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- 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] - Let's review that quotation cited by Professor MacDonald
that started this exchange. It's on page 826 of the Miller
translation of Hegel's SCIENCE OF LOGIC (1812). Hegel says:
"...The Notion is everything, and its
movement is the universal absolute
activity, the self-determining and
self-realising movement. The method
is therefore to be recognised as the
unrestrictedly universal, internal and
external mode; and as the absolutely
infinite force, to which no object,
presenting itself as something 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."
(Hegel, SL, trans. Miller, p. 826)
No object can resist it, oppose it or be free from its
penetration -- here is Hegel's Absolute Idea. Hegel
presents this Absolute Idea as *the* answer to Kant's famous
PROLEGOMENA TO ANY FUTURE METAPHYSICS (1783). Hegel's Reason
can know the Thing-in-itself, can prove it scientifically.
Hegel seems reasonably enthusiastic about his new, scientific
discovery. Near the beginning of the SL, Hegel says:
"The method that I follow in this
System of Logic (or rather, that this
System itself follows)...is the *only*
true method. This is self-evident simply
from the fact that it is not something
distinct from its Object and Content.
For it is the Inwardness of the Content,
the dialectic which it possesses within
itself, that is the mainspring of its
advance." (Hegel, 1812, SL, trans.
Miller, p. 54)
In this part of his SCIENCE OF LOGIC (SL) Hegel contrasted
his methodology with others of his day, including that
of J. Fries (SYSTEM OF LOGIC, 1811). About this ordinary
exposition of the rules of logic, Hegel says:
"In the present state of logic one
can scarcely recognize even a trace
of scientific method." (Hegel, SL,
p. 53)
The rules of logic are typically announced as though they
were self-evident. However, Kant correctly showed that
these categories of the 'Pure Understanding' are limited
to analytic and tautological data. They cannot attain an
idea of metaphysics, or a reliable synthetic methodology.
Unless the modern science of logic deals with Kant's challenge,
what is the point of repeating the rules of logic yet again?
For Hegel, progress in logic must come only by answering
Kant's challenges.
For Hegel, the solution to Kant's brilliantly stated riddle
is a Synthetic Method of logic that can address the problems
of metaphysics and also resolve the Antinomy that Kant
could not resolve. Such a Science of Logic would be, like
our definition of God, self-contained, self-referent and
self-justifying because all contradictions would be dealt
with directly, and resolved using the same set of rules.
This means that both the world of the Internal and the
world of the External domains would be treated in the same
way. We do not need Kant's dualism that treats Subjective
data differently than Objective data. Getting back to the
quotation that Professor MacDonald shared, Hegel says,
"...Anything whatever is comprehended
and known in its truth only when it
is completely subjugated to the Method.
It is the Method proper to every subject
matter because its activity is the Notion.
...According to the universality of the
Idea, it is both the manner peculiar to
cognition -- to the Subjectively self-
knowing Notion, and also the Objective
manner, or rather the Substantiality...
of Notions." (Hegel, SL, p. 826)
This clearly announces, as Professor MacDonald suggested,
a profoundly optimistic attitude about Reason. Hegel is
clearly self-aware of the implications of his breakthrough.
Hegel has solved the logical problem of Epistemology as
well as the metaphysical problem of Ontology with one and
the same method. Therefore we can agree that Hegel speaks
scientifically when he asserts:
"It is therefore not only the highest
force, or rather the sole and Absolute
force of Reason, but also its Supreme
and sole urge to find and cognise itself
by means of itself in everything."
(Hegel, SL, p. 826)
Hegel affirms that Reason can surmount any resistance
whatsoever, and Kant must now be admitted to have been
mistaken about his theory of an Unknowable Thing-in-itself.
Now, if his Speculative Method also solved the problems of
metaphysics as Kant would demand, then Hegel's Logic must
also resolve all the problems of Antinomy that Kant cited
in his first Critique. This includes the problem of God.
Indeed, Hegel's SCIENCE OF LOGIC does solve the problem of
God. Hegel says,
"It can therefore be said that this
content is the exposition of God as
God is in God's eternal essence,
before the creation of Nature and
a finite mind." (Hegel, SL, p. 50)
This kind of language is outrageous to the modern reader.
If anything ever smacked of Logomachy, this is it. Not
only do modern skeptics chafe at this language, modern
theologians also chafe at this language! How dare Hegel
reduce the transcendental to human logic!
Yet that is the only possible solution to Kant's riddle!
Hegel's Concept provides the correct method because the
Concept is God -- not another notion or picture-image of
God, but the real, living God.
Talk about Logomachy! Yet this is what Hegel says. God
is free, God is the all-inclusive totality. Further, God
is in-and-for-itself determinate. That is also the
definition of the Concept. That is the proper solution
to Kant's riddle.
The nature of God provides the Methodology of Logic that
can resolve all problems of Science, whether they are
empirical or metaphysical. What is the nature of God?
Today we say it is DIALECTICAL. (Hegel used the word,
speculative, but that word has common meanings far from
Hegel's meaning.)
The DIALECTICAL is all-inclusive, all-encompassing, and
nothing can resist its penetrating insight. This is God.
The DIALECTICAL is in-and-for-itself, the Whole, a special
and Creative Form that includes itself but also transcends
itself (ENC LOGIC, para. 160). This is God.
How are we to understand this new concept? Hegel's theology
offers a clue: what definition of God views God as the One,
the Other and the Reconciliation?
Best regards,
--Paul Trejo