Hegel’s Logic: An Essay in Interpretation. John Grier Hibben 1902
Hegel’s Logic is not a logic in the formal and restricted sense in which that term is usually understood, as the science or the art of reasoning. It has a far larger scope, embracing as it does a complete system of philosophy in itself. Philosophy, according to Hegel, is a science of things in a setting of thoughts it is the science of the universe as it is interpreted by thought, and as it has significance for the mind which observes the wealth of its varied manifestation. The intelligence which contemplates the universe finds therein a the intelligence revealing itself, as face answereth to face in a gloss. That intelligence which characterizes the observing mind and the world which is the object of the observation is one and the same. In order to understand the essential features of the Hegelian system, it is necessary to appreciate at the beginning the fundamental characteristics of the intelligence which constitutes its centre and core with Hegel thought, whether manifested in the activity of mind or revealed in the order and harmony of the universe, has four distinctive features.
It is essentially active and never passive. The mind is not to he regarded as a plastic medium upon which impressions are produced by the varied stimulation of the several senses. The mind is not a photographic plate to hold whatever may be printed upon it and then to give hack upon demand whatever it may have received, Thought is the rather to be conceived as a force, a dynamic centre. Its function is constructive.
The creative and sustaining source of the universe is a thought force; and the thought activity which we are conscious of exercising partakes of the same nature.
The second function of thought is to transmute the crude material given hy the senses into a systematic body of knowledge. Out of a chaos of sensations, perceptions, feelings, and the like, thought builds up an orderly cosmos. To extend the figure already employed, thought interprets the world in a series of portraits rather than photographs. And as an interpretation by means of a portrait always involves an ideal element, so in the interpretation of the world of thought there is always an ideal element. But the introduction of an ideal element does not render the interpretation unreal. On the contrary, whenever a superficial view of the world gives place to a deeper insight, when thought like the great creative Spirit breeds over it, we are persuaded that the change which is wrought by thought brings us nearer to the heart and truth of things themselves.
It is of the nature of thought lithe third place to seek the universal significance of every particular experience by which it is confronted.
The animal lives and moves and has its being in the midst of particular experiences, audit does not possess the capacity of reflecting upon them, or possesses it in a very restricted manner. Reflection, which is the characteristic mode of thought, may he defined as the reference of a particular experience to its appropriate universal. Man as the reflective animal alone possesses this power of seeing things in their universal aspect. It is often said that man differs from the animal in that he is endowed with a conceptual capacity, that is, the capacity to form universal ideas. Thus when one says, “This is a man, a dog, a horse,” etc., he is simply referring the particular object of perception which occupies the centre of the field of vision for the moment to the appropriate class or group or kind to which it belongs. Such a group or class idea is a concept and has always a universal significance, and all of oar assertions contain some such reference to a universal. Moreover, language itself as the vehicle of thought is a system of symbols which represent universal ideas, and which thought employs for the purpose of a complete characterization of particular experiences which roost remain without meaning until they are properly interpreted in the light of their universal relations.
In the fourth place, every thought reference carries with it a consciousness of the Ego, or the personality which makes the reference.
Every conscious thought process, however simple, and however relatively unimportant, is in itself the declaration of a free personality.
Wherever there is thought, there is personality, according to Hegel’s fundamental dictum. Therefore the intelligence which is so variously manifested in the world about as bespeaks an all-embracing Ego, which is the great universal and to which all separate Egos are to be referred as individuals to their corresponding genus. Such an Ego, as a cosmic centre, gives unity to the activities of all personalities throughout the universe, comprehending all in one system, which in every part, however minute, characterized by intelligence.
Such being the nature of thought in general, a dynamic, constructive, interpretative, and personal force, we will now examine its functions more in detail. Occupying as it does central plane in the Hegelian system, it is necessary at the outset to understand fully Hegel’s conception of thought activity. It is obvious that thought manifests its activity in numerous ways. In the reference of the individual experience to its appropriate universal there is nil incalculable number of universals, as various as the manifold possibilities of the world of experience itself. In this connection there is a question which naturally suggests itself, and which is also one of the fundamental problems of philosophy. “Are there riot in thought a certain definite number of comprehensive universal to which all others may be referred, and which will serve to mark off welldefined areas of knowledge or modes of thought, so that when we speak of the world of knowledge these division be regarded as constituting the great continents of thought?” Such large divisions of our knowledge are called categories (die Denklestimmungren). The original meaning of category is found in the Greek verb kathgore.n to predicate, that is, the categories are the possible ways one can predicate various attributes of any subject so that together they form a natural classification of the most comprehensive themes of our thinking. They indicate the different ways in which the mind can view the world of experience. They are to he regarded as the typical modes of thought.
As an illustration, we may take the table of the categories, as outlined by Aristotle, which is as follows: –
1. Substance.
2. Quantity.
3. Quality.
4. Relation.
5. Action.
6. Passion (i.e., the object of action).
7. Where (i.e., space).
8. When (i.e., time).
9. Posture.
10. Habit.
When we have described anything as regards its substance, how large it is, what its nature is, its relations to other things, how it acts, how it is acted upon, its space and time conditions, its posture and its habit, then we have well-nigh exhausted the possibilities of description.
Hegel’s system of philosophy as contained in his logic may be appropriately styled a natural history of the categories, being essentially an exposition of their nature, their relations, and the mode of their development.
The main doctrines of the logic concerning the categories may be summarized briefly as follows: – The categories are not to be regarded as separate and isolated points of view. They sustain such reciprocal relations that together they form a single and harmonious system. This system, moreover, partakes of the nature of a series, in which the several terms may be grouped in the order of their progressive complexity, the first term being the simplest, and the succeeding terms more and more complex. Every term also contains two kinds of elements, – the explicit and the implicit. Explicitly every term is the result of all the terms which precede it, and implicitly it is the potential of all which are to follow.
It is the nature both of thought itself, and also of things as interpreted by thought, that when we start at the lowest category where knowledge is reduced to a minimum, i.e., the least that can be possibly predicated of anything, there is a natural constraint of the mind to pass on to a higher category, a higher level of thought, in order to complete the defects and to remove the limitations of the lower; and soon and on, until the highest possible category is reached which will comprehend and explain all the others. This movement of thought is occasioned by the circumstance that the mind revolving about itself in the sphere of a single category is always confronted by two disquieting considerations, It is never satisfied with a result that is partial, and it will not tolerate a contradiction or inconsistency. Hence arises this inner constraint to transcend the limits of the single category in question, that is, a partial point of view, in order to overcome its defects and contradictions. This progressive movement of thought is called the dialectic, and is the distinctive feature of the Hegelian method in the construction of his system of philosophy.
The term “dialectic” originates in the ancient Greek philosophy, probably with the old Eleatic Zeno, aced it has been made familiar in the teachings of Socrates and the dialogues of Plato. The latter recall to mind a picture of two disputants, the one maintaining a proposition, the other opposing it, while out of the discussion there emerges a more exact and adequate statement of truth. This is, in substance, the method of Hegel: the examination of a positive statement or thesis, which is confronted by an opposed statement or antithesis, and out of the opposition there results a synthesis, which is a resolution of the existing contradiction upon a higher plane of thought. Upon the same level or from the lame point of view contradictory statements roust ever remain obstinately irresoluble; it is only in a higher sense that they can be regarded as half truths combining to form truth entire. Such a synthesis, therefore, always represents a progress in thought, an advance to a higher point of view, a more comprehensive survey, a deeper insight, a wider prospect.
In order to understand the dialectic method, the following observations mast be carefully considered: – The first stage, that of the so-called thesis, is designated by Hegel as the stage of the abstract understanding; the second, the antithesis, which is a representation of the incompleteness of the first by showing its obverse side, is known as that of the negative reason; the third, the synthesis, is known as the speculative stage, or that of positive reason.
The terms which are here employed – the abstract understanding, the negative reason, and the positive reason – are used in a sense peculiar to Hegel. There is a fundamental distinction drawn between abstract and concrete, a distinction which runs through the entire philosophical system of Hegel. Abstract is used always in the lease of a one-sided or partial view of things. Concrete, on the other hand, is used to indicate a comprehensive view of things which includes all possible considerations as to the nature of the thing itself, its origin, and the relations which it sustains; it is the thing plus its setting.
The first of the three Stages is referred to also as the product of the understanding (der Verstand), the second and third, as that of the negative and positive reason (die Verunft) respectively. There is evidently a distinction drawn between the understanding and the reason, Hegel does nut intend to leave the impression, however, that there is a certain definite faculty of the mind which we call the understanding, and still another quite distinct which we call the reason. Such a view fails wholly to grasp his mending. Hegel maintains that the mind works as it were upon two levels, a lower and a higher, nod yet one and the same mind withal.
Upon the lower certain considerations are overlooked which are the characteristic and essential features of the higher. Upon the lower level, that of the understanding, the mind employs one of its functions to the exclusion of the rest; namely, that of discrimination, the seeing of things in their differences, and therefore as distinct separate, and isolated, – out of relation to other things and to the unitary system which embraces them all. While, therefore, the function of the understanding may be regarded as a process of differentiation, that of the reason is essentially a process of integration. Reason is the synthetical power of thought. It is the putting of things together in their natural relations. The reason takes note, it is true, of the differences which are in the world of experience, and yet nevertheless is capable of apprehending the unity which underlies these differences. It sees things not as apart and separate, but as cohering in systems, and the distinct systems themselves as forming one all-comprehending system, the universe itself.
It is evident, therefore, that the understanding and the reason are not necessarily antithetical terms. The work of the understanding is preliminary to that of the reason. Where they appear, as they often do in the Logic, as antagonistic, it is the false view of the understanding which is the object of the Hegelian scorn; namely, that view which regards the offices of the understanding as complete in themselves, and needing no higher operation of the mind to supplement or correct them.
It is the office of the negative reason to make manifest the limitations of the understanding and the contradictions which every one-sided and partial view of things necessarily involves, The office of the positive reason, on the other hand, is to make good the defects which the negative reason reveals. In this connection Hegel employs two technical terms which appear frequently in the development of his system They are negation and absolute negation. By negation is to be understood this process of negative reason which results in the denial of the primary thesis, by absolute negation is meant the overcoming in turn of this first contradiction by an assertion which denies it and which involves a higher point of view. This is equivalent to a negation of a negation, which has the force always of an affirmation. Duplex negutio affirmat. The three steps of the dialectic, therefore, are affirmation, negation, then a negation of this negation which is itself an affirmation. It is to be observed, moreover, that the term “dialectic” is used in too senses in Hegel, a general and a special sense. In the former sense it designates the threefold process of thought as a whole, which has just been out lined. In its special use it is applied merely to the second or negative stage of the process, – the limiting of the original statement through its contradiction.
The antithesis, moreover, which opposes in thought the primary thesis is not a chance confronting of a statement by another which happens to oppose it. The contradiction is never external, artificial, or arbitrary, but is one which grows out of the very nature of the original thought itself. Every thought which is one-sided, thereby of necessity involves its own contradiction. From the very fact that it is finite and therefore incomplete, it must at some point or other prove inadequate, and therefore fall of its own weight. It cannot support itself, nor can it justify itself. Thus, to use an illustration of Hegel, we say that man is mortal, and seem to think that the ground of this mortality lies in the external circumstances which constantly surround and menace him; but the true view of the matter is that life in its very nature as life involves the germ of death, and so the life of a finite creature being essentially at war with itself works its own dissolution. This dialectic may be seen in the common proverb summum jus, summa injuria; that is, to push an abstract right to its extreme is to pass insensibly to its contradictory, and to cause in reality injustice rather than justice. So also Hegel draws attention to the fact that in the sphere of politics extreme anarchy passes ever into its opposite extreme despotism; and that in the sphere of ethics the following proverbs attest the same general principle, – “Pride goeth before a fall” and “Too much wit outwits itself.” The dialectic finds further illustration in the history of philosophy itself, wherein the several systems of thought are confronted each by its opposed system, while out of the controversies which ensue there emerges a more complete system which combines the truth and discards the errors, which each of the conflicting systems contained. Such a process is repeated again and again in the gradual development of the fulness of truth which only centuries of controversy and of experience are able to reveal.
We have referred thus far to the method by which Hegel proposes to construct the world of knowledge, and to show how part is related to part throughout, and all parts to the whole in a progressive development wherein every advance marks a growing completeness of knowledge.
But this is but one-half of his system; for Hegel maintains, as one of the cardinal doctrines of his philosophy, that the laws of thought are at the same time the laws of things, and that the categories of thought correspond precisely with the determining characteristics of things. The rational system of thought is with him equivalent to the true philosophy of all being. Thus with him epistemology and ontology are one; the secret of the mind is the secret of the universe. Man as a rational being is veritably a microcosm. “Know thyself and all is known.” This is all summarily expressed in the Hegelian dictum, “The real is the rational, and the rational is the real.” This is in accord with the doctrine of Spinoza, who affirms that “the order and concatenation of ideas is the same as the order and concatenation of things."[1]Hegel regards the cosmos and the cosmic processes as the manifestation of reason. Moreover, it is of the essence of reason to manifest itself in the objective world. Reason has two sides, – a thought side and a force side, a rational and a dynamic essence, – and these two are one. Reason is to he regarded, therefore, as underlying all thoughts and all things. In the physical world the laws of phenomena finding expression in mathematical formula represent the thought side of reason; the phenomena themselves are but the particular manifestations of these laws, the concrete and dynamic realization of the reason implicit in them. Every individual thing in the universe must be regarded as having some universal law or principle of reason as the very root and substance of its being, attributes and activities. This universal principle of reason is the creative and constructive force of the universe. It is seen in the architectonic principle which is the soul of the plant, in the creative and sustaining power of the animal and in man, in the formation of character, in the building of institutions, in the development of church and of state, and of the arts and sciences.
This principle of reason Hegel calls the Begriff. To convey its full significance I have adopted the usual translation of this term; namely, the notion. It will be necessary, however, to enlarge our usual connotation of the term “notion,” so that as an equivalent for Begriff it will signify this universal principle of reason which is active in all thought aid in all things. Let us examine a few passages of the Logic in order that at the beginning we may form a correct idea of Hegel’s own interpretation of the term. “The Begriff is the principle of all life; it is at the same time the absolutely concrete, that is, finding complete manifestation in reality."[2] The Begriff is found in the innermost heart of things, constituting them what they in reality are."[3] “The forms of the Begriff are the living spirit of reality, and whatever is real is such only because these forces are active in them, snaking them what they are."[4] It is obvious that the Hegelian system is one if idealism. The cosmic force is to he regarded as the manifestation of its various phases of the all-embracing reason, and all history as an evolution of this reason in the progressive enfolding of its inner activity. This idealism is, moreover, an absolute idealism; that is, the underlying reason, which is the creative and sustaining principle of all things, is in the midst of all its variety of manifestation absolutely one and the same, from which nothing can be taken, and to which nothing can be added. It is completely unconditioned and independent. It is, therefore, the Absolute, that is, God. The highest manifestations of this principle of reason Hegel calls the Idea (die Idee), desiring to indicate by a single word that the supreme power of the universe is not mechanical and material, but essentially rational and spiritual. The Idea, the Absolute, God, are to be regarded as strictly synonymous terms used by Hegel interchangeably, and with no shade of distinction in their meaning.
In the exposition of Hegel’s system be endeavors to show that the world of knowledge unfolds by the inner constraint of its own dialectic from the simplest beginnings through more arid more complex stages until it reaches complete fulfilment in the all-embracing Absolute. But though the Absolute is the consummation of the process as a whole, nevertheless the Absolute, as the creative and sustaining principle of reason itself must be both the beginning of the process, and must underlie every succeeding stage of the process as well. Therefore every crosssection, as it were, of this process of evolution reveals some phase of the Absolute, incomplete it is true, and, therefore, if taken by itself misleading, but so far forth it remains an unmistakable manifestation of the divine reason which is its ground and justification, Thus Hegel defines the Absolute as the essence of all being in general; as cause, and as law in the physical universe; as consciousness, purpose, beneficence, justice, etc., in the realm of mind. From this point of view Hegel’s system may be characterized is the progressive revelation of God.
Hegel’s method of exposition in general may be summarized, therefore, as an attempt to show the various stages of development in the manifestation of the principle of reason as a growing revelation of the Absolute in such a manner that every stage by itself is partial and therefore involves its own contradiction; but that these contradictions contain, nevertheless, common elements by which, from a higher point of view, obey maybe reconciled and combined. Such a point of advantage being gained in the progress of thought, there will be disclosed, however, a new contradiction, again to be resolved by earnest consideration rind penetrating insight in a higher synthesis, and soon and on through every stage of the process to the end where alone there may be found an abiding place in the Absolute, wherein there is found no contradiction and no incompleteness. The process as one, the underlying ground is one, and any element in the process receives its full significance solely in the light of the whole; then and then only is its truth revealed. Truth with Hegel means always that knowledge which embraces its object upon all possible sides and in all of its possible relations as the complete expression of the eternal reason which underlies it. This is a thought akin to that of the old Hebrew poet and philosopher who said, “In thy light shall we see light,” and that of the later Hebrew who so constantly insisted that everything is known only as it is viewed sub specie aeternitatis.