--- In hegel@yahoogroups.com, robertfanelli002@a... wrote:
>
> Dear Hegel Group,
>
> I had the privilege of attending the Hegel Conference in New York.
There
> were many presentations read and discussed, among which was a most
excellent one
> of Professor Iain Macdonald of the University of Montreal. The
following is a
> full quote of his first paragraph. My purpose in sending this
quote is to
> ask the group what they think of the comment on the"central claim
of absolute
> idealism." His quotes,one, two, and three are from Miller's
Science of Logic
> translation, P826 for all three.
>
> If you wish a copy of the entire paper, "The Concept and Its
Double..." I am
> sure that Professor Macdonald would not mind if I sent to you.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bob Fanelli
>
>
>
> The Concept and Its Double:
> Power and Powerlessness in Hegel's Subjective Logic
> Iain Macdonald
> Université de Montréal
>
>
> Introduction
>
> In a well known passage from the end of the Science of Logic, Hegel
writes
> that the dialectical method is to be recognized "as the absolutely
infinite
> force [die schlechthin unendliche Kraft], to which no object,
presenting itself as
> external, remote from and independent of reason, could offer
resistance or be
> of a particular nature in opposition to it, or could not be
penetrated by
> it."1 The power of reason is infinite and irresistible or, in a
word, absolute -
> which means first and foremost that reason understood as the
movement of the
> concept reveals the "soul and substance"2 of things in such a way
that, in
> principle, they are in themselves completely given over to and
unravelled by the
> Concept. The method "is therefore not only the highest force, or
rather the
> sole and absolute force of reason," says Hegel, "but also its
supreme and sole
> urge to find and cognize itself by means of itself in everything."3
I know of no
> other passage in Hegel's works that states this central claim of
absolute
> idealism more directly and unequivocally: the dialectical method,
understood as
> absolute power, entitles us to adopt an attitude of logical
optimism in respect
> of anything that presents itself as resistant to reason.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]