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Hegel's Dialectic Sovietica HEGEL'S DIALECTIC SOVIETICA PUBLICATIONS AND MONOGRAPHS OF THE INSTITUTE OF EAST-EUROPEAN STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF FRIBOURG/SWITZERLAND Edited by PROF. DR J. M. BOCHENSKI VOLUME 33 ANDRIES SARLEMIJN HEGEL'S DIALECTIC D. REIDEL PUBLISHING COMPANY DORDRECHT-HOLLAND / BOSTON-U.S.A. HEGELSCHE DIALEKTIK First published in 1971 by Walter de Gruyter, Berlin/New York Translated from the German by Peter Kirschenmann Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 74-80522 ISBN-13: 978-94-010-1738-1 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-1736-7 001: 10.1007/978-94-010-1736-7 Published by D. Reidel Publishing Company P.O. Box 17, Dordrecht, Holland Sold and distributed m the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Inc. 306 Dartmouth Street, Boston, Mass. 02116, U.S.A. All Rights Reserved Copyright © 1975 by D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1975 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm, or any other means, without written permission from the publisher TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION XI TRANSLATOR'S NOTE XIII INTRODUCTION 1 1 Subject Matter 1 2 Relevance 2 3 The Fate of Hegel Interpretations 3 3.1 Dialectical Materialists 3 3.2 Dialectical Idealism 4 3.3 Criticism by Formal Logicians 5 3.4 Old-Hegelians and Later Interpreters 5 4 Divisions 11 PART I / DIALECTIC CHAPTER 1 / DIALECTIC OF THE REAL 15 1.1 Unity and Main Theme of the Dialectic 15 1.2 Negative Dialectic 17 1.3 The Presupposition of Dialectical Method: Idealist Individuation 22 CHAPTER 2 I POSITIVE DIALECTIC 27 2.1 Hegel's Dialectic and Its Origin 27 2.11 'Dialectic', 'Dialectician' 27 2.111 Heraclitus and the Eleatics 27 2.112 Plato and the Sophists 29 2.113 From Aristotle to Kant 33 2.12 Criticism, Sophistry, Dialectic 34 2.13 The Circle of Being, the Most Abstract Form of the Dialectic 42 2.131 Technical Description 42 2.132 Presuppositions 43 2.133 Interpretation 45 VI TABLE OF CONTENTS 2.14 Idealist 'Exposition' of the Absolute 47 2.2 From Subjective to Objective Idealism 50 2.21 Subject-K-F-H 50 2.22 Argumentation with Kant 51 2.221 The 'Impulse from Outside' and Immanence 51 2.222 The Method for Knowing the Unconditioned 53 2.2221 Kant's Criticism of Metaphysics 53 2.2222 Dialectical lliusion 54 2.2223 The Significance of Critical Philosophy 56 2.23 Argumentation with Fichte 58 2.231 Identity in the Science of Know/edge 58 2.232 Identity and Separation in Hegel's Dialectic 59 2.2321 Identity and Separation in the Subject-Side-H 59 2.2322 Identity and Separation in the Object-Side-H 60 2.3 Intro-Reflection as the Essence of Self-Movement 61 2.31 The Expressions 'Self-Movement' and 'Intro-Reflection' 61 2.32 Determinations of Reflection 61 2.33 Intro-Reflection as the Nature of the Absolute Essence and as the Essence of Dialectical Method 65 CHAPTER 3 / THE SUBJECT MATTER OF DIALECTICAL PHILOSOPHY 68 3.1 Dialectic and the Starting-Point of Philosophy 68 3.2 The 'Soul' of Dialectical Movement 69 3.21 Possibility of a Dialectical Logic 69 First Interpretation: Hegelian Contradictions are Objective 70 Second Interpretation: Modification of the Requirement of Non-Contradiction 75 Third Interpretation: No Restriction of the Principle of Non-Contradiction 76 3.22 Hegel's Theory of Contradiction 81 3.221 KpNp as Determinately Being 81 3.222 Sublation 83 3.2221 Logical Sublation 84 3.2222 Spatial and Temporal Sublation 86 3.2223 The Non-Contradictory Whole 87 3.223 Knowledge of the Understanding that Is Free from Contra- diction 88 T ABLE OF CONTENTS VII 3.2231 Human and Absolute Understanding 88 3.2232 Dialectic and Knowledge of Facts 90 3.2233 Dialectic and Natural Science 91 3.2234 Dialectic and Formal Logic: Truth and Correctness 91 3.2235 Dialectic and Its Justification 95 3.2236 Ex falso sequitur quodlibet 95 3.3 The Goal of Dialectical Method 96 3.31 The System 96 3.32 The Development of the Absolute and the Development of the System 97 PART III DIALECTIC AND METAPHYSICS CHAPTER 1/ 'METAPHYSICS' - A PHILOSOPHICAL DISCIPLINE 103 1.1 'Metaphysics' 103 1.2 The Logic is a Metaphysics 105 1.21 The Metaphysical Content of the Logic 105 1.22 Why Does Hegel Call His Metaphysics 'Logic'? 106 1.221 Kant's Influence 106 1.222 'Logic' - 'Logos' 107 1.223 The Metaphysical is Logical 107 1.224 'Sublation' of Metaphysics of Being into Logic 107 1.225 The Demythologizing of Metaphysics 108 1.23 Does Dialectical Metaphysics Replace Formal Logic? 109 1.231 'Ordinary Logic' 109 1.232 'Formal Logic' 109 1.233 Hegel's Logic Is a Metaphysics of Being, and a Metaphysics of Knowledge Based Thereon 110 1.3 Hegel's Entire System Is a Metaphysics 110 CHAPTER 2 / METAPHYSICAL METHOD IN GENERAL 112 2.1 Positive Elements in the Method of Metaphysics of the Understanding 112 2.11 The 'View of the Understanding' 112 2.12 Epistemological Realism 113 2.13 The Idea In-and-for-itself 113 2.2 Criticism of the Method of Metaphysics of the Under- standing 113 VIII TABLE OF CONTENTS 2.21 'The Dead Product of Enlightenment' 114 2.22 Dependency on Imagination 115 2.23 Mathematical Metaphysics 115 2.24 Dogmatism 116 2.25 'Inferences of the Understanding' 118 2.26 Univocal Conception of Being 119 2.27 Multiplicity of Proofs 120 CHAPTER 3 I SPINOZA AND DOUBLE NEGA TION 121 3.1 Determinatio est negatio 121 3.2 Positio est negatio 121 3.3 Negation as Contradiction 123 3.4 Double Negation 123 3.5 Ambivalence of Spinoza's Position 124 3.6 Substance and Tnought 124 PART III / DIALECTICAL METAPHYSICS CHAPTER 1 I INFINITY 127 1.1 The Finite and the Infinite 127 1.2 The 'Bad' Infinite 128 1.21 Infinity as Perennial Ought 128 1.22 Dualistic Infinity 129 1.23 The Bad and Untrue 130 1.3 True Infinity 131 1.31 The Finite Is Subia ted 131 CHAPTER 2 / ABSOLUTE NECESSITY 133 2.1 Accidentality and Necessity 133 2.2 Absolute Actuality 13S 2.3 Substantiality and Causality 138 2.31 'The Substance' 138 2.32 Causal Relationship 139 2.33 The Sublation of Metaphysics 141 CHAPTER 3/ BEING IS THOUGHT 143 3.1 The Sum Total of All Realities 143 3.11 The Subjective Concept 143 TABLE OF CONTENTS IX 3.12 The Metaphysical Concept 144 3.121 The Identity in the Metaphysics of the Understanding 144 3.122 The Critical Non-Identity 145 3.123 Dialectical Identity and Non-Identity 146 3.13 'The Derivation of the Real' 147 3.2 The Idea of Life 148 3.21 External Purposiveness 148 3.22 Internal Purposiveness 149 3.23 The Speculative Death 150 3.3 Teleology 151 3.31 Absolute Spirit 151 3.32 Absolute and Finite Spirit: Freedom 152 3.33 All of Hegel's Dialectic Is Teleological 153 SUMMARY ISS EPILOGUE I HEGEL'S DIALECTIC AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES 160 1 Analytic and Dialectic 160 2 The Sublation of Hegel's Dialectic 162 2.1 First Reversion 162 2.2 Second Reversion 164 2.3 Third Reversion 165 2.4 Fourth Reversion 166 CONCERNING NOTES AND ABBREVIA TIONS 168 NOTES 169 BIBLIOGRAPHY 183 INDEX OF NAMES 187 PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION 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. (2) The representatives of the dialectical or Marxist tradition, on the one hand, do not sufficiently clarify what is meant by 'principle of self­ movement' and by 'dialectical contradiction' in a Hegelian context and, on the other hand, presuppose the results of Hegel's Logic in the elucidation and logical justification of their position. I decided not to solve all of the problems pertinent to these issues, but to write instead an 'analytical' treatise on Hegel's Logic with the purpose of clarifying the issues. 'Analytical' is here taken to mean three things: (1) a discussion based on a precise interpretation of texts; (2) a particular consid­ eration of theses which deviate from the analytical position (an analysis of what is given that is based on the principles of formal logic); (3) a renuncia­ tion of 'modernizing' Hegel's dialectic (so as not to confront the reader with two philosophical systems - that of Hegel and that of the interpreter).
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