RE: The Hegelian Dialectic: An Explaination
I studied Hegel for about 4 years in Germany and wrote my master thesis about the Science of Logic. I agree with most of what you are saying although I have the feeling you are simplyfying some things.
For example: Hegel did the basic work for the late science of the logic already in the encyclopedia of the philosophical sciences. In here he layed the ground work for what later became famous as the trinity of thesis, antithesis and synthesis.
It is called the "three moments of the logic-realistic" and contains a reasonable moment ("thesis"), the dialectical moment ("antithesis") and the speculative moment ("synthesis").
I strongly recommend reading these in order to truly understand what Hegel's dialectic is all about. Dialectic thinking means to negate a negation. It means to having not truly experienced an idea, but to have at least experienced it in one of its determinations. The act of speculation (the way to the "antithesis") means to deny the actual possibility to beeing able to recognize something solely by reasonable thinking, but to acknowledge that the idea beeing researched about is differentiated within itself.
I do not agree on the last paragraph. Can you give a reference please where Hegel speaks about the synthesis of spirit and matter?
I am asking, because in a commented copy of the "Science of Logic" we used in university, Hegel writes:
The physical nature is such Other according to its determination; it is the Other of the mind. But since the spirit is the true Something and the nature for itself is only what it is in opposite of the spirit, therefore, insofar it is looked upon as itself, its quality is beeing exactly this: beeing the Other in opposite to itself, beeing out of itself.
(Source: Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Werke in 20 Bänden mit Registerband, herausgegeben von Eva Moldenhauer und Karl Markus Michel, Band 5: 127)
(Original: Solches seiner Bestimmung nach Andere ist die physische Natur; sie ist das Andere des Geistes… Aber indem der Geist das wahrhafte Etwas und die Natur daher an ihr selbst nur das ist, was sie gegen den Geist ist, so ist, insofern sie für sich genommen wird, ihre Qualität eben dies, das Andere an ihr selbst, das Außer-sich-Seiende … zu sein.).
In my view Hegel clearly speaks of a hierarchy here. He is putting the mind above the matter. The mind is "the true something" and the nature is "only what it is in opposite of the spirit". Or did I misunderstand this?
I always thought Hegel thought strictly dualistical as Platon did. Maybe I am wrong. Therefore I am asking you for reference.
Thanks for your input, the synthesis of spirit and matter is described in the "Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences" (Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse), unfortunetly I can't find my original notes so I can't tell you the specific passage.
I would say that Hegel is definetly dualistical and he puts the mind above matter. When he describes god as the world spirit and god is above everything else, then you can conclude that there is a hierarchy where the spirit is above the matter. The way I understand the synthesis of spirit and matter is that humans are in one way spirit but unlike god they are also matter but not in a way that there is a unity of the mind and the body, they are still somewhat independent.
I am in no way an expert on this topic so it is not unlikely that I misunderstood or simplified some aspects, if you wrote your master thesis on the Science of Logic you know much more about this than me, so I wouldn't take me as a reference.
In my view Hegel either was wrong with the dualistic thinking of mind and matter or people misunderstood him. Because right now we live in disastrous times, wherein the ideology of "mind over matter" became a perverted thinking, stating, that the matter "the male and/or white human" is arranged above "the female and/or black human".
In my personal view this kind of thinking is one of the major reasons for many global issues such as exploitation of nature and exploitation of people (i.e. human trafficking).
I once believed everything I learned about Hegel until I started reading about the critics of patriarchy.
Both, Hegels philosophy about the absolute respectively his philosophy of science and the critics of patriarchy, have the same foundation: mind and matter. Both terms are very important for my thinking and I researched a lot about the critics of patriarchy after I finished my degree in Germany. I concluded that something is wrong about the dualism between mind and matter. Maybe people missunderstood it in a way some "Neo-Darwinists" missunderstood Darwin. Darwin might have said "survival of the fittest", but what he meant was "survival of the one best adapted". There is a difference in that. Maybe people did the same with Hegel.
If they did (I'm still not sure), than Hegel is a bit responsible aswell, speaking of god referring to a male entity in his readers view. Both, putting mind over matter (in my view they're egalitarian or at least NOT directly connected with a certain sex) and refering to the male god must have laid the ground work for what manifested in a clearly dualistic thinking we face all around the world.