A Commentary on Hegel's Logic

J. M. E. McTaggart

11 chapters · about 8 h

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The opening

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION

1. In this book I propose to give a critical account of the various transitions by which Hegel passes from the category of Being to the category of the Absolute Idea. I shall not describe or criticise the method which he employs, nor his applications of the results of the dialectic to the facts of experience. With these subjects I have dealt, to the best of my ability, in my Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic and Studies in Hegelian Cosmology. I hope that my present work may serve two purposes — that those students of Hegel who have read the Greater Logic may find it useful as a commentary, and that it may serve as an account of the Greater Logic for those who are prevented by want of time or ignorance of German from reading the original.

2. The dialectic process of the Logic is the one absolutely essential element in Hegel’s system. If we accepted this and rejected everything else that Hegel has written, we should have a system of philosophy, not indeed absolutely complete, but stable so far as it reached, and reaching to conclusions of the highest importance. On the other hand, if we reject the dialectic process which leads to the Absolute Idea, all the rest of the system is destroyed, since Hegel depends entirely, in all the rest of the system, on the results obtained in the Logic.

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The words
The author's text, copied word for word.
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