Dialectic ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : διαλεκτική , dialektikḗ ; German : Dialektik ), also known as the dialectical method , refers originally to dialogue between people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing to arrive at the truth through reasoned argumentation . Dialectic resembles debate , but the concept excludes subjective elements such as emotional appeal and rhetoric . It has its origins in ancient philosophy and continued to be developed in the Middle Ages .
130-576: Hegelianism refigured "dialectic" to no longer refer to a literal dialogue. Instead, the term takes on the specialized meaning of development by way of overcoming internal contradictions . Dialectical materialism , a theory advanced by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , adapted the Hegelian dialectic into a materialist theory of history. The legacy of Hegelian and Marxian dialectics has been criticized by philosophers such as Karl Popper and Mario Bunge , who considered it unscientific. Dialectic implies
260-547: A Popularphilosoph (a "man of letters") who serves to make the abstruse ideas of philosophers accessible to a wider public; his own felt need to engage critically with the central ideas of Kantianism would not come until 1800. Having received his theological certificate from the Tübingen Seminary, Hegel became Hofmeister (house tutor) to an aristocratic family in Berne (1793–1796). During this period, he composed
390-433: A thesis , giving rise to its reaction; an antithesis , which contradicts or negates the thesis; and the tension between the two being resolved by means of a synthesis . Although, Hegel opposed these terms. By contrast, the terms abstract , negative , and concrete suggest a flaw or an incompleteness in any initial thesis. For Hegel, the concrete must always pass through the phase of the negative, that is, mediation. This
520-625: A "convenient organizing category". The philosopher of science and physicist Mario Bunge repeatedly criticized Hegelian and Marxian dialectics, calling them "fuzzy and remote from science" and a "disastrous legacy". He concluded: "The so-called laws of dialectics, such as formulated by Engels (1940, 1954) and Lenin (1947, 1981), are false insofar as they are intelligible." Poe Yu-ze Wan , reviewing Bunge's criticisms of dialectics, found Bunge's arguments to be important and sensible, but he thought that dialectics could still serve some heuristic purposes for scientists. Wan pointed out that scientists such as
650-447: A "philosophical disputorium." In 1802, Schelling and Hegel founded the journal Kritische Journal der Philosophie ( Critical Journal of Philosophy ) to which they contributed until the collaboration ended when Schelling left for Würzburg in 1803. In 1805, the university promoted Hegel to the unsalaried position of extraordinary professor after he wrote a letter to the poet and minister of culture Johann Wolfgang von Goethe protesting
780-550: A collection of atomized individuals, instead taking a holistic view of human self-consciousness as requiring the recognition of others, and people's view of themselves as being shaped by the views of others. Hegel describes The Phenomenology as both the "introduction" to his philosophical system and also as the "first part" of that system as the "science of the experience of consciousness." Yet it has long been controversial in both respects; indeed, Hegel's own attitude changed throughout his life. Nevertheless, however complicated
910-690: A defender of neo- Humean views on a variety of topics. "The quasi-realist is someone who endorses an anti-realist metaphysical stance but who seeks, through philosophical maneuvering, to earn the right for moral discourse to enjoy all the trappings of realist talk." In 2008 The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy , which was authored by Blackburn, was published. In 2014 Blackburn published Mirror, Mirror: The Uses and Abuses of Self-Love , focusing on different philosophical aspects of self-love, discussing modern forms and manifestations of pride, amour-propre, integrity or self-esteem through various philosophical frameworks and ideas. He makes occasional appearances in
1040-544: A developmental process and so does not naturally fit within classical logic . Nevertheless, some twentieth-century logicians have attempted to formalize it. There are a variety of meanings of dialectic or dialectics within Western philosophy . In classical philosophy , dialectic ( διαλεκτική ) is a form of reasoning based upon dialogue of arguments and counter-arguments, advocating propositions (theses) and counter-propositions ( antitheses ). The outcome of such
1170-504: A dialectic might be the refutation of a relevant proposition, or a synthesis, a combination of the opposing assertions, or a qualitative improvement of the dialogue. The term "dialectic" owes much of its prestige to its role in the philosophies of Socrates and Plato , in the Greek Classical period (5th to 4th centuries BC). Aristotle said that it was the pre-Socratic philosopher Zeno of Elea who invented dialectic, of which
1300-598: A difference here to which one can "refer," only a dialectic that one can observe and describe. The final category of the Logic is "the idea." As with "the concept", the sense of this term for Hegel is not psychological. Rather, following Kant in The Critique of Pure Reason , Hegel's usage harks back to the Greek eidos , Plato 's concept of form that is fully existent and universal: "Hegel's Idee (like Plato's idea)
1430-635: A high official in Munich, pleading for Niethammer's help in securing a teaching position. With the help of Niethammer, Hegel was appointed headmaster of a gymnasium in Nuremberg in November 1808, a post he held until 1816. While in Nuremberg, Hegel adapted his recently published Phenomenology of Spirit for use in the classroom. Part of his remit was to teach a class called "Introduction to Knowledge of
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#17327650742551560-592: A historian; and Immanuel [ de ] , who followed a theological path – lived long and safeguarded their father's manuscripts and letters , and produced editions of his works. As H. S. Harris recounts, when Hegel entered the Tübingen seminary in 1788, "he was a typical product of the German Enlightenment – an enthusiastic reader of Rousseau and Lessing , acquainted with Kant (at least at second hand), but perhaps more deeply devoted to
1690-510: A kind of "unity-in-difference," this both in the ancient articulation provided by Plato and in the Christian religion's doctrine of agape , which Hegel at this time viewed as "already 'grounded on universal Reason. ' " This interest, as well as his theological training, would continue to mark his thought, even as it developed in a more theoretical or metaphysical direction. According to Glenn Alexander Magee, Hegel's thought (in particular,
1820-430: A metaphysical logic of truth. There are two texts of Hegel's Logic . The first, The Science of Logic (1812, 1813, 1816; bk.I revised 1831), is sometimes also called the "Greater Logic." The second is the first volume of Hegel's Encyclopedia and is sometimes known as the "Lesser Logic." The Encyclopedia Logic is an abbreviated or condensed presentation of the same dialectic. Hegel composed it for use with students in
1950-613: A permanent position replacing a professor of botany, he was unable to find a permanent position. In 1807, he had to move to Bamberg since his savings and the payment from the Phenomenology were exhausted and he needed money to support his illegitimate son Ludwig. There, he became the editor of the local newspaper, Bamberger Zeitung [ de ] , a position he obtained with the help of Niethammer. Ludwig Fischer and his mother stayed behind in Jena. In Bamberg, as editor of
2080-488: A philosophy of dialectical materialism . These representations often contrasted dramatically and led to vigorous debate among different Marxist groups. The Hegelian dialectic describes changes in the forms of thought through their own internal contradictions into concrete forms that overcome previous oppositions . This dialectic is sometimes presented in a threefold manner, as first stated by Heinrich Moritz Chalybäus , as comprising three dialectical stages of development:
2210-698: A post from the Universities of Erlangen , Berlin and Heidelberg , Hegel chose Heidelberg, where he moved in 1816. Soon after, his illegitimate son Ludwig Fischer (now ten years old) joined the Hegel household in April 1817, having spent time in an orphanage after the death of his mother Christiana Burkhardt. In 1817, Hegel published The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline as
2340-470: A short article entitled "Some Critical Thoughts on 'Functional Specialties in Theology'" where he stated: "Lonergan's theological methodology seems to me to be so generic that it really fits every science , and hence is not the methodology of theology as such, but only a very general methodology of science." Friedrich Nietzsche viewed dialectic as a method that imposes artificial boundaries and suppresses
2470-647: A sister, Chistiane Luise [ de ] (1773–1832); and a brother, Georg Ludwig (1776–1812), who perished as an officer during Napoleon's 1812 Russian campaign. At the age of three, Hegel went to the German School. When he entered the Latin School two years later, he already knew the first declension , having been taught it by his mother. In 1776, he entered Stuttgart's Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium and during his adolescence read voraciously, copying lengthy extracts in his diary. Authors he read include
2600-657: A summary of his philosophy for students attending his lectures at Heidelberg. It is also while in Heidelberg that Hegel first lectured on the philosophy of art. In 1818, Hegel accepted the renewed offer of the chair of philosophy at the University of Berlin, which had remained vacant since Johann Gottlieb Fichte 's death in 1814. Here, Hegel published his Elements of the Philosophy of Right (1821). Hegel devoted himself primarily to delivering lectures; his lectures on
2730-531: A system is a lack of integrity". In the same book, Nietzsche criticized Socrates' dialectics because he believed it prioritized reason over instinct, resulting in the suppression of individual passions and the imposition of an artificial morality. Karl Popper attacked the dialectic repeatedly. In 1937, he wrote and delivered a paper entitled "What Is Dialectic?" in which he criticized the dialectics of Hegel, Marx, and Engels for their willingness "to put up with contradictions". He argued that accepting contradiction as
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#17327650742552860-463: A valid form of logic would lead to the principle of explosion and thus trivialism . Popper concluded the essay with these words: "The whole development of dialectic should be a warning against the dangers inherent in philosophical system-building. It should remind us that philosophy should not be made a basis for any sort of scientific system and that philosophers should be much more modest in their claims. One task which they can fulfill quite usefully
2990-515: Is Hegel's attempt to meet this foundational demand. As he puts it, " logic coincides with metaphysics ." In the words of scholar Glenn Alexander Magee, the logic provides "an account of pure categories or ideas which are timelessly true" and which make up "the formal structure of reality itself". It is important to see, however, that Hegel's metaphysical program is not a return to the Leibnizian - Wolffian rationalism critiqued by Kant, which
3120-494: Is a criticism Hegel accepts. In particular, Hegel rejects any form of metaphysics as speculation about the transcendent. His procedure, an appropriation of Aristotle's concept of form , is fully immanent. More generally, Hegel agrees wholeheartedly with Kant's rejection of all forms of dogmatism and also agrees that any future metaphysics must pass the test of criticism. It is the assessment of scholar Stephen Houlgate that Hegel's method of immanent logical development and critique
3250-428: Is a dynamic process that results in something new: For the sake of greater precision, let us say that a dialectic is a concrete unfolding of linked but opposed principles of change. Thus there will be a dialectic if (1) there is an aggregate of events of a determinate character, (2) the events may be traced to either or both of two principles, (3) the principles are opposed yet bound together, and (4) they are modified by
3380-579: Is acceptable, then there must exist at least one thing that is both pious and impious (as it is both loved and hated by the gods)—which Euthyphro admits is absurd. Thus, Euthyphro is brought to a realization by this dialectical method that his definition of piety is not sufficiently meaningful. In another example, in Plato's Gorgias , dialectic occurs between Socrates, the Sophist Gorgias, and two men, Polus and Callicles. Because Socrates' ultimate goal
3510-473: Is an English academic philosopher known for his work in metaethics , where he defends quasi-realism , and in the philosophy of language . More recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularise philosophy . He has appeared in multiple episodes of the documentary series Closer to Truth . During his long career, he has taught at Oxford University , Cambridge University , and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill . Blackburn
3640-738: Is an approach to theology in Protestantism that was developed in the aftermath of the First World War (1914–1918). It is characterized as a reaction against doctrines of 19th-century liberal theology and a more positive reevaluation of the teachings of the Reformation , much of which had been in decline (especially in western Europe) since the late 18th century . It is primarily associated with two Swiss professors and pastors, Karl Barth (1886–1968) and Emil Brunner (1899–1966), even though Barth himself expressed his unease in
3770-424: Is an ongoing project with respect to its historical content, which continues to change and develop. For instance, although Hegel regards "the basic structure" of the philosophy of nature as complete, he was "aware that science is not 'finished' and will continue to make new discoveries". Philosophy is, as Hegel puts it, " its own time comprehended in thoughts ." He expands upon this definition: A further word on
3900-408: Is central to the development of dialectics: the progress from quantity to quality, the acceleration of gradual social change; the negation of the initial development of the status quo ; the negation of that negation; and the high-level recurrence of features of the original status quo . Friedrich Engels further proposed that nature itself is dialectical, and that this is "a very simple process, which
4030-422: Is embarking upon nothing less than a transcendental deduction of metaphysics." In the course of its dialectic, the Phenomenology purports to demonstrate that – because consciousness always includes self-consciousness – there are no 'given' objects of direct awareness not already mediated by thought. Further analysis of the structure of self-consciousness reveals that both the social and conceptual stability of
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4160-434: Is exposed and only constructive in that this exposure may lead to further search for truth. The detection of error does not amount to a proof of the antithesis. For example, a contradiction in the consequences of a definition of piety does not provide a correct definition. The principal aim of Socratic activity may be to improve the soul of the interlocutors, by freeing them from unrecognized errors, or indeed, by teaching them
4290-411: Is grounded in the principle of immanence , that is, in assessing claims always according to their own internal criteria. Taking skepticism seriously, he contends that people cannot presume any truths that have not passed the test of experience; even the a priori categories of the Logic must attain their "verification" in the natural world and the historical accomplishments of humankind. Guided by
4420-593: Is historically unique. Philosopher Béatrice Longuenesse holds that this project may be understood, on analogy to Kant, as "inseparably a metaphysical and a transcendental deduction of the categories of metaphysics." This approach insists, and claims to demonstrate, that the insights of logic cannot be judged by standards external to thought itself, that is, that "thought... is not the mirror of nature." Yet, she argues, this does not imply that these standards are arbitrary or subjective. Hegel's translator and scholar of German idealism George di Giovanni likewise interprets
4550-416: Is in its essence critical and revolutionary. Class struggle is the primary contradiction to be resolved by Marxist dialectics because of its central role in the social and political lives of a society. Nonetheless, Marx and Marxists developed the concept of class struggle to comprehend the dialectical contradictions between mental and manual labor and between town and country. Hence, philosophic contradiction
4680-408: Is neither a Platonist who believes in abstract logical entities, nor a nominalist according to whom the particular is first in the orders of explanation and being alike. Rather, Hegel is a holist . For Hegel, the universal is always first in the order of explanation even if what is naturally particular is first in the order of being. With respect to the system as a whole, that universal is supplied by
4810-664: Is not a psychological concept. When deployed with the definitive article ("the") and sometimes modified by the term "logical," Hegel is referring to the intelligible structure of reality as articulated in the Subjective Logic. (When used in the plural, however, Hegel's sense is much closer to the ordinary dictionary sense of the term. ) Hegel's inquiry into thought is concerned to systematize thought's own internal self-differentiation, that is, how pure concepts ( logical categories ) differ from one another in their various relations of implication and interdependence. For instance, in
4940-465: Is reestablished in Christ. For Barth this meant that only through God's 'no' to everything human can his 'yes' be perceived. Applied to traditional themes of Protestant theology, such as double predestination , this means that election and reprobation cannot be viewed as a quantitative limitation of God's action. Rather it must be seen as its "qualitative definition". As Christ bore the rejection as well as
5070-471: Is sublated, on the one hand, is overcome, but, on the other hand, is preserved and maintained. As in the Socratic dialectic, Hegel claimed to proceed by making implicit contradictions explicit: each stage of the process is the product of contradictions inherent or implicit in the preceding stage. On his view, the purpose of dialectics is "to study things in their own being and movement and thus to demonstrate
5200-505: Is such an adjunction or more generally the duality between closed monoidal categories and their internal logic . Hegelianism Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (27 August 1770 – 14 November 1831) was a German philosopher and one of the most influential figures of German idealism and 19th-century philosophy . His influence extends across the entire range of contemporary philosophical topics, from metaphysical issues in epistemology and ontology , to political philosophy ,
5330-489: Is taking place everywhere and every day". His dialectical "law of the transformation of quantity into quality and vice versa" corresponds, according to Christian Fuchs , to the concept of phase transition and anticipated the concept of emergence "a hundred years ahead of his time". For Vladimir Lenin , the primary feature of Marx's "dialectical materialism" (Lenin's term) is its application of materialist philosophy to history and social sciences. Lenin's main contribution to
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5460-410: Is the essence of what is popularly called Hegelian dialectics. To describe the activity of overcoming the negative, Hegel often used the term Aufhebung , variously translated into English as "sublation" or "overcoming", to conceive of the working of the dialectic. Roughly, the term indicates preserving the true portion of an idea, thing, society, and so forth, while moving beyond its limitations. What
5590-520: Is the final part of the Logic . It discusses the doctrine of "the Concept," which is concerned with reintegrating those categories of objectivity into a thoroughly idealistic account of reality. Simplifying greatly, Being describes its concepts just as they appear, Essence attempts to explain them with reference to other forces, and the Concept explains and unites them both in terms of an internal teleology. The categories of Being "pass over" from one to
5720-446: Is the product of an attempt to fuse ontology, epistemology, evaluation, etc., into a single set of concepts." The Logic accommodates within itself the necessity of the realm of natural-spiritual contingency , that which cannot be determined in advance: "To go further, it must abandon thinking altogether and let itself go, opening itself to that which is other than thought in pure receptivity." Simply put, logic realizes itself only in
5850-448: Is the self-concept of consciousness itself that is tested in the domain of experience, and where that concept is not adequate, self-consciousness "suffers this violence at its own hands, and brings to ruin its own restricted satisfaction." For, as Hegel points out, one cannot learn how to swim without getting into the water. By progressively testing its concept of knowledge in this way, by "making experience his standard of knowledge, Hegel
5980-504: Is the study of the critical methods of science ". Seventy years later, Nicholas Rescher responded that "Popper's critique touches only a hyperbolic version of dialectic", and he quipped: "Ironically, there is something decidedly dialectical about Popper's critique of dialectics." Around the same time as Popper's critique was published, philosopher Sidney Hook discussed the "sense and nonsense in dialectic" and rejected two conceptions of dialectic as unscientific but accepted one conception as
6110-563: Is thus a method by which one can examine social and economic behaviors. It is the foundation of the philosophy of dialectical materialism , which forms the basis of historical materialism. In the Marxist tradition, "dialectic" refers to regular and mutual relationships, interactions, and processes in nature, society, and human thought. A dialectical relationship is a relationship in which two phenomena or ideas mutually impact each other, leading to development and negation. Development refers to
6240-414: Is to articulate what Hegel calls "the identity of identity and non-identity" of nature and spirit. Put another way, it aims to overcome subject-object dualism. This is to say that, among other things, Hegel's philosophical project endeavors to provide the metaphysical basis for an account of spirit that is continuous with, yet distinct from, the "merely" natural world – without thereby reducing either term to
6370-704: Is too abstract. Against this, Marx presented his own dialectic method, which he claimed to be "direct opposite" of Hegel's method. Marxist dialectics is exemplified in Das Kapital . As Marx explained dialectical materialism, it includes in its comprehension an affirmative recognition of the existing state of things, at the same time, also, the recognition of the negation of that state, of its inevitable breaking up; because it regards every historically developed social form as in fluid movement, and therefore takes into account its transient nature not less than its momentary existence; because it lets nothing impose upon it, and
6500-466: Is very general in applicability. Mathematician William Lawvere interpreted dialectics in the setting of categorical logic in terms of adjunctions between idempotent monads . This perspective may be useful in the context of theoretical computer science where the duality between syntax and semantics can be interpreted as a dialectic in this sense. For example, the Curry-Howard equivalence
6630-640: The Bamberger Zeitung [ de ] , which was a pro-French newspaper, Hegel extolled the virtues of Napoleon and often editorialized the Prussian accounts of the war. Being the editor of a local newspaper, Hegel also became an important person in Bamberg social life, often visiting with the local official Johann Heinrich Liebeskind [ de ] , and becoming involved in local gossip and pursued his passions for cards, fine eating, and
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#17327650742556760-453: The Delphic imperative to " know thyself ", Hegel presents free self-determination as the essence of humankind – a conclusion from his 1806–07 Phenomenology that he claims is further verified by the systematic account of the interdependence of logic, nature , and spirit in his later Encyclopedia . He asserts that the Logic at once preserves and overcomes the dualisms of the material and
6890-488: The Encyclopedia (second edition, 1827; third, 1830). In his political philosophy, he criticized Karl Ludwig von Haller 's reactionary work, which claimed that laws were not necessary. A number of other works on the philosophy of history , religion , aesthetics and the history of philosophy were compiled from the lecture notes of his students and published posthumously. Hegel was appointed University Rector of
7020-635: The Gymnasium concluded with his graduation speech, "The abortive state of art and scholarship in Turkey." At the age of eighteen, Hegel entered the Tübinger Stift , a Protestant seminary attached to the University of Tübingen , where he had as roommates the poet and philosopher Friedrich Hölderlin and the future philosopher Friedrich Schelling . Sharing a dislike for what they regarded as
7150-499: The Logic as (drawing upon, yet also in opposition to, Kant ) immanently transcendental ; its categories, according to Hegel, are built into life itself , and define what it is to be "an object in general." Books one and two of the Logic are the doctrines of "Being" and "Essence." Together they comprise the Objective Logic, which is largely occupied with overcoming the assumptions of traditional metaphysics. Book three
7280-434: The Phenomenology a Bildungsroman . It is not the consciousness under observation that learns from its experience. Only "we," the phenomenological observers, are in a position to profit from Hegel's logical reconstruction of the science of experience. The ensuing dialectic is long and hard. It is described by Hegel himself as a "path of despair," in which self-consciousness finds itself to be, over and again, in error. It
7410-438: The Phenomenology with respect to either of the systematic roles asserted by Hegel at the time of its publication. Hegel's philosophical system is divided into three parts: the science of logic , the philosophy of nature , and the philosophy of spirit (the latter two of which together constitute the real philosophy ). This structure is adopted from Proclus 's Neoplatonic triad of " 'remaining-procession-return' and from
7540-455: The University of Berlin on topics from his Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences . Throughout his work, Hegel strove to address and correct the problematic dualisms of modern philosophy, Kantian and otherwise, typically by drawing upon the resources of ancient philosophy , particularly Aristotle . Hegel everywhere insists that reason and freedom are historical achievements, not natural givens. His dialectical -speculative procedure
7670-560: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill , teaching every fall semester. He is also a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge , and a member of the professoriate of New College of the Humanities . He was previously a Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford and has also taught full-time at the University of North Carolina as an Edna J. Koury Professor. He is a former president of the Aristotelian Society , having served
7800-450: The essentialities of the things ." As Michael Wolff explains, Hegel's logic is a continuation of Kant's distinctive logical program. Its occasional engagement with the familiar Aristotelian conception of logic is only incidental to Hegel's project. Twentieth-century developments by such logicians as Frege and Russell likewise remain logics of formal validity and so are likewise irrelevant to Hegel's project, which aspires to provide
7930-504: The inaugural dissertation De Orbitis Planetarum , in which he briefly criticized mathematical arguments that assert that there must exist a planet between Mars and Jupiter . Later in the year, Hegel's essay The Difference Between Fichte's and Schelling's System of Philosophy was completed. He lectured on "Logic and Metaphysics" and gave lectures with Schelling on an "Introduction to the Idea and Limits of True Philosophy" and facilitated
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#17327650742558060-873: The philosophy of history , philosophy of art , philosophy of religion , and the history of philosophy . Born in 1770 in Stuttgart , Holy Roman Empire, during the transitional period between the Enlightenment and the Romantic movement in the Germanic regions of Europe, Hegel lived through and was influenced by the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars . His fame rests chiefly upon The Phenomenology of Spirit , The Science of Logic , his teleological account of history, and his lectures at
8190-606: The 2009–2010 term. In 2004, he delivered the Gifford Lectures on Reason's Empire at the University of Glasgow . He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002 and a Foreign Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in 2008. He is a former editor of the journal Mind . In philosophy, he is best known as the proponent of quasi-realism in meta-ethics and as
8320-538: The American Marxist biologists Richard Levins and Richard Lewontin (authors of The Dialectical Biologist ) and the German-American evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr , not a Marxist himself, have found agreement between dialectical principles and their own scientific outlooks, although Wan opined that Engels's "laws" of dialectics "in fact 'explain' nothing". Even some Marxists are critical of
8450-705: The British media, such as on BBC Radio 4 's The Moral Maze . He is a patron of Humanists UK (formerly the British Humanist Association), and when asked to define his atheism, he said he prefers the label infidel over atheist : Being an infidel, that is, just having no faith, I do not have to prove anything. I have no faith in the Loch Ness Monster, but do not go about trying to prove that it does not exist, although there are certainly overwhelming arguments that it does not. He
8580-504: The Christian Trinity." Although evident in draft writings dating back as early as 1805, the system was not completed in published form until the 1817 Encyclopedia (1st ed.). Frederick C. Beiser argues that the position of the logic with respect to the real philosophy is best understood in terms of Hegel's appropriation of Aristotle's distinction between "the order of explanation" and "the order of being." To Beiser, Hegel
8710-537: The Theory of Knowledge , 1977), and Frans H. van Eemeren and Rob Grootendorst ( pragma-dialectics , 1980s). One can include works of the communities of informal logic and paraconsistent logic . Building on theories of defeasible reasoning (see John L. Pollock ), systems have been built that define well-formedness of arguments, rules governing the process of introducing arguments based on fixed assumptions, and rules for shifting burden. Many of these logics appear in
8840-601: The Universal Coherence of the Sciences." In 1811, Hegel married Marie Helena Susanna von Tucher (1791–1855), the eldest daughter of a Senator. This period saw the publication of his second major work, the Science of Logic ( Wissenschaft der Logik ; 3 vols., 1812, 1813 and 1816), and the birth of two sons, Karl Friedrich Wilhelm (1813–1901) and Immanuel Thomas Christian (1814–1891). Having received offers of
8970-438: The University of Jena from much of the destruction of the surrounding city, few students returned after the battle and enrollment suffered, making Hegel's financial prospects even worse. Hegel traveled in the winter to Bamberg and stayed with Niethammer to oversee the proofs of the Phenomenology , which was being printed there. Although Hegel tried to obtain another professorship, even writing Goethe in an attempt to help secure
9100-510: The change and motion of phenomena and ideas from less advanced to more advanced or from less complete to more complete. Dialectical negation refers to a stage of development in which a contradiction between two previous subjects gives rise to a new subject. In the Marxist view, dialectical negation is never an endpoint, but instead creates new conditions for further development and negation. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels , writing several decades after Hegel's death, proposed that Hegel's dialectic
9230-440: The changes that successively result from them. Dialectic is one of the eight functional specialties Lonergan envisaged for theology to bring this discipline into the modern world. Lonergan believed that the lack of an agreed method among scholars had inhibited substantive agreement from being reached and progress from being made compared to the natural sciences. Karl Rahner , S.J., however, criticized Lonergan's theological method in
9360-457: The city. On the day before the battle, Napoleon entered the city of Jena. Hegel recounted his impressions in a letter to his friend Friedrich Immanuel Niethammer : I saw the Emperor – this world-soul [ Weltseele ] – riding out of the city on reconnaissance. It is indeed a wonderful sensation to see such an individual, who, concentrated here at a single point, astride a horse, reaches out over
9490-517: The classics than to any thing modern." During this early period of his life "the Greeks – especially Plato – came first." Although he later elevated Aristotle above Plato, Hegel never abandoned his love of ancient philosophy, the imprint of which is everywhere in his thought. Hegel's concern with various forms of cultural unity (Judaic, Greek, medieval, and modern) during this early period would remain with him throughout his career. In this way, he
9620-621: The definitive modern articulation of the divisions that must be overcome. This led to his engagement with the philosophical programs of Fichte and Schelling , as well as his attention to Spinoza and the Pantheism controversy . The influence of Johann Gottfried von Herder , however, would lead Hegel to a qualified rejection of the universality claimed by the Kantian program in favor of a more culturally, linguistically, and historically informed account of reason. The Phenomenology of Spirit
9750-462: The details, the basic strategy by which it attempts to make good on its introductory claim is not difficult to state. Beginning with only the most basic "certainties of consciousness itself," "the most immediate of which is the certainty that I am conscious of this object, here and now ," Hegel aims to show that these "certainties of natural consciousness" have as their consequence the standpoint of speculative logic. This does not, however, make
9880-527: The dialectic in this sense is used to understand "the total process of enlightenment, whereby the philosopher is educated so as to achieve knowledge of the supreme good, the Form of the Good". Logic, which could be considered to include dialectic, was one of the three liberal arts taught in medieval universities as part of the trivium ; the other elements were rhetoric and grammar . Based mainly on Aristotle ,
10010-431: The dialogues of Plato are examples of the Socratic dialectical method. The Socratic dialogues are a particular form of dialectic known as the method of elenchus (literally, "refutation, scrutiny") whereby a series of questions clarifies a more precise statement of a vague belief, logical consequences of that statement are explored, and a contradiction is discovered. The method is largely destructive, in that false belief
10140-485: The domain of nature and spirit, in which it attains its "verification." Hence the conclusion of the Science of Logic with "the idea freely discharging [entläßt] itself" into "objectivity and external life" – and, so too, the systematic transition to the Realphilosophie . In contrast to the first, logical part of Hegel's system, the second, real-philosophical part – the philosophy of nature and of spirit –
10270-624: The election of God for all humanity, every person is subject to both aspects of God's double predestination. Dialectic prominently figured in Bernard Lonergan 's philosophy, in his books Insight and Method in Theology . Michael Shute wrote about Lonergan's use of dialectic in The Origins of Lonergan's Notion of the Dialectic of History . For Lonergan, dialectic is both individual and operative in community. Simply described, it
10400-418: The essay "Fragments on Religion and Love." In 1799, he wrote another essay titled "The Spirit of Christianity and Its Fate", unpublished during his lifetime. In 1801, Hegel came to Jena at the encouragement of Schelling, who held the position of Extraordinary Professor at the University of Jena . Hegel secured a position at the University of Jena as a Privatdozent (unsalaried lecturer) after submitting
10530-485: The experiential world depend upon networks of reciprocal recognition. Failures of recognition, then, demand reflection upon the past as a way "to understand what is required of us at the present." For Hegel, this ultimately involves rethinking an interpretation of "religion as the collective reflection of the modern community on what ultimately counts for it." He contends, finally, that this "historically, socially construed philosophical account of that whole process" elucidates
10660-444: The finitude of the partial categories of understanding". For Hegel, even history can be reconstructed as a unified dialectic, the major stages of which chart a progression from self-alienation as servitude to self-unification and realization as the rational constitutional state of free and equal citizens. Marxist dialectic is a form of Hegelian dialectic which applies to the study of historical materialism . Marxist dialectic
10790-420: The first medieval philosopher to work on dialectics was Boethius (480–524). After him, many scholastic philosophers also made use of dialectics in their works, such as Abelard , William of Sherwood , Garlandus Compotista , Walter Burley , Roger Swyneshed, William of Ockham , and Thomas Aquinas . This dialectic (a quaestio disputata ) was formed as follows: The concept of dialectics was given new life at
10920-418: The genesis of a distinctly "modern" standpoint. Another way of putting this is to say that the Phenomenology takes up Kant's philosophical project of investigating the capacities and limits of reason. Under the influence of Herder, however, Hegel proceeds historically, instead of altogether a priori. Yet, although proceeding historically, Hegel resists the relativistic consequences of Herder's own thought. In
11050-436: The human reality they reflect." In other words, it is not enough to consider propositions, or even the content of consciousness; "it is worthwhile to ask in every instance what kind of spirit would entertain such propositions, hold such views, and have such a consciousness. Every outlook in other words, is to be studied not merely as an academic possibility but as an existential reality." The Phenomenology of Spirit shows that
11180-457: The ideal appears opposite the real and reconstructs this real world, which it has grasped in its substance, in the shape of an intellectual realm. When philosophy paints its gray in gray, a shape of life has grown old, and it cannot be rejuvenated, but only recognized, by the gray in gray of philosophy; the owl of Minerva begins its flight only with the onset of dusk. Simon Blackburn Simon Walter Blackburn FBA (born 12 July 1944)
11310-470: The influence of early Romanticism, he underwent a sort of reversal, exploring, in particular, the mystical experience of love as the true essence of religion. Also in 1797, the unpublished and unsigned manuscript of " The Oldest Systematic Program of German Idealism " was written. It was written in Hegel's hand, but may have been authored by Hegel, Schelling, or Hölderlin. While in Frankfurt, Hegel composed
11440-500: The key method and theory of the philosophy of nature, the second was the Soviet version of the philosophy of history. Soviet systems theory pioneer Alexander Bogdanov viewed Hegelian and materialist dialectic as progressive, albeit inexact and diffuse, attempts at achieving what he called tektology , or a universal science of organization. Dialectical naturalism is a term coined by American philosopher Murray Bookchin to describe
11570-483: The lecture hall, not as a substitute for its proper, book-length exposition. Hegel presents logic as a presuppositionless science that investigates the most fundamental thought-determinations [ Denkbestimmungen ], or categories , and so constitutes the basis of philosophy. In putting something into question, one already presupposes logic; in this regard, it is the only field of inquiry that must constantly reflect upon its own mode of functioning. The Science of Logic
11700-469: The length of the text itself. The fourth chapter of the Phenomenology includes Hegel's first presentation of the lord-bondsman dialectic , the section of the book that has been most influential in general culture. What is at stake in the conflict Hegel presents is the practical (not theoretical) recognition or acknowledgement [ Anerkennung , anerkennen ] of the universality – i.e., personhood, humanity – of each of two opposed self-consciousnesses. What
11830-518: The local Bamberg beer. However, Hegel bore contempt for what he saw as "old Bavaria", frequently referring to it as "Barbaria" and dreaded that "hometowns" like Bamberg would lose their autonomy under new the Bavarian state. After being investigated in September 1808 by the Bavarian state for potentially violating security measures by publishing French troop movements, Hegel wrote to Niethammer, now
11960-416: The logic. Michael J. Inwood states, "The logical idea is non-temporal and therefore does not exist at any time apart from its manifestations." To ask "when" it divides into nature and spirit is analogous to asking "when" 12 divides into 5 and 7. The question does not have an answer because it is predicated upon a fundamental misunderstanding of its terms. The task of the logic (at this high systemic level)
12090-587: The mental – that is, it accounts for both the continuity and difference marking the domains of nature and culture – as a metaphysically necessary and coherent "identity of identity and non-identity". Hegel was born on 27 August 1770 in Stuttgart , capital of the Duchy of Württemberg in the Holy Roman Empire (now southwestern Germany). Christened Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, he was known as Wilhelm to his close family. His father, Georg Ludwig Hegel (1733–1799),
12220-457: The new semester began in October, Hegel returned to Berlin in the mistaken belief that the epidemic had largely subsided. By 14 November, Hegel was dead. The physicians pronounced the cause of death as cholera, but it is likely he died from another gastrointestinal disease. His last words are said to have been, "There was only one man who ever understood me, and even he didn't understand me." He
12350-473: The next as denoting thought-determinations only extrinsically connected to one another. The categories of Essence reciprocally "shine" into one another. Finally, in the Concept, thought has shown itself to be fully self-referential, and so its categories organically "develop" from one to the next. It is clear then, that in Hegel's technical sense of the term, the concept ( Begriff , sometimes also rendered "notion," capitalized by some translators but not others )
12480-399: The opening dialectic of the Logic , Hegel claims to display that the thought of " being, pure being – without further determination" is indistinguishable from the concept of nothing , and that, in this "passing back and forth" of being and nothing, " each immediately vanishes in its opposite. " This movement is neither one concept nor the other, but the category of becoming . There is not
12610-533: The other. Furthermore, the final sections of Hegel's Encyclopedia suggest that to give priority to any one of its three parts is to have an interpretation that is "one-sided," incomplete or otherwise inaccurate. As Hegel famously declares, "The true is the whole." Hegel's concept of logic differs greatly from that of the ordinary English sense of the term. This can be seen, for instance, in such metaphysical definitions of logic as "the science of things grasped in [the] thoughts that used to be taken to express
12740-614: The philosophical underpinnings of the political program of social ecology . Dialectical naturalism explores the complex interrelationship between social problems, and the direct consequences they have on the ecological impact of human society. Bookchin offered dialectical naturalism as a contrast to what he saw as the "empyrean, basically antinaturalistic dialectical idealism" of Hegel, and "the wooden, often scientistic dialectical materialism of orthodox Marxists". Neo-orthodoxy , in Europe also known as theology of crisis and dialectical theology,
12870-412: The philosophy of dialectical materialism is his theory of reflection, which presents human consciousness as a dynamic reflection of the objective material world that fully shapes its contents and structure. Later, Stalin's works on the subject established a rigid and formalistic division of Marxist–Leninist theory into dialectical materialism and historical materialism. While the first was supposed to be
13000-416: The philosophy of fine art, the philosophy of religion, the philosophy of history, and the history of philosophy were published posthumously from students' notes. In spite of his notoriously terrible delivery, his fame spread and his lectures attracted students from all over Germany and beyond. Meanwhile, Hegel and his pupils, such as Leopold von Henning , Friedrich Wilhelm Carové , were harassed and put under
13130-472: The poet Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock and writers associated with the Enlightenment , such as Christian Garve and Gotthold Ephraim Lessing . In 1844, Hegel's first biographer, Karl Rosenkranz described the young Hegel's education there by saying that it "belonged entirely to the Enlightenment with respect to principle, and entirely to classical antiquity with respect to curriculum." His studies at
13260-432: The process whereby the intellect passes from sensibles to intelligibles, rising from idea to idea until it finally grasps the supreme idea, the first principle which is the origin of all. The philosopher is consequently a "dialectician". In this sense, dialectic is a process of inquiry that does away with hypotheses up to the first principle. It slowly embraces multiplicity in unity. The philosopher Simon Blackburn wrote that
13390-442: The promotion of his philosophical adversary Jakob Friedrich Fries ahead of him. Hegel attempted to enlist the help of the poet and translator Johann Heinrich Voß to obtain a post at the renascent University of Heidelberg , but he failed. To his chagrin, Fries was, in the same year, made ordinary professor (salaried). The following February marked the birth of Hegel's illegitimate son, Georg Ludwig Friedrich Fischer (1807–1831), as
13520-408: The readers learn, but what the self-consciousnesses described do not yet realize, is that recognition can only be successful and actual as reciprocal or mutual. This is the case for the simple reason that the recognition of someone you do not recognize as properly human cannot count as genuine recognition. Hegel can also be seen here as criticizing the individualist worldview of people and society as
13650-648: The restrictive environment of the Seminary, the three became close friends and mutually influenced each other's ideas. (It is mostly likely that Hegel attended the Stift because it was state-funded, for he had "a profound distaste for the study of orthodox theology" and never wanted to become a minister. ) All three greatly admired Hellenic civilization, and Hegel additionally steeped himself in Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Lessing during this time. They watched
13780-462: The result of an affair with Hegel's landlady Christiana Burkhardt née Fischer. With his finances drying up quickly, Hegel was under great pressure to deliver his book, the long-promised introduction to his philosophical system. Hegel was putting the finishing touches to it, The Phenomenology of Spirit , as Napoleon engaged Prussian troops on 14 October 1806 in the Battle of Jena on a plateau outside
13910-488: The richness and diversity of reality. He rejected the notion that truth can be fully grasped through dialectical reasoning and offered a critique of dialectic, challenging its traditional framework and emphasizing the limitations of its approach to understanding reality. He expressed skepticism towards its methodology and implications in his work Twilight of the Idols : "I mistrust all systematizers and I avoid them. The will to
14040-479: The search for an externally objective criterion of truth is a fool's errand. The constraints on knowledge are necessarily internal to spirit itself. Yet, although theories and self-conceptions may always be reevaluated, renegotiated, and revised, this is not a merely imaginative exercise. Claims to knowledge must always prove their own adequacy in real historical experience. Although Hegel seemed during his Berlin years to have abandoned The Phenomenology of Spirit , at
14170-407: The special area of artificial intelligence and law , though the computer scientists' interest in formalizing dialectic originates in a desire to build decision support and computer-supported collaborative work systems. Dialectic itself can be formalised as moves in a game, where an advocate for the truth of a proposition and an opponent argue. Such games can provide a semantics of logic , one that
14300-655: The spirit of inquiry. In common cases, Socrates uses enthymemes as the foundation of his argument. For example, in the Euthyphro , Socrates asks Euthyphro to provide a definition of piety. Euthyphro replies that the pious is that which is loved by the gods. But, Socrates also has Euthyphro agreeing that the gods are quarrelsome and their quarrels, like human quarrels, concern objects of love or hatred. Therefore, Socrates reasons, at least one thing exists that certain gods love but other gods hate. Again, Euthyphro agrees. Socrates concludes that if Euthyphro's definition of piety
14430-534: The start of the 19th century by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel , whose dialectical model of nature and of history made dialectics a fundamental aspect of reality, instead of regarding the contradictions into which dialectics leads as evidence of the limits of pure reason, as Immanuel Kant had argued. Hegel was influenced by Johann Gottlieb Fichte 's conception of synthesis, although Hegel didn't adopt Fichte's "thesis–antithesis–synthesis" language except to describe Kant's philosophy: rather, Hegel argued that such language
14560-460: The subject of issuing instructions on how the world ought to be: philosophy, at any rate, always comes too late to perform this function. As the thought of the world, it appears only at a time when actuality has gone through its formative process and attained its completed state [ sich fertig gemacht ]. This lesson of the concept is necessarily also apparent from history, namely that it is only when actuality [ Wirklichkeit ] has reached maturity that
14690-497: The surveillance of Prince Sayn-Wittgenstein , the interior minister of Prussia and his reactionary circles in the Prussian court. In the remainder of his career, he made two trips to Weimar , where he met with Goethe for the last time, and to Brussels , the Northern Netherlands , Leipzig, Vienna , Prague, and Paris. During the last ten years of his life, Hegel did not publish another book but thoroughly revised
14820-782: The term "dialectics". For instance, Michael Heinrich wrote, "More often than not, the grandiose rhetoric about dialectics is reducible to the simple fact that everything is dependent upon everything else and is in a state of interaction and that it's all rather complicated—which is true in most cases, but doesn't really say anything." Since the late 20th century, European and American logicians have attempted to provide mathematical foundations for dialectic through formalisation, although logic has been related to dialectic since ancient times. There have been pre-formal and partially-formal treatises on argument and dialectic, from authors such as Stephen Toulmin ( The Uses of Argument , 1958), Nicholas Rescher ( Dialectics: A Controversy-Oriented Approach to
14950-664: The text which has become known as the Life of Jesus and a book-length manuscript titled "The Positivity of the Christian Religion." His relations with his employers becoming strained, Hegel accepted an offer mediated by Hölderlin to take up a similar position with a wine merchant's family in Frankfurt in 1797. There, Hölderlin exerted an important influence on Hegel's thought. In Berne, Hegel's writings had been sharply critical of orthodox Christianity, but in Frankfurt, under
15080-442: The time of his unexpected death, he was in fact making plans to revise and republish it. As Hegel was no longer in need of money or credentials, H. S. Harris argues that "the only rational conclusion that can be drawn from his decision to republish the book… is that he still regarded the 'science of experience' as a valid project in itself" and one for which later system has no equivalent. There is, however, no scholarly consensus about
15210-457: The tripartite structure of his system) also owes much to the hermetic tradition, in particular, the work of Jakob Böhme . The conviction that philosophy must take the form of a system Hegel owed, most particularly, to his Tübingen roommates, Schelling and Hölderlin. Hegel also read widely and was much influenced by Adam Smith and other theorists of the political economy . It was Kant's critical philosophy that provided what Hegel took as
15340-596: The unfolding of the French Revolution with shared enthusiasm. Although the violence of the 1793 Reign of Terror dampened Hegel's hopes, he continued to identify with the moderate Girondin faction and never lost his commitment to the principles of 1789, which he expressed by drinking a toast to the storming of the Bastille every fourteenth of July. Schelling and Hölderlin immersed themselves in theoretical debates on Kantian philosophy , from which Hegel remained aloof. Hegel, at this time, envisaged his future as that of
15470-663: The university in October 1829, but his term ended in September 1830. Hegel was deeply disturbed by the riots for reform in Berlin in that year. In 1831 Frederick William III decorated him with the Order of the Red Eagle , 3rd Class for his service to the Prussian state. In August 1831, a cholera epidemic reached Berlin and Hegel left the city, taking up lodgings in Kreuzberg . Now in a weak state of health, Hegel seldom went out. As
15600-402: The use of the term. In dialectical theology the difference and opposition between God and human beings is stressed in such a way that all human attempts at overcoming this opposition through moral, religious or philosophical idealism must be characterized as 'sin'. In the death of Christ humanity is negated and overcome, but this judgment also points forwards to the resurrection in which humanity
15730-441: The words of one scholar, "It is Hegel's insight that reason itself has a history, that what counts as reason is the result of a development. This is something that Kant never imagines and that Herder only glimpses." In praise of Hegel's accomplishment, Walter Kaufmann writes that the guiding conviction of the Phenomenology is that a philosopher should not "confine him or herself to views that have been held but penetrate these to
15860-542: The world and masters it. Hegel biographer Terry Pinkard notes that Hegel's comment to Niethammer "is all the more striking since he had already composed the crucial section of the Phenomenology in which he remarked that the Revolution had now officially passed to another land (Germany) that would complete 'in thought' what the Revolution had only partially accomplished in practice." Although Napoleon had spared
15990-404: Was "a lifeless schema" imposed on various contents, whereas he saw his own dialectic as flowing out of "the inner life and self-movement" of the content itself. In the mid-19th century, Hegelian dialectic was appropriated by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels and retooled in what they considered to be a nonidealistic manner. It would also become a crucial part of later representations of Marxism as
16120-414: Was also a typical product of early German romanticism . "Unity of life" was the phrase used by Hegel and his generation to express their concept of the highest good. It encompasses unity "with oneself, with others, and with nature. The main threat to such unity consists in division ( Entzweiung ) or alienation ( Entfremdung )." In this respect, Hegel was particularly taken with the phenomenon of love as
16250-476: Was born on 12 July 1944 in Chipping Sodbury , England. He attended Clifton College and went on to receive his bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1965 from Trinity College, Cambridge . He obtained his doctorate in 1969 from Churchill College, Cambridge . He retired as the professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge in 2011, but remains a distinguished research professor of philosophy at
16380-628: Was buried on 16 November. In accordance with his wishes, Hegel was buried in the Dorotheenstadt cemetery next to Fichte and Karl Wilhelm Ferdinand Solger . Hegel's illegitimate son, Ludwig Fischer, had died shortly before while serving with the Dutch army in Batavia and the news of his death never reached his father. Early the following year, Hegel's sister Christiane committed suicide by drowning. Hegel's two remaining sons – Karl , who became
16510-653: Was one of 55 public figures to sign an open letter published in The Guardian in September 2010, stating their opposition to Pope Benedict XVI 's state visit to the UK, and has argued that "religionists" should have less influence in political affairs. He was one of 240 academics to sign a letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission opposing 'radical gender orthodoxy', published in The Sunday Times. In
16640-680: Was published in 1807. This is the first time that, at the age of thirty-six, Hegel lays out "his own distinctive approach" and adopts an "outlook that is recognizably 'Hegelian' to the philosophical problems of post-Kantian philosophy". Yet, the book was poorly understood even by Hegel's contemporaries and received mostly negative reviews. To this day, the Phenomenology is infamous for, among other things, its conceptual and allusive density, idiosyncratic terminology, and confusing transitions. Its most comprehensive commentary, scholar H. S. Harris 's two-volume Hegel's Ladder ( The Pilgrimage of Reason and The Odyssey of Spirit ), runs more than three times
16770-526: Was secretary to the revenue office at the court of Karl Eugen, Duke of Württemberg . Hegel's mother, Maria Magdalena Louisa Hegel, née Fromm (1741–1783), was the daughter of a lawyer at the High Court of Justice at the Württemberg court Ludwig Albrecht Fromm (1696–1758). She died of bilious fever when Hegel was thirteen. Hegel and his father also caught the disease but narrowly survived. Hegel had
16900-607: Was to reach true knowledge, he was even willing to change his own views in order to arrive at the truth. The fundamental goal of dialectic, in this instance, was to establish a precise definition of the subject (in this case, rhetoric) and with the use of argumentation and questioning, make the subject even more precise. In the Gorgias , Socrates reaches the truth by asking a series of questions and in return, receiving short, clear answers. In Platonism and Neoplatonism, dialectic assumed an ontological and metaphysical role in that it became
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