Hegel’s Logic: An Essay in Interpretation. John Grier Hibben 1902

Appendix: A Glossary of the More Important Philosophical Terms in Hegel’s Logic

Absolut: That which is unconditioned and conditions all things. That which is complete within itself, all-embracing, all-determining, the infinite, the eternal, God. In its highest expression, it is the absolute Idee.

Abstrakt: A one-sided and partial view of any object of knowledge; a term used in contrast to concrete, which signifies a comprehensive view of things embracing all possible considerations as to the nature of the things themselves, their origin, and the manifold relations which they may sustain.

Allgemein, Allgemeinheit: Universal, universality. The universal is not merely the summation of the various marks which are common to a number of individuals, by virtue of which they are regarded as members of one and the same group or class. The term has attached to it the additional significance of possessing a dynamic essence which is the source and the active constructive principle of all its particular manifestations.

Analytisch: Analytical; in contrast with synthetical (synthetisch). The analytical method examines every individual phenomenon for the purpose of discovering its various particular characteristics, separating the essential from the unessential, and referring it to its appropriate cause, law, or genus, – that is, to its corresponding universal.

The synthetical method starts, on the other hand, with the universal.

Its activity is essentially constructive. It works as an architectonic principle to produce all the particular manifestations which are possible in accordance with its essential and universal nature, and as revealed ultimately in the organization and completed being of concrete individuals.

Das Andere: The other, – that is, the complementary aspect, of any object of knowledge which is necessary to the complete understanding of its significance; its correlative. The other may be a cognate species, or the end for which the object in question may be used, or some other object with which it is essentially related; it is, in short, the complete setting of the object which gives to it depth and completeness of meaning. As applied to the process of development, the other of any stage in the process is the subsequent stage which lies immediately beyond it, and which for the time being is contrasted with it, but into which it passes through the constraint of the dialectic movement.

Anschauung: Perception. A direct and immediate knowing, as opposed to knowledge obtained by the mediating process of thought. The object may belong either to the internal or to the external sense. See Vorstellung.

An sich: In itself; a phrase used to signify that which is implicit, or potential, in contrast to the phrase für sich, which signifies that which is explicit or actual. The phrase which is compounded of these two contrasted phrases, an und für sich, signifies that which possesses the capacity of transforming whatever is potential into the actual manifestation of the same; it is the capacity for self-determination and self-direction.

Aufheben, aufgehoben: To transmute, transmuted. There are three distinct though related ideas which this term expressess, – to destroy a thing in its original form, to restore it in another form, and to elevate it upon a higher plane. It represents always a progress in thought and in development. It is difficult to translate this term by any one English word. To transmute or to conserve would perhaps approximately express its meaning.

Bedingung: Condition; whatever is necessary in causation to the eventuation of the effect.

Begriff: Notion. It is the universal principle of reason which underlies all processes of thought. It is essentially dynamic. it is not merely the supreme category of thought, but it is also the fundamental law of being as well. It is the creative architectonic force of the universe.

While Seyn is being, regarded merely as that which is immediately given, unexplained, unrelated, and unanalyzed, and Wesen refers to the underlying principles of being, its manifold relations, and essential ground, the Begriff represents a far deeper insight; it is more than the mere source of determination and efficiency, it is the central force of self-determination and self-specification, realizing its own subjective purposes through their essential manifestation in the world of objectivity, and as such it constitutes the truth both of Seyn and of Wesen.

Beisichseyn: Being by itself; applied to an object of knowledge to indicate that it is self-sufficient and self-contained. See Fürsichseyn.

Besonderheit: Particularity; having significance only, however, when recognized as the particular of some universal.

Bestimmung: From bestimmen, to define or determine; it is that differentiating capacity which gives to any object of thought definite form and character. The Denkbestimmungen are the most general forms of thought determination, and which themselves determine all others of a more particular or specific nature, – the categories.

Bestimmt: Specifically determined.

Bestimmtheit: The actual realization of the capacity expressed by Bestimmung; it signifies a state of definiteness; it refers to the specific and determinate character of any object of knowledge.

Beweis: Demonstration. See Definition.

Beziehung auf sich: A phrase which indicates a relation existing within the boundaries of the object of knowledge itself. From such a point of view the object of knowledge is regarded as a closed system, and for the time being, at least, isolated in reference to any larger system or systems with which it may sustain essential relations.

Beziehung in Anderes: Indicates the essential relation of any object of knowledge to that which confronts it as peculiarly its other, – that is, its necessary complement in some larger system of thought within which the given object of knowledge together with its other necessarily fall.

Sich auf sich beziehende Negativität. See Negativität.

Daseyn: Being which is definitely determined in contrast to Seyn, mere being which is wholly indefinite and undetermined. Daseyn is also used in contrast to Existenz, which latter signifies being which is definitely determined, but with an implied reference to the source of the being in question, its essential ground. The terms Seyn, Daseyn, Existenz, form a series which represents successive stages in the progress of thought as regards a more precise determination and explanation.

Definition: Definition. The essential nature of the fundamental universal in its synthetic activity is given by definition. The particular manifestations of which it is in general capable are given by division (Division).

The concrete individuality which is always some definite object constituted by a nexus of complex relations is called a theorem (Theorem).

The process which supplies the necessary elements which serve as mediating terms in this nexus of complex relations is called the process of construction (Konstruktion); its function is to fuse into one these different elemental parts. The process from which cognition derives the necessity of this nexus is called demonstration (Beweis).

Deakbestimmungen: Categories. See Bestimmung.

Dialeltik: Dialectic, a term used as a general characterization of the Hegelian method. It signifies that process of thought which recognizes the inherent contradiction involved in every finite statement, and at the same time possesses the capacity of overcoming by an appropriate synthesis every observed contradiction upon a higher level of thought.

The term is used in two senses, the one referring to the threefold process as a whole; the other solely to the second stage of the process, that of contradiction.

Differenz: Difference. This term can be defined only in its relation to the term Identität (identity). They are so related that the differences which obtain between objects have significance only when contrasted with an essential identity which forms their background, and in like manner the identity which may be affirmed in any instance has significance only when brought into relief by the contrast of some underlying difference. When identity and difference are used as predicates without this reference to each other, there arises the false and unmeaning abstraction of mere difference or mere identity.

Ding an sich: The thing in itself. This Kantian phrase is used in a peculiar manner by Hegel. With him the Ding an sich refers always to the thing in its germinal or potential state. The seed, for instance, is the plant in itself; the child is the man in himself.

Division: Division. See Definition.

Eigenschaft: The quality, property, or attribute of a thing.

Einzelnheit: Individuality. The individual object of knowledge has significance only when the particular and differentiating characteristics are known which make it possible to refer the individual in question to its proper universal.

Entwickelung:Evolution, development. The dialectic movement is essentially one of development, though it traces the logical rather than the temporal stages of the process.

Erkennen: Cognition; one of the higher forms in which the Begriff manifests itself. it is the notion rising to the level of a consciousness of itself and its own processes and the objects of its own knowledge.

Erscheinung: Appearance or phenomenon. It is that aspect of being which is revealed in the world of phenomena. It is to be distinguished from Schein, which is the mere appearance, the shadow, illusion. The Erscheinung is the shining forth of that which is the underlying ground and essence of being. With Hegel the phenomenon has no significance apart from its noumenon. The one is the necessary complement of the other.

Etwas: A somewhat or something. Any object of knowledge which possesses determinate being (Daseyn). Every Etwas is positiv by virtue of what it is, negativ in so far as it excludes from its own being its corresponding other.

Existenz: See Daseyn.

Form: Form; with Hegel it signifies a formative, constructive principle, which is immanent in the underlying substance of things.

Freiheit: Freedom.

Für sich: Explicit, actual. See An sich.

Fürsichseyn: Being for itself, – that is, being which defines its own bounds and determines its own properties. It is self-determined, self-contained being. Its independence however is asserted but not explicitly justified. In Beisickseyn, the independence of being is regarded as fully justified.

Gedanken: Thoughts; a term often used by Hegel to mean merely abstract thoughts, the ordinary concepts of the formal logic.

Gegensatz: Antithesis; the second stage of every dialectic movement and an essential moment or factor in the resulting synthesis by which it is united upon a higher plane to that which upon a lower level of thought appeared as its opposite.

Gesetzt: From the verb setzen. Any object of thought is gesetzt which is necessarily and explicitly determined by the logic of the situation.

Whenever that which is given in thought leads by the very necessity of the thought processes themselves to a conclusion depending upon it, that conclusion is always described by Hegel as gesetzt. Every phase of the dialectic process is gesetzt in the sense of following by the very momentum of thought itself from the nature of the stage immediately preceding it.

Gesetztseyn: The condition or state of being gesetzt.

Grad: Degree or intensity of qualitative variation, as the degree of heat or cold, etc.

Gränze: Limit, marking the line of differentiation between any object of knowledge and its other. See Schranke.

Grund: The ground underlying all surface appearance; the basis upon which the existence of any object of knowledge depends. It is the noumenon underlying every phenomenon. It is the constant and permanent essence of all objects of knowledge.

Idealität, Ideel: Ideality, ideal. The ideal is essentially characteristic of the truly infinite. It is the abiding and constant element in every definite being underlying the changing and unstable elements which constitute its finiteness. Therefore the finite and the infinite, the real and the ideal, are not irreconcilable opposites. Every finite being possesses elements of infinity. The truly real is such by virtue of some essential strain of ideality. And the human has the capacity of becoming partaker of the divine nature.

Idee: The Idea; the highest form of the Begriff, or notion, as manifesting its conscious, free, and self-determining essence, the consummation and the source of all knowledge and of all being.

Identität: Identity. See Differenz.

Abstrakte Identität: Abstract identity; an incomplete and colorless view of things.

Absolute Identität: Complete identity; mere sameness, an indefinite homogeneity.

Mit sich identisch: Self-identical, – that is, presenting a sameness throughout and lacking any differentiation of parts or specification of functions. Anything which is completely homogeneous throughout is mit sich identisch.

Inhalt: Content. It has meaning only when it is regarded as one with the form.

Kausalität: The category of causality.

Konkret: Concrete; a complete comprehensive view of things. See Abstrakt.

Konstruktion: Construction. See Definition.

List: Craft. It is a characterization of the manner in which reason works out its ends in nature by bringing under its control the mechanical and chemical forces of the world and swaying them at will.

Maass: Measure. The standard measure or typical form to which all things in their several spheres, more or less perfectly correspond.

Mittelbar: Mediate. This term is used in contrast to unmittelbar, immediate.

Anything is ummittelbar, immediate, which is represented as an object of knowledge given but unanalyzed and unexplained. And anything is mittelbar, mediate, which is regarded as a product due to a certain process by which it is brought about or mediated.

Immediate knowledge is given; mediate is explained. The immediate is unrelated; the mediate is related. The immediate is elementary; the mediate is developed. The immediate marks the beginning; the mediate, the result.

Möglichkeit: Possibility, – the possibility, however, not of the fancy, but that possibility which represents a definite potential capable of actual realization.

Moment: Moment or factor; an essential element in any complex system or process.

Negativ: Negative; refers to the element of difference in the essence of any object of knowledge, and whose significance lies wholly in the relation to its complementary element; the positive. The two unite together in constituting the essential ground of being.

Negotivität: Negation; the process of the so-called negative reason which confronts any primary thesis with its corresponding antithesis. The absolute Negativität is the overcoming of this first negation by a denial which involves a higher point of view. This second negation, being the denial of the first negation, has the force of an affirmation.

it is, however, not a simple reaffirmation of the primary thesis; it is a process which, while affirming the primary thesis, at the same time embraces its contradiction in the resulting synthesis as one of its essential moments or factors. Negation as a process, moreover, draws a line of distinction between any object of knowledge and that which lies immediately beyond it as its other. This is a line of definition, inasmuch as it differentiates that which a thing is from that which it is not. In this sense negation is a process of determination.

Negative Einheit: A system containing many different parts, all of which are, however, united through an underlying unity; it is a unity in the midst of diversity.

Sich auf sich beziehende Negotivität: A self-imposed negation,ùthat is, a system which contains within the sphere of its own essential being certain contradictory elements which cause the system as it stands to fall of its own weight, as it were, and indicates the necessity of overcoming such contradictions by the introduction of somne higher category of thought.

Nichts: Non-being. It is that stage which is not yet reached in any process of development but may become Seyn, or actual being, through the process of becoming (Werden).

Nothwendigkeit: Necessity.

Objektiv: Objective. It is a term used to designate in the Kantian sense all that is universal and necessary in any object of knowledge. Hegel adds, however, that thoughts as universal and necessary are not to be regarded merely as our thoughts but as the real essence of existing things as well.

Objectivität: Objectivity; that stage in development of being which is the explicit manifestation of the subjective notion immanent within it.

Positiv: Positive; a term whose significance lies only in its relation to its correlative, the negative. See Negative.

Realität: Reality. The positive aspect of any determinate being which constitutes it what it is, and as such it forms an essential moment of that which is truly infinite and therefore ideal. See Idealität.

Reflexion: Reflection; that fundamental process of thought by which any object of knowledge is fully revealed only when we see it in its complete setting and possess a thorough knowledge of the relations which it sustains to every part of the system to which it is referred.

The object itself, therefore, cannot be said to shine in its own light so much as in the light reflected from all the coordinate elements with which it is related.

Reflexion in sich: The process by which an object of knowledge shines in its own light.

Reflexion in Anderes: The process by which an object of knowledge shines in the light of something which is related to it as its other, or complement; that which is essentially its correlative.

Setzende Reflexion: Positing reflection; that phase of the process of reflection which regards being as self-illuminated, and therefore as immediately given and independent.

Voraussetzende Reflexion: Presupposing reflection. This represents a deeper insight, in that it sees that the supposed immediacy and independence of a given object of knowledge must be referred to some other which is its necessary presupposition.

Aeusserliche Reflexion: External reflection; in which the relation existing between being and that upon which the being depends is regarded as a purely external relation, the one affecting the other wholly from without.

Bestimmende Reflexion: Determining reflection; which regards the seemingly external relation as in reality obtaining between coordinate elements of one and the same essential system of being.

Reflexionsbestimmungen: The categories of reflection.

Regel: Rule, – that is, the usual or typical form which is found to characterize members of the same class or species.

Satz: Proposition; a statement which is correct as regards certain circumstances hut does not hold true universally and necessarily. It differs in this respect from the judgment (das Urtheil) which contains this element of universality and necessity. The proposition may be said to be correct or incorrect; the judgment, however, is either true or not true.

Schein: Show; to be distinguished from Ersckeinung, appearance or phenomenon, which see.

Schluss: Syllogism. This is not merely the logical, form of inference; it is used also to characterize every active process in the world of being which unites together any two elements through the mediation of a third, the common or middle term. The syllogistic process is one, therefore, which underlies the activities of being as well as of thought.

Sckranke: The hound; marking the limit which any definite being may have attained at any particular stage of its development, but which by the inner constraint of its own nature it must transcend in the more advanced stages of its development.

Seyn: Being; in the sense of mere being, indefinite and undetermined. See Begriff.

Subjectiv: Subjective; not merely that which concerns the individual and personal thoughts and interests in distinction from the whole body of facts in the world of phenomena, but that which is at the same time immanent in the fact, and as thus immanent constitutes the very truth of the fact itself and its informing principle.

Substantialität, Substanz: Substantiality, substance; that which is the absolute formative principle and source of all power and necessity in the universe. At its last analysis, substance is revealed as subject, – that is, the power of an absolute personality.

Syntketisch: Synthetical; see Analytisch.

Theorem: Theorem. See Definition.

Totalität: The sum total of all properties and relations pertaining to any object of knowledge taken not as a mere sum, but as a systematic unity.

Uebergang: Transition; a term used to indicate the passage of thought from any given stage of its development to that which lies immediately in advance and which is essentially connected with the former by the inner necessity of the thought process itself.

Unvermittelt: That which is not mediated. It is a term used to imply that although a process of mediation doubtless underlies the object of knowledge to which it is applied, nevertheless that process is not as yet recognized or rendered explicit. See Mittelbar.

Unmittelbarkeit: Immediacy. See Mittelbar and Unvermittelt.

Unterschied: Difference. It is something more than mere diversity (Versckiedenkeit); it also signifies a determinate and specific difference (bestimmter Unterschied) which serves as the differentiating mark of a definite species.

Ursache: Cause; its root meaning indicating that the cause as the primary essence must underlie its effect (Wirkung).

Urtheil: Judgment; its root meaning signifies a division into elementary parts, and this significance is preserved in the essential function of the judgment which is the process of breaking up an indefinite and incoherent universal into particular forms of its manifestation which are both definite and coherent. As a process, judgment applies not merely to the activity of thought but to the activity of being as well.

Verkältniss: Relation; applied especially to the relation which obtains between any object of knowledge and its correlative as mediated by the category of reflection, such as the causal relation or the relation of reciprocal activity.

Vermittelt, Vermittelung: Mediated, mediacy. See Mittelbar and Unvermittelt.

Vernunft: Reason; as distinguished from Verstand, the understanding.

Reason is that function of the mind which overcomes, in a higher synthesis, the contradictions which it is the function of the understanding to observe and which, however, it cannot reconcile. The understanding regards the various objects of knowledge as distinct, separate, isolated. Reason is the synthetical function of thought which, while it by no means ignores the differences amidst the world of phenomena, nevertheless possesses the capacity of apprehending the unity which underlies all differences.

Verschiedenheit: Diversity.

Verstand: Understanding. See Vernunft.

Voraussetzung: Postulate.

Vorstellung: A generalized image of a class or group of objects in distinction from Anschaunng, which is the immediate perception of an object, and Begriff which is the thought grasp of the essential significance of a universal idea without any adventitious aid from the pictures which the imagination may attempt to form of the same.

Wahrheit: Truth; according to Hegel truth consists in the complete conformity of any object of knowledge with its fundamental Begriff and this implies a process in which it is seen in the totality of its relations.

Wechselwirkung: The category of reciprocal activity.

Werden: Becoming; the process through which non-being issues into being.

Wesen: Essence. See Begriff Widerspruch: Contradiction.

Wirklichkeit: Actuality. The concrete unity of essence and appearance.

Wirkung: Effect. See Ursache.

Zufälligkeit: Contingency; the contingent is that which does not have the ground of its being in itself, but in some other.