical Non-Identity.- 3.123 Dialectical Identity and Non-Identity.- 3.13 ‘The Derivation of the Real’.- 3.2 The Idea of Life.- 3.21 External Purposiveness.- 3.22 Internal Purposiveness.- 3.23 The Speculative Death.- 3.3 Teleology.- 3.31 Absolute Spirit.- 3.32 Absolute and Finite Spirit: Freedom.- 3.33 All of Hegel’s Dialectic Is Teleological.- Summary.- Epilogue / Hegel’s Dialectic and Contemporary Issues.- 1 Analytic and Dialectic.- 2 The Sublation of Hegel’s Dialectic.- 2.1 First Reversion.- 2.2 Second Reversion.- 2.3 Third Reversion.- 2.4 Fourth Reversion.- Concerning Notes And Abbreviations.- Notes.- Index of Names.