BEING THOUGHT AND THINKING BEING IN HEGEL’S SCIENCE OF LOGIC A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY by Thomas F. Whaling May 2018 Examining Committee Members: Espen Hammer, PhD., Advisory Chair, Philosophy Joseph Margolis, PhD., Philosophy Aryeh Botwinick, PhD., Political Science James Hebbeler, PhD., External Member, St. Joseph’s University © Copyright 2018 By Thomas F. Whaling All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT My aim in this dissertation is to explain Hegel’s motivation for, and the doctrine of, the identity of the identity and difference of thought and being and argue that while thought and being differ, their nature is identical. This identity is used to explain Hegel’s claim that what is real is rational and what is rational is real. The aim of this dissertation is squarely placed within ontology, and my interest is in the structure of being as opposed to metaphysical contents. Within this structure, I argue, Hegel shows us the irrevisable method of that which comes to be and ceases to be. This method (or nature) is a rational process of being itself, which, while its contents are forever changing, they do so from the same invariant identity of thought and being. As a matter of method, there is an increasing difficulty in assessing the merit of Hegel’s account of thought and being – obscuring what merit my interpretation may offer. The difficulty is a growing trend in combining Hegel’s work with specific Kantian ambitions where Hegel is forced into cognitive restrictions he does not have. As indebted as Hegel is to Kant, I argue that Hegel’s value lies in his break with Kant’s critical program. This break affords a new understanding of category theory apart from our subjective acts of understanding. With this new understanding, we can grasp the identity of thought and being through what I take to be a more promising account of cognition than what much of contemporary Hegel scholarship has offered by interpreting Hegel’s work as a completion of Kant’s. I sequence the chapters of this dissertation to trace Hegel’s increasing philosophic distance from Kant on those issues that interfere with understanding Hegel’s identity of thought and being. However, to demonstrate this distance and still progress to Hegel’s position apart from Kant, I limit my discussion of Kant to Hegel’s interpretation of Kant’s work and motivation. This limitation comes with the weakness that Kantian responses to Hegel exist but are not presented. However, this dissertation does not aim at iii defending Hegel’s interpretation of Kant but explains what Hegel has made of Kant’s texts to further Hegel’s arguments. Lastly, for what philosophic utility may be gained from this dissertation, Hegel offers the freedom for critical investigation regarding ontological and metaphysical matters without the presupposition of metaphysical commitments. This topic is treated at length in the last chapter of this dissertation. What is presented in this dissertation is a method by which no more is assumed than the inability to deny that thought exists, as such a denial presupposes thought, and then to trace the implications of the existence of thought according to what its occurrence signifies. Employing this method allows us to be metaphysically neutral and approach being as philosophically accessible. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would first like to thank my committee members for their time, insight, and patience, and particularly Espen Hammer for years of guidance and encouragement in pursuing my interest in Hegel studies and German Idealism in general. I would also like to thank Mark Morelli, Jeffrey Wilson, and Brian Treanor, who have served as tremendous resources and mentors in my philosophic development. I’m grateful to my mother and father for their persistent support, interest, and love. Lastly, I would like to thank my wife, Martha. Without her encouragement, good faith, sacrifices, and love, this dissertation would never have been completed. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………….. ................. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……….………………………………………………….…...v ABBREVIATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS………………………………………….viii CHAPTERS 1. HEGEL ON KANT’S CONCEPT OF THINGHOOD: CONCRETE EXISTENCE AND NOUMENALITY….…………………………………………………………….1 Hegel’s Understanding of Kant’s Phenomena/Noumena Distinction….…………6 Hegel’s Response to Kant’s Phenomena/Noumena Distinction…………………19 Hegel’s Diagnosis of Kant’s Alleged Error……………………………………...22 Hegel’s Alternative Notion of Thinghood…………………………………….…42 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………….....51 2. INDIFFERENCE AND THE SUBJECTIVE IMPOTENCE OF REASON………….57 The Understanding……………………………………………………………….60 Indifference and Dialectical Reason……………………………………………..81 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………….97 3. THE ONTOLOGICAL SCOPE OF THE CATEGORIES IN THE INTRACATEGORIAL/EXTRACATEGORIAL DEBATE……………………...…100 The Immanent Deduction of the Categories…………………………...……….106 Hegel’s Interpretation of Kant’s Category Theory……………………………..111 The Intracategorial Interpretation of Category Theory…………………………119 Hegel’s Account of the Self-Transcendence of the Finite Categories………….130 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….……..136 4. OVERCOMING THE METAPHYSICS OF SUBJECTIVITY……………………..138 vi Hegel On Transcendental Apperception………………………………………..144 The Productive Imagination…………………………………………………….159 Intellectual Intuition and Thought as Such……………………………………...164 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...174 5. BEING THOUGHT AND THINKING BEING……………………………………...176 Hegel on Logical Identity…………………………………………………..…...176 Pure Being……………………………………………………………………....186 The Oneness of the Identity and Difference of Thought and Being…………......189 The Discovery of Absolute Knowing……………...…………………………....197 Being Thought and Thinking Being………...…………………………………..205 Two Concluding Concerns……………………………………………………...208 BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………………....215 vii ABBREVIATIONS AND TRANSLATIONS The following abbreviations are used for texts by Kant and Hegel. The translations listed are those I have used for the English quotations in this dissertation. All citations in text begin with the German abbreviation, its corresponding page(s) and are followed by the English abbreviation and its correspond page(s). The exceptions are those text that share a single letter abbreviation. Kant citations correspond to the Akadamieausgabe in the case of the KdU. Citations from the KrV correspond to the A and B abbreviations for the 1781 and 1787 editions. All dates given refer to the published editions used for this dissertation. D Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. “Differenz des Fichte’schen und Schelling’schen System der Philosophie.” Jenaer Schriften 1801–1807. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 2. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1986). English edition: The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy. eds. & trans. H.S. Harris & Walter Cerf. (New York: SUNY Press, 1988) E ---. Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse 1830. Erster Teil. Die Wissenschaft der Logik. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 8. eds. E. Moldenhauer and K. M. Michel (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1986). English edition: “Part I: Science of Logic.” Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Basic Outline. eds. & trans. Klaus Brinkmann & Daniel O. Dahlstrom. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) GW/FK ---. “Glauben und Wissen oder die Reflexionsphilosophie der Subjektivitat, in der Vollstandigkeit ihrer Formen, als Kantische, Jacobische und Fichtesche Philosophie.” Jenaer Schriften 1801–1807. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 2. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1986). English edition: Faith and Knowledge. eds. & trans. H.S. Harris & Walter Cerf. (New York: SUNY Press, 1988) PG/PS ---. Phänomenologie des Geistes. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 3. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1986). English edition: Phenomenology of Spirit. trans A.V. Miller. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977) PR Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts oder Naturrecht und Staatswissenschaft im Grundrisse. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 7. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1986). English edition: Elements of the Philosophy of Right. ed. Allen W. Wood. trans. H.B. Nesbit. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) VGP3/LHP3 ---. Vorlesungen über die Geschichte der Philosophie III. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 20. eds. E. Moldenhauer and K. M. Michel (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp Verlag, 1986). English edition: “Kant.” Lectures on viii the History of Philosophy, Volume 3: Medieval and Modern Philosophy. eds. & trans. E.S. Haldane & Francis H. Simson. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995) WL1/SL ---. Wissenschaft der Logik I. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 5. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, Verlag, 1986). English edition: The Science of Logic. ed. & trans. George di Giovanni. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) WL2/SL ---. Wissenschaft der Logik II. Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband - 6. (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, Verlag, 1986). English edition: The Science of Logic. ed. & trans. George di Giovanni. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) KrV Kant, Immanuel. Kritik der reinen Vernunft. Ed. Benno Erdmann (Berlin: De Gruyter, 2010). English edition: Critique of Pure Reason. eds. & trans. Paul Guyer & Allen Wood. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) KdU ---. Kritik Der Urteilskraft. Akademieausgabe. English edition: The Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. eds. & trans. Eric Matthews