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STUDIES
IN THE
HEGELIAN DIALECTIC
BY THE SAME AUTHOR
STUDIES IN HEGELIAN COSMOLOGY. 8s. net.
A COMMENTAEY ON HEGEL'S LOGIC. 12s. net.
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STUDIES
IN THE
HEGELIAN DIALECTIC
BY
JOHN McTAGGART ELLIS McTAGGART
LITT.D. CAMBRIDGE, LL.D. ST ANDREWS,
FELLOW AND LECTURER OF TRINITY COLLEGE IN CAMBRIDGE,
FELLOW OF THE BRITISH ACADEMY
SECOND EDITION
CAMBRIDGE
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1922
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. F. CLAY, Manager
LONDON : FETTERLANE, E.C.4
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLANCO.
BOMBAY \
CALCUTTA [ MACMILLAN AND CO., Ltd.
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TORONTO : THE MACMILLAN CO. OP
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TOKYO : MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA
ALL BIGHTS RESERVED
Fir»t Edition, 1896
Second Edition, 1922
TO
MISS FRANCES POWER COBBE
WITH MUCH GRATITUDE
583471
PREFACE
THE first four chapters of this book are based on a disserta-
tion submitted at the Fellowship Examination of Trinity
College, Cambridge, in 1891. The fourth and fifth chapters, nearly
in their present form, were pubhshed in Mind (New Series, Nos.
1, 2, 8, and 10). A part of the second chapter appeared in the
Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale for November 1893.
In quoting from the Smaller Logic and the Philosophy of
Spirit, I have generally availed myself of Professor Wallace's
valuable translations.
I am most deeply indebted to Professor J. S. Mackenzie, of
University College, Cardiff, for his kindness in reading the proof-
sheets of these Studies, and in assisting me with many most
helpful suggestions and corrections.
The changes in the second edition are not numerous. When
they are more than verbal, I have called attention to them in
notes.
J. E. McT.
December, 1921.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE GENERAL NATURE OF THE DIALECTIC
PAGE
1. The logical connection of categories ...... 1
2. The form of this connection is progressively modified . . 2
^_^_^. The dialectic is a process of reconstruction .... 3
^yi. Which takes place by alternate production and removal of
contradictions ......... 4
5. An objection to this raised by Hartmann ..... 6
^. In what sense the dialectic may be said to be objective . . 6
J. The imperfection of finite things does not involve, for Hegel, the
objective reality of the dialectic as a process .... 7
8. The dialectic does not violate the law of contradiction . . 8
9. The importance of the idea of negation is only secondary . . 10
^^0. The relation of the dialectic to ordinary thought . . .11
11. Hartmann' s criticisms of this relation 12
12. The same continued 14
'13. The dialectic must prove its validity to the Understanding . 14
^^4. The relation of the dialectic to experience 16
15. The relation of the dialectic to experience further defined . . 17
J 6. The basis upon which the dialectic works is the nature of ex-
perience 19
17. The postulate which it assumes is the vaUdity of the category
of Being 19
18. And the denial of this postulate is contradictory ... 20
19. The argument of the dialectic is transcendental . . .21
20. The epistemological result of the dialectic 22
21. The negative effects of this 22
22. Its positive effects . . . . . . . . .23
23. We are not entitled to consider pure thought as independent
of experience .......... 24
24. The relation of Hegel's epistemology to Kant's . . . .25
^&5. The ontological result of the dialectic — ambiguity of the phrase 26
26. Hegel's deduction of Nature and Spirit from the Logic . . 27
27. This deduction does not treat pure thought as independent of
experience .......... 28
2%. The importance of the ontological result of the dialectic . . 29
29. Comparison of Hegel with his immediate predecessors in philo-
sophy 30
TABLE OF CONTENTS ix
CHAPTER II
DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE DIALECTIC
PAGB
30. Introductory 32
A
31. Trendelenburg's view that the dialectic is per se sterile, and gains
its advance by illegitimate appeals to experience ... 32
32. The errors involved in this view .33
33-43. Passages from the Encyclopaedia bearing on this view . . 35
44. The true relation of the dialectic to experience is not made clear
by Hegel 48
45. Reasons for this 48
46. Hegel's assertion that the dialectic is without presupposition . 50
B
47. The relation of the Absolute Idea to experience . . .51
48. The Absolute Idea transcends contingency, but not immediacy 52
49. Hegel's definition of the Absolute Idea ..... 53
c
50. Professor Seth's view as to the ontological claims of the dialectic 54
61. Hegel's description of the transition from Logic to Nature and
Spirit ........... 55
52. The interpretation placed on this by Professor Seth ... 56
53. Who confuses two charges — that Hegel tried to synthetically
deduce Nature and Spirit from thought, and that he tried to
deduce Existence from Essence ...... 58
54. But the first of these does not involve the second ... 60
55. Hegel would have been wrong in trying to do the first . . 61
56. But the arguments in support of the theory that he did try are
untenable .......... 62
57. And Hegel says himself that his deduction is of a different nature 63
58. There is a deduction, but it is not purely synthetic ... 64
59. The treatment of Contingency in the Logic as bearing on this
question ........... 65
60. The second charge — deducing Existence from Essence. We
cannot do this 67
61. But if the deduction of Nature and Spirit is purely analytic, this
second charge must fall to the ground ..... 67
62. The meaning of the phrase "absolute" as used by Hegel of his
own philosophy 68
x^:
X TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
63. Hegel's treatment of Kant's objections to the ontological
argument .......... 69
64. It depends on the different definitions of God adopted by Hegel
and Kant 70
65. Professor Seth's assertion that Hegel depreciates the individual 72
66. And that his Absolute Spirit is a mere abstraction ... 74
CHAPTER III
THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC
67. Introductory 76
A
Mr Balfour's criticism of transcendental arguments ... 76
69. Which rests on a confusion of the different senses in which we
may be said to be conscious of an element in experience . 78
70. The same subject continued 79
3^- The justification of the Reason to the Understanding. The
-"""^ longing for the Absolute is not merely ethical or emotional 80
72. The Understanding demands a complete explanation of the
universe 82
73. Which it carmot itself supply 82
74. Since many of its categories lead to contradictions ... 84
,75. And this must lead to scepticism; not, as Hartmann suggests, to
y/^ separation between thought and being ..... 85
76. The Reason can supply such an explanation .... 86
77. Which the Understanding must therefore accept ... 87
78. The Understanding and the Reason are not separate and un-
cormected faculties 88
B
79. We are justified in assuming the validity of the category of Being
as a starting-point 89
80. As to the process — first from a synthesis to the new thesis . 90
81. The process from thesis to antithesis. Neither sterile nor em-
pirical 91
82. The consideration of the categories in detail is impossible here . 92
?3 The process from thesis and antithesis to synthesis ... 93
^^4. Hartmann's objection to the possibihty of this .... 94
j^'^ 85. Trendelenburg's objection that the dialectic is merely a history
of subjective knowledge ........ 95
86. But, although it only retraces abstractions, it gives new know-
ledge 97
87. And reverses the order of explanation current in science . . 98
88. Nor is it merely a process of subjective thought ... 99
.^.
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi
PAGE
89. The dialectic does not displace the finite sciences, but does not
depend on them 100
90. Though an advanced state of the finite sciences may be an aid
in discovering the dialectic . . . . . . .101
91. The idea of Motion — according to Trendelenburg introduced
empirically in the category of Becoming .... 103
92. But in reahty it is deducible by pure thought .... 103
93. Nor does Becoming specially involve time or space • . 105
94. Nor is it, if taken correctly, much more concrete than Being . 106
c
95. The ontological validity of the dialectic. The denial of the
thing-in-itself is justifiable ....... 107
96. ]VIr Schiller's objection that thought may be inadequate to
reality 109
97. Unjustifiable, since reality itself can only be known to us by
thought 110
98. Transition from Logic to Nature and Spirit . . . .112
99. Thought can never be self-subsistent, but must have a given
datum . . . . . . . . . . .113
100. The transition might have been made differently. Importance
of this 114
101. Lotze's criticism of "the identity of Thought and Being."
Ambiguity of this phrase . . . . . . .115
102. Lotze seems to take it as meaning that Being is identical with'
what is thought about Being 116
103. In this sense Hegel did not hold the doctrine . . . .117
104. He held it in the sense that Being is identical with what it
thinks: — perhaps he was mistaken . . . . .117
105. The essence of Idealism is the assertion that Being is rational,
not that it is Thought 118
CHAPTER IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD
106. Introductory 119
A
107. Hegel's own expressions on this subject . . . . .119
108. As the process continues the categories become less stable and
self-contained . . . . . . . . .121
109. And the antithesis marks an advance from the thesis . . 122
1 10. This second change is connected with the first . . . 123
111. The first is explicitly mentioned by Hegel. The second is not 124
xii TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
112. The change seems to be continuous from category to category 125
113. Such a change in the method of the dialectic is antecedently
probable 127
114. And it is antecedently probable that it will be continuous . 128
115. The change consists in combining the search for completeness
and the search for harmony, which were originally separate
stages 129
116. Hence the change does not destroy the validity of the process . 131
117. The subordinate importance of negation in the dialectic is thus
made still clearer than before 131
B
118. Hegel asserts that the dialectic process is an adequate analysis
of the Absolute Idea 133
119. But this we now see reasons to doubt 133
120. Hegel's own premises lead us, on this point, to reject his con-
clusion 135
121. The dialectic thus becomes, in a sense, subjective . . . 136
122. Owing to an inevitable characteristic of our thought . . 138
123. It does not give a fully adequate account of its own natiu"e . 139
124. This does not diminish its power of demonstrating that the
Absolute Idea alone is completely valid of reaUty . . 140
125. Nor of determining the relative truth of the different categories 142
126. Nor are we left ignorant of the natiu-e of the Absolute Idea . 142
127. The essential and unessential elements in the process . . 144
128. The dialectic process may be looked on as primarily con-
tinuous. This is confirmed by the inequahty of the sub-
divisions of the Logic ........ 145
129. And by the possibility of discovering direct dialectic connection
between divisions which are not the lowest .... 146
130. The effect of this with regard to any error in the detail of the
dialectic 147
c
131. The triad of Logic, Nature, and Spirit 147
132. This transition is made by a triad of the Notion- type . . 148
133. But it could be made by a triad of the Being-type . . . 150
134. This confirms the view taken above of the change of method . 151
135. The alternative adopted by Hegel was on the whole the best . 152
136. But the other has some advantages . . . . .153
137. Which Hegel's does not share 153
138. The same continued 154
139. Conclusion 155
TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii
CHAPTER V
THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME
A PAGE
140. Difficulties in the way of taking the development of the
dialectic in time as ultimately real 157
141. Such a process in time must be finite in length . . . 158
142. And the question would arise: Why did it begin where it did? 159
143. Which cannot be avoided by referring it to a timeless basis . 161
144. Nor by the suggestion that time only begins when change
begins 162
145. Nor by arguing that the idea of finite time cannot be con-
tradictory, since that of infinite time is impossible . . 163
146. We must rather suppose that the idea of time is not ultimate . 164
147. The lower stages of the dialectic cannot exist by themselves,
since they are contradictory ...... 164
148. And we saw above that the dialectic must be a process of
reconstruction ......... 166
149. Hegel's own language is against the theory of development in
time 167
B
150. But the rejection of this theory involves that the universe is
now perfect 169
151. Which involves us again in serious difficulties , . . 170
152. Hegel's answer that evil is a delusion is unsatisfactory . . 171
153. Since on his theory a delusion could never be completely
rational .......... 172
154. The suggestion that the universe is perfect sub specie aetemitatis 173
155. It is more effective than Hegel's own answer .... 174
156. And must not be confounded with the theory that imperfec-
tions of the parts disappear in the whole .... 175
157. But it was not Hegel's own view — nor wiU it solve the difficulty 176
158. Which seems to be insoluble ....... 177
159. And naturally so, since it is, in fact, the problem of the origin
of evil 178
C
160. Can any other theory extricate us from the difficulties which
are involved in the assertion that the universe is eternally
perfect? 180
161. Not the theory that it is fundamentally irrational . . . 181
162. An absolute duaUsm is impossible 182
163. And, if possible, would not solve the difficulty, supposing one
side predominated 184
xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
164. Or supposing both were exactly balanced .... 184
165. We should succeed no better with the theory that reality is
totally indifferent to reason 185
166. Or indifferent to the higher categories 186
167. And to take refuge in scepticism proves equally impossible . 187
168. Oiu' diificulty does not arise from a reductio ad absurdum . 188
169. And we have no more right to reject the dialectic than we have
to reject the arguments against it . . . . .189
170. We may hope for a synthesis of the opposed positions . . 190
171. Since they are opposed as contraries, not as contradictories . 191
172. But we do not know of what nature such a synthesis could be,
nor have we any positive evidence for its existence . . 192
173. We should have such evidence if we knew that the detail of
the dialectic were correct throughout 193
174. Conclusion 194
175-178. Note on Mr Schiller's paper "The Metaphysics of the
Time-Process" 195
CHAPTER VI
THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC
A
179. Hegel makes the highest stage in the nature of Spirit to be
Philosophy 201
180. His account of this 202
181. Philosophy must be considered to be merely a state of know-
ledge 203
182. Philosophy, as we have it at present, is clearly not adequate
for this position 204
183. And Hegel never attempted to deduce facts from the nature
of pm'e thought ......... 205
184. Nor will it suffice to make philosophy end by proving the
necessity of philosophy 206
185. Taking a wider meaning of philosophy — ^we shall never be able
to dispense with immediate data ...... 207
186. But a perfect system of knowledge is conceivable, in which
contingency vanishes ........ 208
187. Such an ideal is remote, but not contradictory . . . 209
188. It would leave no question unanswered, except Why is the
universe as a whole what it is? — which is an unmeaning
question 211
TABLE OF CONTENTS
XV
B PAGE
189. Even such knowledge, however, is not a complete expression
of Spirit 212
190. For volition is not reducible to knowledge .... 213
191. Though both of them may perhaps be synthesised in a higher
unity 214
192. Nor are pleasure and pain reducible to knowledge . . . 214
193. Though, like volition, they are inseparable from it . . . 215
194. But can knowledge, as such, be even part of the true nature of
Spirit? 216
195. It postulates complete unity and differentiation between
subject and object . . . . . . . .216
196. The TAis in knowledge 217
197. Which is essential to knowledge, and which knowledge must
always regard as aUen . . . . . . . .218
198. The This prevents knowledge reaching complete unity and
differentiation 219
199. Thus knowledge can never express quite adequately the
harmony of the universe ....... 220
200. Nor does the possibihty of self-knowledge get over the difficulty 221
201. This defect is the reason why we cannot cease to ask. Why is
the vuiiverse as a whole what it is? — though we know the
question to be unmeaning ....... 222
202. We find some support for this view in the Logic . . . 223
203. Since philosophy there comes under the subordinate category
of Cognition 225
204. Hegel's treatment of the last stages of the Philosophy of Spirit
is imperfect ......... 226
205. Philosophy should rather be part of the antithesis — not the
synthesis . 227
206. Conclusion 229
CHAPTER VII
THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC
207. Introductory 230
208. The application of the dialectic to determine the nature of
ultimate reaUty . . . . . . . . .231
209. The practical importance of this 232
210. The apphcation of the dialectic to the interpretation of the
facts round us 233
211. This is the part of Hegel's system which is now most generally
received 234
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
212. But it seems doubtful if it is valid 235
,213. The first difficulty — we cannot recognise theses, antitheses, or
syntheses, except in relation to one another . . . 236
214. Thus we shall require points independently fixed to begin from
or end at. We have such in the Logic .... 237
215. But not in the appUcations of the Logic ..... 238
216. The terms of which, till seen in relation to each other, only
differ quantitatively ........ 238
217. The initial point of the Philosophy of Nature, and the final
point of the Philosophy of Spirit, are exceptions . . . 239
218. Attempts to fix the extreme points in the Philosophies of
Nature, Spirit, and Religion ...... 240
219. in the History of Philosophy and the Philosophy of Law . 241
220. and in the Philosophy of History. A criticism by Lotze . . 242
221. The reason of the exceptions mentioned in Section 217 . . 243
_^222. The second difficulty. In Religion, History, Law, and Philo-
sophy, the dialectic process is affected by external influences 245
223. And, in another manner, in Natiure and Spirit . . . 246
224. We know that there is a dialectic process in facts, but are unable
to trace it . . 247
225. The third difficulty. The extent and intricacy of the subject-
matter 248
226. These difficulties can be avoided by taking abstract qualities,
rather than actual facts, as the terms of our dialectic . . 249
227. As in Hegel's treatment of Innocence, Sin, and Virtue . . 251
228. Or of the conception of Dying to live 252
229. But the main practical interest of philosophy lies in upholding
the abstract assertion that reaUty is rational and righteous 252
230. For this cannot be done at all, except by philosophy . . 253
231. Nor is this view imduly abstract 255
y
CHAPTER I
THE GENERAL NATURE OF THE DIALECTIC
1 . Hegel's primary object in his dialectic is to est ablish the
existence of a logical connection between the various categ ories
which are involved in the constitution of experien ce. He teaches
tnat this connec tion is of such a kind that any categor y, if
s crutinised with sufficient care and attention , is found to lead
o n to another, and to involve^it, in snnh a manner t|^^ ,|. f ip, f^f,|,^.Tr>pf.
t o^use the first of any subje ct while we refuse to use the second
of the same subject results in a contradiction. The category thus*
reached leads on in a similar way to a third, and the process
continues until at last we reach the goal of the dialectic in a ■
category which betrays no instability. - — ^
If we examine the process in more detail, we shall find that
it advances, not directly, but by moving from side to side, like
a ship tacking against an unfavourable wind. The simplest and
best known form of this advance, as it is to be found in the earlier
transitions of the logic, is as follows. TJie examinatiofr-ef -a- c e rtain
category leads us to the conclusion thaLt, if we p redicate if/ of
any subject, we are compelled by consistency to predicate of
the same subject the contrary of that category. This brings us
to an absurdity, since the predication of two contrary attributes
of the same thing at the same time violates the law of contra-
diction. On examining the two r:nntrnry p7-p,(^jp.a.tps fnrf-.lipr, they
are seen to be ■Capable of reconciliation in a J^gher_categor^
which combines the contents of both of them, not merely placed
side by side, but..absoxbed,.iiito. a wider idea, as moments or
aspects of which they can exist without contradiction.
This idea of the synthesis of opposites is perhaps the most
characteristic in the whole of Hegel's system. It is certainly one
of the most difficult to explain. Indeed the only way of grasping
what Hegel meant by it is to observe in detail how he uses it,
and in what manner the lower categories are partly altered and
partly preserved in the higher one, so that, while their opposition
,.if-werat
\
\
2 THE GENERAL NATURE [CH.
vanishes, the significance of both is nevertheless to be found in
the unity which follows.
Since in this way, and in this way only so far as we can see,
two ^ntrary cat egories can be simultaneously true of a subj.ect,
and since we must hold these two to be simultaneously true, we
arrive at the conclusion that whenever we use the first category
we shall be forced on to use the third, since by it alone can the
contradictions be removed, in which we should otherwise be in-
volved. This third category, however, when it in its turn is viewed
as a single unity, similarly discloses that its predication involves
that of_its contrary^ and the Thesis and Antithesis thus opposed
have again to be resolved in a Syntheses. Nor can we rest any-
where in this alternate production and removal of contradictions
until we reach the end of the ladder of categories. It begins with
tl;e cate gory of Pure Being, the simplest idea of the human mi nd.
I t ends with the category which Hegel declares to be th e highest
— t heldea which recognises itself in all things.
2, It must be remarked that the type of transition, which
we have just sketched, is one which is modified as the dialectic
advances. It is only natural, in a system in which matter and
form are so closely connected, that the gradual changes of the
matter, which forms the content of the system, should react on
the nature of the movement by which the changes take place.
Even when we deal with physical action and reaction we find
this true. All tools are affected, each time they are used, so as
to change, more or less, their manner of working in the future.
It is not surprising, therefore, that so delicate a tool as that which
is used by thought should not remain unchanged among changing
materials.
"The abstract form of the continuation or advance" says
Hegel "is, in Being, an Qtbe3^Qr_.antithesis)jin^tmnsit^
anotJigr; ir^ th e Essenpe , showing or, reflection in its opposite;
in ti ie Noti on, the distinction^ of the individual from the uni-
versality, which continues itself as such into, and is as an identity
with, what is distinguished from it^." This indicates a gradual
increase in the directness of the advance, and a diminished im-
portance of the movement from contrary to contraxy. But this
^ Encyclopcedia, Section 240.
OF THE DIALECTIC
point, which Hegel leaves undeveloped, will require further con-
sideration i.
3. The ground of the necessity which the dialectic process
claims cannot, it is evident, lie merely in the category from which
we start. For in that case the conclusion of the process could,
if it were valid, have no greater content than was contained in
the starting point. All that can be done with a single premise
is to analyse it, and the mere analysis of an idea could never
lead us necessarily onwards to any other idea incompatible with
it, and therefore could never lead us to its contrary. But th^
(^alectic claims to^j)2:QG£ed,iri:)m thB.lQWJQi.±Q..±ha higher, and it
claims to _add^ to our knowled^e^ and not merdy.iQ. expound it .
At the same time it asserts that no premise other than the
validity of the lower category is requisite to enable us to affirm
the validity of the higher. ^^
The solution of this difficulty, which has bee5.-the-^EQLy.«:a of
many attacks on Hegel, lies in the fact t hat/p.e dialectic\iust
be looked on as a process , not of constructiqitH ^ttt;^gr^econ-
struction . If the lower categories lead on to the higher, and
these to the highest, the reason is that the lower categories have
no independent existence, bjit arp. only a.bstra.p,t,in|]pi frnn^ thp
highest . It is this alone which is independent and real. In it
all one-sidedness has been destroyed by the successive reconcilia-
tion of opposites. It is thus the completely concrete, and for
Hegel the real is always the concrete. Moreover, according to
Hegel, the real is always the completely rational. (''The con-
summation of the infinite aim... consists merely in removing the
illusion which makes it seem as yet unaccomplished^.") JJ^qw
no category except the highest can be completel y rational., since
e very lower one involves its contrary . The Absolute Ide a is
p resent to us in all reality , in all the phenomena of experience ,
a nd in our own selves. EverYwhere it is the soul of all reality .
But although it is always present to u s, it is not always explicitly
present . In the content of consciousness it is present implicitly.
But we do not always attempt to unravel that content, nor are
our attempts always successful. Very often all that is explicitly
before our minds is some finite and incomplete category. When
^ Chap. rv. ^ Enc. Section 212, lecture note.
t
yji^aJSJ-^
THE GENERAL NATURE
[CH.
this is so, the dialectic process can begin, and indeed must begin,
if we are sufficiently acute and attentive, — because the ideal which
is latent in the nature of all experience, and of the mind itself,
forbids us to rest content with the inadequate category. The in-
complete reality before the mind is inevitably measured against
the complete reality of th§ mind itself, and it is in this process
that it betrays its incompleteness, and demands its contrary to
supplement its one-sidedness. " Before the mind there is a single
conception, but the whole mind itself, which does not appear,
engages in the process, operates on the datum, and produces the
result!."
4. Thg dialecti,c„prjocess_ ig^ not a mere addition to thfi__con-
c eption before _as of one casually^ selec^ed^moment after another,
but obeys a definite law. The reason of this is that at any point
the finite category explicitly before us stands in a definite relation
to the complete and absolute idea which is implicit in our con-
sciousness. Any category, except the most abstract of all, can
be analysed, according to Hegel, into two others, which in the
unity of the higher truth were reconciled, but which, when
separated, stand in opposition to each other as contraries. If
abstraction consists in this separation, then, when we are using
the most abstract of the categories, we fall short of the truth,
because one side of the completely concrete truth has been taken
in abstraction, and from that relatively concrete truth again one
side has been abstracted, and so on, until the greatest abstraction
possible has been reached. It must therefore cause unrest in the
mind which implicitly contains the concrete whole from .which
it was abstracted. And through this unrest the imperfection will
be removed in the manner described above, that is, by affirming,
in the first place, that contrary category, the removal of which
had been the last stage of the abstraction, then by restoring the
whole in which those two opposites had been reconciled, and
so on.
Thus the first and deepest cause of the dialectic movement is
t he instability of all finite categori es, due to their imperfect
ature. The immediate TQi}\}] t of this instability is the production
o f^ cont r adictio ns. For, as we have already seen, since the im-
* Bradley's Logic, Book in. Part i. Chap. 2, Section 20.
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 5
perfect category p.nrlp.a.vnnr!^ \,q fp.tnrn to thp. more r.onnr gtfi unity
of which it is one side, it is found to involve the other side of
that un ity, w hich i s its own contrar y. And, again, to the existence
of the contradiction we owe the advance of the dialectic. For
i t is the contradiction involved in the impo ssibility of predicating
a c ategory "without predicating its opposite which causes us to
abandon t hat c ategory as inadequate. We are driven on firs t to
its antitheses. And when we find that this inyoly es the predication
of the thesis, as much as this latter hadjnvolyed the predication
of the antithesis, the_impossibi]ity_of j&icapingfrqm^ontradic
in either extreme drives us to remove them by combining both
extremes in a synthesis which transcends them.
5. It has been asserted that Hegel sometimes declares the A
contradictions to be the cause of the dialectic movementj^nd j
sometimes to be the effect of that movement. This is maintarned<--J
by Hartmann^. TS^o~3ouFt~the contradictions are considered as
the immediate cause of the movement. But the only evidence
which Hartmann gives for supposing that they are also held to
be the effect, is a quotation from the second volume of the Logic.
In this, speaking of that finite activity of thought which he calls
Vorstellung, Hegel says that it has the contradictions as part
of its content, but is not conscious of this, because it does not
contain "das Uebergehen, welches das Wesentliche ist, und den
Wilderspruch enthalt^." Now all that this implies seems to be
that the contradictions first become manifest in the movement,
which is not at all identical with the assertion that they are
caused by it, and is quite compatible with the counter-assertion
that it is caused by them.
Moreover, Hartmann also gives the same account of the origin
of the contradictions which I have suggested above. He says
"Der (im Hegel'schen Geiste) tiefer liegende Grund der Erschei-
nung ist aber die Fliissigkeit des Begriffes selbst^." Fliissigkeit
is certainly not equivalent to movement, and may fairly be
translated instability. There is then no inconsistency. It is quite
possible that the instability of the notion may be the cause of
the contradictions, and that the contradictions again may be
1 Ueber die dialektische Methode, B. ii. 3. * Logic, Vol. n. p. 71.
3 Op. cit. B. u. 3.
6 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
the cause of the actual motion. Hartmann does not, apparently,
see that there is any change in his position when he gives first
instability and then motion as the cause of the contradictions,
and it is this confusion on his own part which causes him to
accuse Hegel of inconsistency.
He endeavours to account for Hegel's supposed error by saying
that the contradictions were given as the cause of the dialectic
movement when Hegel desired to show the subjective action of
the individual mind, while the dialectic movement was given as
the cause of the contradictions when he wished to represent the
process as objective. If, as I have endeavoured to show, there
is no reason for supposing that Hegel ever did hold the dialectic
movement to be the cause of the contradictions, there will be
no further necessity for this theory. But it may be well to remark
that it involves a false conception of the meaning in which it is
possible to apply the term objective to the dialectic at all.
6. There is a sense of the word objective in which it may be
correctly said that the dependence of the contradictions on. the
instability of the notion is more objective. than the dependence
of the dialectic movement on the contradictions. For the former
is present in all thought, which is not the case with the latter.
A contradiction can be said to be present in thought, when it
is implied in it, even though it is not clearly seen. But it can
oply caHiSP th*^ dif^le^tic mj:) yement. when it is clearlv seen . When-
ever a finite category is used it is abstract, and consequently
unstable, and, implicitly at least, involves its contrary, though
this may not be perceived, and, indeed, in ordinary thought is
not perceived. On the other hand, the actual dialectic movement
does not take place whenever a category is used, for in that case
finite thought would not exist at all. It is only when the contradic-
tions are perceived, when they are recognised as incompatible,
in their unreconciled form, with truth, and when the synthesis
which can reconcile them has been discovered, that the dialectic
process is before us.
The contradiction has therefore more objectivity, in one sense
of the word, because it is more inevitable and less dependent
on particular and contingent circumstances. But we are not
entitled to draw the sort of distinction between them which
■mmLm»
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 7
Hartmann makes, and to say that while the one is only an action
of the thinking subject, the other is based on the nature of things
independently of the subject who thinks them. Both relations
are objective in the sense that they are universal, and have
validity as a description of the nature of reality. Neither is
objective in the sense that it takes place otherwise than in thought.
We shall have to consider this point in detail later^ : at present
wje, can only say thj,t^jtj)j3.ughtkejdialectic process is a valid
de scription of reality, r eality itself is not, in its truest nature, a
process but a stable and timeless state. Hegel says indeed that
reason is to be found in actual existence, but it is reason injts
complete and concrete shape , unjier.the highest and absolute foifli
of the n otion , a nd not travelling u p from category to category
Till the highest is reached, all the results are expressly termed
abstract, and do not, therefore, come up to the level of reality.
Moreover they contain unsynthesised contradictions, and that
which is contradictory, though it may have a certain relative
truth, can never exist independently, as would be the case if
it existed in the world of fact. XJi© dialectic movement Js indejgd
a guidejtO-that world, since the highest category, under whieJi — y~
alone reality c an be constru ed, contains all the lower categories
as moments, bu t the gra dual passage from one stage of the notion
to anoth^, d uring which the highest yet reached is for the moment
regarded as independent and subst antial, is an inadequate ex-
wession of the truth .
7. This is not incompatible with the admission that various
isolated phenomena, considered as phenomena and as isolated,
are imperfect, for in considering them in this way we do not
consider them as they really are. Hegel speaks of the untruth
of an external object as consisting in the disagreement between
the objective notion, and the object^. From this it might be
inferred that even in the world of real objects there existed
imperfections and contradictions. But, on looking more closely,
we see that the imperfection and contradiction are really, ac-
cording to Hegel, due only to our manner of contemplating the
object. A particular thing may or may not correspond to the
notion. But the universe is not merely an aggregation of particular
^ Chap. V. 2 Enc. Section 24, lecture note.
8 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
things, but a system in which they are connected, and a thing
which in itself is imperfect and irrational may be a part of a
perfect and rational universe. Its imperfection was artificial,
caused by our regarding it, in an artificial and unreal abstraction,
as if it could exist apart from other things.
A diseased body, for example, is in an untrue state, if we
merely regard it by itself, since it is obviously faiUng to fulfil
the ideal of a body. But if we look at it in connection with the
intellectual and spiritual life of its occupant, the bodily imper-
fection might in some cases be seen, without going further, to
be a part in a rational whole. And, taking the universe as a whole,
Hegel declares " God alone exhibits axealagrefiment jolthp, notion
and the reahty. All finite things involve an untruth." God,
however, is held by Hegel to be the reahty which underlies all
finite t hings . It is therefore only when looked at as finite that
they involve an untruth. Looked at sub specie Dei they are
true. The untruth is therefore in our manner of apprehending
them only. It would indeed, as Hartmann remarks, be senseless
tautology for Hegel to talk of the objective truth of the world.
But this Hegel does not do, ^ It is in the nature of the world.as
a whole that it must be objeetivBly-tnie^. But isolated fragments
of the world, just because they are isolated, cannot fully agree
with the notion, and may or may not agree with a particular
aspect of it. According as they do or do not do this Hegel calls
them true or false.
Hegel's theory that the world as a whole must be objectively
trujij so rational, and therefore, as he would continue, perfect,
conies no doubt in rather rude contact with some of the facts of
life. The consideration of this must for the present be deferred^.
8. We have seen that the motive power of the dialectic lies
in the relation of the abstract idea ex plicitly b efoxeJJie-niindto
th£_£.Qnci:fitfi_Ldea_ impHcitlyi-before-it-itL. all experience and all
consciousness. This will enable us to determine the relation in
which the T3eas of contradiction and negation stand to the
dialectic.
It is sometimes supposed that the Hegelian logic rests on a
defiance of the law of contradiction. That law says that whatever
^ Cp. Enc. Section 212, quoted on p. 3 above. ^ Chap. v.
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 9
is A can never at the same time be not- A. But the dialectic
asserts that, when A is any category, except the Absolute Idea,
whatever is A may be, and indeed must be, not-A also. Now if
the law of contradiction is rej ected, argument becomes impossible.
It is impossible to refute any proposition without the help of
this law. The refutation can only take place by the establishment
of another proposition incompatible with the first. But if we
are to regard the simultaneous assertion of two contradictories,
not as a mark of error, but as an indication of truth, we shall
find it impossible to disprove any proposition at all. Nothing,
however, can ever claim to be considered as true, which could
never be refuted, even if it were false. And indeed it is impossible,
as Hegel himself has pointed out to us, even to assert anything
without involving the law of contradiction, for every positive
assertion has meaning only in so far as it is defined, and therefore
negative. If the statement All men are mortal, for example, did
not exclude the statement Some men are immortal, it would be
meaningless. And it only excludes it by virtue of the law of
contradiction. If then the dialectic rejected the law of contra-
diction, it would reduce itself to an absurdity, by rendering all
argument, and even all assertion, unmeaning.
The dialectic, however, does not reject that law. An un-
resolved contradiction is, for Hegel as for every one else, a sign
of error. The relation of the thesis and antithesis derives its
whole meaning from the synthesis, which follows them, and in
which the contradiction ceases to exist as such. "Contradiction
is not the end of the matter, but cancels itself^." An unreconciled
predication of two contrary categories, for instance Being and
not-Being, of the same thing, would lead in the dialectic, as it
would lead elsewhere, to scepticism, if it was not for the recon-
ciliation in Becoming. "jUie-^yJ^^'^P"'^^^ a.lone iias^iealityy and its
el ements derive such importance as^ they have from being, in ,
so far as their truth goes, members of a unity in which their .jJ^^jrv-X-
opposition is overcome.
In fact, so far is the dialectic from denying the law of con-
tradiction, that it is especially based on it. The contradictions
are the cause of the d ialectic process. But they can only be this
* Enc. Section 119, lecture note.
10 THE GENERAL NATURE [cH.
if they are received as marks of error. We are obliged to say
ti^at we_fimi the_txuth pLBeing^ not-Being in Beconiing^_ajid
inJBecomin^ only^ because, if we endeavour to take them in their
independence, and not as synthesised, we find an unreconciled
contradiction. But why should we not find an unreconciled
contradiction and acquiesce in it without going further, except
for the law that two contradictory propositions about the same
subject are a sign of error? Truth consists, not of contradictions,
but of moments which, if separated, would be contradictions^
but which in their synthesis are reconciled and consistent.
9. It follows also from this view of the paramount importance
of the synthesis in the dialectic process that the. place of negation
i&Jhji^jocess is only secojadary^ The really fundamental aspect
of^_the_ dialectic is not the tendency of the finite category to
negate itself but to complete itself. Since the various relatively
perfect and concrete categories are, according to Hegel, made
up each of two moments or aspects which stand to one another
^ in the relation of contrary ideas, it follows that one characteristic
of the process will be the passage from an idea to its contrary.
But this is not due, as has occasionally been supposed, to an
inherent tendency in all finite categories to affirm their own
negation as such. It is due to their inherent tendency to affirm
their own complement. It is indeed, according to Hegel, no
empirical and contingent fact, but an absolute and necessary
law, that their complement is in some degree their negation.
But the one category passes into the other, because the second
completes the meaning of the first, not because it denies it.
This, however, is one of the points at which the difficulty,
always great, of distinguishing what Hegel did say from that
which he ought in consistency to have said becomes almost in-
superable. It may safely be asserted that the motive force of
the dialectic was clearly held by him to rest in the implicit
presence in us of its goal. This is admitted by his opponents as
well as his supporters. That he did to some extent recognise
the consequence of this — the subordinate importance which it
assigned to the idea of negation — seems also probable, especially
when we consider the passage quoted above^, in which the
^ Enc. Section 240, quoted on p. 2 above.
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 11
element of negation appears to enter into the dialectic process
with very different degrees of prominence in the three stages of
which that process consists. On the other hand, the absence of
any detailed exposition of a principle so fundamental as that
of the gradually decreasing share taken by negation in the
dialectic, and the failure to follow out all its consequences, seem
to indicate that he had either not clearly realised it, or had not
perceived its full importance. But to this point it will be necessary
to return.
10. What relation, we must now enquire, exists between
thought as engaged in the dialectic process, and thought as
engaged in the ordinary affairs of life? In these latter we con-
tinually employ the more abstract categories, which, according
to Hegel, are the more imperfect, as if they were satisfactory
and ultimate determinations of thought. So far as we do this
we must contrive to arrest for the time the dialectic movement.
While a category is undergoing the changes and transformations
in which that movement consists, it is as unfit to be used as an
instrument of thought, as an expanding rod would be for a yard
measure. We may observe, and even argue about, the growth
of the idea, as we may observe the expansion of a rod under
heat, but the argument must be conducted with stable ideas,
as the observation must be made with measures of unaltering
size. For if, for example, a notion, when employed as a middle
term, is capable of changing its meaning between the major and
the minor premises, it renders the whole syllogism invalid. And
all reasoning depends on the assumption that a term can be
trusted to retain the same meaning on different occasions. Other-
wise, any inference would be impossible, since all connection
between propositions would be destroyed.
There are two ways in which we may treat the categories.
The first is, in the language of Hegel, the function of the Reason
— to perform, namely, the dialectic process, and when that
culminates in the highest category, which alone is without con-
tradiction, to construe the world by its means. As this category
has no contradictions in it, it is stable and can be used without
any fear of its transforming itself under our hands. The second
function is that of the Understanding, whose characteristic it is
12 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
to treat abstractions as if they were independent realities. They
are thus forced into an artificial stability and permanence, and
can be used for the work of ordinary thought. Of course the
attempt to use an imperfect and unbalanced category as if it
were perfect and self-subsistent leads to errors and contradictions
— it is just these errors and contradictions which are the proof
that the category is imperfect. But for many purposes the limit
of error is so small, that the work of the Understanding possesses
practical use and validity. If we take an arc three feet long of
the circumference of a circle a mile in diameter, it will be curved,
and will show itself to be so, if examined with sufficient accuracy.
But in practice it would often produce no inconvenience to treat
it as a straight line. So, if an attempt is made to explain ex-
perience exclusively by the category, for example, of causality,
it will be found, if the matter is considered with enough care,
that any explanation, in which no higher category is employed,
involves a contradiction^. Nevertheless, for many of the every-
day occurrences on which we exercise our thoughts, an explanation
by the Understanding, by means of the category of causality
only, will be found to rationalise the event sufficiently for the
needs of the moment.
11. To this explanation an objection has been raised by
Hartmann^. He "emphatically denies" our power to arrest the
progress of the Notion in this manner. It might, he admits, be
possible to do so, if the Notion were changed by us, but it is
represented as changing itself. The human thinker is thus only
" the fifth wheel to the cart," and quite unable to arrest a process
which is entirely independent of him.
Now in one sense of the words it is perfectly true, that, if the
Notion changes at all, the change is caused by its own nature,
and not by us. If the arguments of the dialectic are true, they
must appeal with irresistible force to every one who looks into
the question with sufficient ability and attention, and thus the
process may be said to be due to the Notion, and not to the
thinker. But this is no more than may be said of every argument.
If it is valid, it is not in the power of any man who has examined
it, to deny its validity. But when there is no logical alternative
1 E-nc. Sections 153, 154. « Op. cit. B. ii. 6.
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 13
there may be a psychological one. No intelligent man, who care-
fully examines the proofs, can doubt that the earth goes round
the sun. But any person who will not examine them, or cannot
understand them, may remain convinced all his life that the
sun goes round the earth. And any one, however clearly he
understands the truth, can, by diverting his attention from com-
paratively remote astronomical arguments, and fixing it on the
familiar and daily appearances, speak of and picture the move-
ment as that of the sun, as most men, I suppose, generally do.
So with the dialectic. The arguments are, if Hegel is right,
such as to leave the man who examines them no option. But
for those who have no time, inclination, or ability to examine
them, the categories will continue to be quite separate and in-
dependent, while the contradictions which this view will produce
in experience will either be treated as ultimate, or, more probably,
will not be noticed at all. And even for the student of philosophy,
the arguments remain so comparatively abstruse and unfamiliar
that he finds no difficulty, when practical life requires it, in
assuming for a time the point of view of the Understanding, and
regarding each category as unchanging and self-supporting. This
he does merely by diverting his attention from the arguments
by which their instability is proved.
Although therefore the change in the Notion is due to its
nature, it does not follow that it cannot be stopped by peculiarities
in the nature of the thinker, or by his arbitrary choice. The
positive element in the change lies wholly in the Notion, but
that it should take place at all in any particular case requires
certain conditions in the individual mind in question, and by
changing these conditions we can at will arrest the process of
the categories, and use any one of them as fixed and un-
changing.
Any other view of the dialectic process would require us to
suppose that the movement of the categories became obvious
to us, not as the result of much hard thinking, but spontaneously
and involuntarily. It can scarcely be asserted that Hegel held
such a theory, which would lead to the conclusion that every one
who ever used the category of Being — that is every one who ever
thought at all, whether he reflected on thought or not, — had gone
k
14 THE GENERAL NATURE [CH.
through all the stages of the Hegelian logic, and arrived at all
its conclusions.
12. Another difficulty which Hartmann brings forward in this
'connection arises from a misapprehension of Hegel's meaning.
He affirms^ that, so far from stopping the dialectic process, we
could not even perceive it when it took place. For we can only
become aware of the change by comparing stage A with stage
B, and how is it possible that we should do this, if A turns into
B, beyond our control, whenever it appears?
In the first place, we may answer, it is possible, as we have
seen, to arrest the dialectic movement, in any given case, at
will, so that the development of the categories is not beyond
our control. In the second place the thesis is not held by Hegel
to turn into the antithesis in the simple and complete way which
this objection supposes. TJLe. one categor y le ads up to_and
postulates th e other but does not become c o mpletely the sam e
as_ its successor. The thesis and antithesis ar e said no doubt to
be the same, but the same with a^ difference. If we predicate_4,
we" are forced to predicate B, but there remains neverthelessL^
distinction between A and B. Itjs just the coexistence of this
distinction with the necessary implication of the one category
injthe other, which renders the synthesis necessary^ as a recon-
ciliati on. If the thesis and antithesis were not different, the
simultaneous predication of both of them would involve no
difficulty.
13. Such is the general nature of the dialectic as conceived
by Hegel. How does he attempt to prove its truth and necessity?
"The proof must be based on something already understood and
granted by those to whom it is addressed. And since the proof
should be one which must be accepted by all men, we must base
it on that which all men allow to be justifiable — the ordinary
procedure, that it, of thought in common sense and science,
which Hegel calls the Understanding as opposed to the Reason,
We must show that if we grant, as we cannot help granting, the
validity of the ordinary exercise of our thought, we must also
grant the validity of the dialectic.
This necessity Hegel recognises. He says, it is true, that, since
1 Op. cit. B. n. 6.
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 15
only the Reason possesses the complete truth, up to which the
merely partial truth of the Understanding leads, the real ex-
planation must be of the Understanding by the Reason^. But
this is not inconsistent with a recognition of the necessity of
justifying the Reason to the Understanding. The course of real
explanation must always run from ground to consequent, and,
according to Hegel, from concrete to abstract. On the other
hand, the order of proof must run from whatever is known to
whatever is unknown. When, as we have seen is the case with
the dialectic, we start from explicit knowledge of the abstract
only, and proceed to knowledge of the concrete, which alone
gives reality to that abstract, the order of explanation and the
order of proof must clearly be exactly opposite to one another.
The justification of the Reason at the bar of the Under-
standing, depends upon two facts. The one is the search for the
Absolute which is involved in the Understanding, the other is
the existence in the Understanding of contradictions which
render it impossible that it should succeed in the search. The
Understanding demands an answer to every question it can
ask. But every question which it succeeds in answering suggests
fresh questions. Any explanation requires some reference to
surrounding phenomena, and these in their turn must be ex-
plained by reference to others, and nothing can therefore be
fully explained unless everything else which is in direct or in-
direct connection with it, unless, that is, the whole universe, be
fully explained also. And the explanation of a phenomenon
requires, besides this, the knowledge of its causes and effects,
while these again require a knowledge of their causes and effects,
so that not only the whole present universe, but the whole of
the past and future must be known before any single fact can
be really understood. Again, since the knowledge of a pheno-
menon involves the knowledge of its parts, and all phenomena,
occurring as they do in space and time, are infinitely divisible,
our knowledge must not only be infinitely extended over space
and time, but also infinitely minute. The connection of the
phenomenal universe by the law of reciprocity has a double
effect on knowledge. It is true, as Tennyson tells us, that we
1 Logic, Vol. I. p. 198.
16 THE GENERAL NATURE [CH.
could not know a single flower completely without also knowing
God and man. But it is also true that, till we know everything
about God and man, we cannot answer satisfactorily a single
question about the flower. In asking any question whatever,
the Understanding implicitly asks for a complete account of the
whole Universe, throughout all space and all time. It demands
a solution which shall really solve the question without raising
fresh ones — a complete and symmetrical system of knowledge.
This ideal it cannot, as Hegel maintains, reach by its own
exertions, because it is the nature of the Understanding to treat
the various finite categories as self-subsistent unities, and this
attempt leads it into the various contradictions pointed out
throughout the dialectic, owing to the inevitable connection of
every finite category with its contrary. Since, then, it postulates
in all its actions an ideal which cannot be reached by itself, it
is obliged, unless it would deny its own validity, to admit the
validity of the Reason, since by the Reason alone can the con-
tradictions be removed, and the ideal be realised. And, when
it has done this, it loses the false independence which made it
suppose itself to be something different from the Reason.
14. One of the most difficult and important points in deter-
mining the nature of the Hegelian logic is to find its exact
relation to experience. Whatever theory we may adopt has to
fall within certain limits. On the one hand it is asserted by Hegel's
critics, and generally admitted by his followers, that, rightly or
wrongly, there is some indispensable reference to experience in
the dialectic — so that, without the aid of experience it would
be impossible for the cogency of the dialectic process to display
itself. On the other hand it is impossible to deny that, in some
sense, Hegel believed.that by the dialectic process takfiS^^^lace
in pure thought, that, however incomplete the Logic might be
without the Philosophy of Nature, and the Philosophy of Spirit,
however much the existence of Nature and Spirit might be
involved in the existence of pure thought, yet nevertheless
within the sphere of logic we had arrived at pure thought, un-
conditioned in respect of its development as thought.
And both these characteristics of the dialectic are, indepen-
dently of Hegel's assertion, clearly necessary for the validity of
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 17
any possible dialectic. The consideration of pure thought, without
any reference to experience, would be absolutely sterile, or rather
impossible. For we are as unable to employ "empty" pure
thought (to borrow Kant's phrase) as to employ "blind" in-
tuition. Thought is a process of mediation and relation, and
implies something immediate to be related, which cannot be
found in thought. Even if a stage of thought could be conceived
as existing, in which it was self-subsistent, and in which it had
no reference to any data — and it is impossible to imagine such
a state, or to give any reason for supposing thought thus to
change its essential nature — at any rate this is not the ordinary
thought of common life. And as the dialectic process professes
to start from a basis common to every one, so as to enable it to
claim universal validity for its conclusions, it is certain that it
will be necessary for thought, in the dialectic process, to have
some relation to data given immediately, and independent of
that thought itself. Even if the dialectic should finally tran-
scend this condition it would have at starting to take thought
as we use it in every-day life — as merely mediating, and not
self-subsistent. And I shall try to show later on that it never
does transcend, or try to transcend that limitation^.
On the other hand it is no less true that any argument would
be incapable of leading us to general conclusions relating to pure
thought, which was based on the nature of any particular piece
of experience in its particularity, and that, whatever reference
to experience Hegel may or may not have admitted into his
system, his language is conclusive against the possibility that
he has admitted any empirical or contingent basis to the dialectic.
15. The two conditions can, however, be reconciled. There
is a sense in which conclusions relating to pure thought may
properly be based on an observation of experience, and in this
sense, as I believe, we must take the Logic in order to arrive at
Hegel's true meaning. According to this view, what is observed
is the spontaneous and unconditioned movement of the pure
notion, which does not in any way depend on the matter of
intuition for its validity, which, on the contrary, is derived from
the character of the pure reason itself. But the process, although
1 Chap. n.
18 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
independent of the matter of intuition, can only be perceived
when the pure notion is taken in conjunction with matter of
intuition — that is to say when it is taken in experience — because
it is impossible for us to grasp thought in absolute purity, or
except as applied to an immediate datum. Since we cannot
observe pure thought at all, except in experience, it is clear that
it is only in experience that we can observe the change from
the less to the more adequate form which thought undergoes in
the dialectic process. But this change of form is due to the nature
of thought alone, and not to the other element in experience —
the matter of intuition^.
The presence of this other element in experience is thus a
condition of our perceiving the dialectical movement of pure
thought. We may go further. It does not follow, from the fact
that the movement is due to the nature of pure thought alone,
that pure thought can ever exist, or ever be imagined to exist,
by itself. We may regard pure thought as a mere abstraction
of one side of experience, which is the only concrete reality,
while the matter of intuition is an abstraction of the other side
of the same reality — each, when considered by itself, being false
and misleading. This, as we shall see, is the position which Hegel
does take up. Even so, it will still remain true that, in experience,
the dialectic process was due exclusively to that element of
experience which we call pure thought, the other element — that
of intuition — being indeed an indispensable condition of the
dialectic movement, but one which remains passive throughout,
and one by which the movement is not determined. It is only
necessary to the movement of the idea because it is necessary
to its existence. It is not itself a principle of change, which may
as fairly be said to be independent of it, as the changes in the
pictures of a magic lantern may be ascribed exclusively to the
^ Since I am here dealing only with the question of epistemology, it will be
allowable, I think, to assume that there is a matter of intuition, distinct from
thought, and not reducible to it, (though incapable of existing apart from it,)
since this is the position taken up within Hegel's Logic. Whether the dialectic
process has any relation to it or not, its existence is, in the Logic, admitted, at
least provisionally. If Hegel did make any attempt to reduce the whole universe
to a manifestation of pure thought, without any other element, he certainly did
not do so till the transition to the world of Nature at the end of the Logic. Even
there I believe no such attempt is to be found.
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 19
camera, and not at all to the canvas on which they are reflected,
although, without the canvas, the pictures themselves, and
therefore the transition from one to another of them would be
impossible.
16. If this is the relation of the dialectic process to the medium
in which it works, what postulate does it require to start from?
We must distinguish its postulate from its basis. Its basis is
the reality which it requires to have presented to itself, in order
that it may develop itself. Its postulate is the proposition which
it requires to have admitted, in order that from this premise it
may demonstrate its own logical validity as a consequence. Jhe
basi&^tthe_dialectic isto be found in the nature of ^ure thought
itself, since the reason of the process being what it is, is due,
as we have seen, to the nature of the highest and most concrete
form of the notion, implicit in all experience. Since pure thought,
as we have seen, even if it iJauld-e^dstJ-.t jalLm-aJiy_o.thei.mannfir,
CQiild,QDly_ become evident to us in exp eripinr.pi. the basis which
the dialectic method will require to work on, may be called the
nature^of exp„eriencjB.in, general.
It is only the general nature of experience — those charac-
teristics which are common to all of it — which forms the basis
of the process, E or it is not the only o bject of the dialecticjo
proye_thatJ;^e_ lower and subordinate categories are unable to
explain all parts of experience withou t resorting to the higher
c ategories, and finally to the Absolute Idea . It undertakes also
to show that thfi_JaH:ex categories ar£ inadequate^-when . con-
s idered with sufficient in telligence andjpersistence^ to explain
any part of the world. What is required, therefore, is not so
much the collection of a large mass of experience to work on,
but the close and careful scrutiny of some part, however small.
The whole jr hain of ratp.gnrjps is itppli ed in any and every phennz.
menon . Particular fragments of experience may no doubt place
the inadequacy of some finite category in a specially clear light,
or may render the transition to the next stage of the idea par-
ticularly ob\aous and easy, but it is only greater convenience
which is thus gained; \\ath sufficient power any part, however
unpromising, would yield the same result.
17. The basis of the dialectic process, then, is the nature of \ I _
<n /-
20 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
expe rience, in so fa r as the nature of pure thought is contained
in. it. If the other element in experience has really a primary
and essential nature of its own, it will not concern us here, for,
as it takes no part in the development of the idea, its existence,
and not its particular qualities, is the only thing with which we
are at present concerned. The nature of experienc e however,
t hough it is the basis of the dialect ic^jsjiot its logical postulate.
For it is not assumed hut as cextaine d-by- the diale ctic, wlipse
whol£^bjectJs_t]ie gradual discovery -aiid-denaonstration..
Absolute Idaa, which is the fundamental principle which makes
the nature of experience. The general laws governing experience
are the causa essendi of the logic, but not its causa cognoscendi.
r^The only logical postulate which the dialectic requires is the
/ admission that experience really exists. The dialectic is derived
(from the nature of experie nce, a nd tJierfifmieii-it is 4© hav#-any
validity of re al existence, if it is to have, tha.t-i.s-±Q,_sfly, a.riy
importance at all, we mustjbe assured of the existence of jpme
exper ience — in other words, _t hal-something -is.
The ohjpp.t of thft dialectic is to discover t he forms and law s
of all possible thought . For this purpose it starts from the idea
of Being, in which all others are shown to be involved. The
application of the results of the dialectic to experience thus
depends on the application to experience of the idea of Being,
and the logical postulate of the dialectic is no more than that
something is, and that the category of Being is therefore valid.
It will be noticed that the basis and the postulate of the
dialectic correspond to the two aspects of the idea which we
mentioned above as the fundamental cause of the process. The
basis — the nat ure of p ure thought — i s the complete and con-
cre te idea w hichris present in nnr mind s, though only implicitly,
and which renders it impossible that we should stop shorty it
by permanently _acqjii£scing_in any finite category. The pos-
tulate — t he abstract id ea in its highest state of abstraction,
ta\ which is admi tted to be valid — is that which is explicitly before
the mind, and from which the start is made.
18. We are justified in assuming this postulate because it is
involved in every action and every thought, and its denial is
therefore suicidal. All that is required is the assertion that there
(')
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 21
is such a thing as reality — that something is. Now the very
denial of this involves the reality of the denial, and so con-
tradicts itself and affirms our postulate. And the denial also
implies the reality of the person who makes the denial. The same
dilemma meets us if we try to take refuge from dogmatic denial
in mere doubt. If we really doubt, then the doubt is real, and
there is something of whose reality we do not doubt; if on the
other hand we do not really doubt the proposition that there
is something real, we admit its truth. And doubt, as well as
denial, places beyond doubt the existence of the doubter. This
is, of course, the Cartesian argument, which is never stated by
Hegel precisely in this form, but on which the justification of
his use of the category of Being, as valid of reality, appears to , .
depend.
19. T he dialectical process thus gains its validit y and im- ; yn;>-^v^><' ^
po rtance by means of a transcendental argume nt. T iie highe r n^^^^n^*''
categori es are con nected with the lower in such a ms|.pner tha t ^<yv^
t he latter inevitably lead on to the former as the only rneans ^^ ^ /
by which they can be rescued from the contradictions invol^ d y^
injheir .aljstiaciaess. If the lower categories be admitted, and, ^^-^
ultimately, if the lowest of all, th.e category of ^eing, be admitted,
th.e-test follosEs. But we cannot by the most extreme scepticism
deny that something is, and we are therefore enabled to conclude
that the dialectic process does apply to something. And as
whatever the category of Being did not apply to would not exist,
we are also able to conclude that there is nothing to which the
dialectic process does not apply.
It will be seen that this argument is strictly of a transcendental
nature^. A proposition denied by the adversary — in this case
the validity of the higher categories — is shown to be involved
in the truth of some other proposition, which he is not prepared
^ Note to Second Edition. This is a mistake. The description given in the next
sentence is not confined to a transcendental argument, but applies to all attempts
to convince an adversary. I failed to see that the proposition with which a
transcendental argument, in Kant's sense of the term, starts, is always a pro-
position which asserts that some other proposition is known to be true. (For
example, Kant's transcendental argument on Space does not start from the
truths of geometry, but from the truth that we know the truths of geometry d,
priori.) Hegel's argument does not start from a proposition of this kind, and
I was WTong in supposing that it is, in Kant's sense, transcendental.
22 THE GENERAL NATURE [CH.
to attack — in this case the validity of the category of Being.
But the cogency of ordinary transcendental arguments is limited,
and they apply only to people who are prepared to yield the
proposition which forms the foundation of the argument, so that
they could be outflanked by a deeper scepticism. Now this is
not the case with the dialectic. For the proposition on which it
is based is so fundamental, that it could be doubted only at the
expense of self-contradiction, and the necessity of considering
that proposition true is therefore universal, and not only valid
in a specially limited argument, or against a special opponent.
It is doubtful indeed whether a condition so essential as this
is correctly termed a postulate, which seems to denote more
properly a proposition which it would be at least possible for an
adversary to challenge. At any rate the very peculiar nature of
the assumption should be carefully remembered, as it afiords
a clue for interpreting various expressions of Hegel's, which
might otherwise cause serious difficulties^.
20. Having thus endeavoured to explain the nature of the
dialectic, we must ask ourselves at what results we are entitled
to arrive by means of that process. These results will be, to begin
with, epistemological. For the conditions of the dialectic are,
first, the concrete notion, which we are able to examine because
it is implicit in all our consciousness, and, second, the category
of Being, which we are entitled to postulate, because it is im-
possible to avoid employing it in judging experience. Our con-
clusions will therefore relate primarily to the general laws of
experience, and will so far be, like those of Kant's Aesthetic and
Analytic, concerned with the general conditions of human
knowledge. And the result arrived at will be that no category
will satisfactorily explain the universe except the Absolute Idea.
Any attempt to employ for that purpose a lower category must
either accept a gradual transformation of the idea employed
until the Absolute Idea is reached, or acquiesce in unreconciled
contradictions — which involves the rejection of a fundamental
law of reason.
21. This position has two results. In the first place it dis-
proves the efforts which are made from time to time to explain
1 Cp. Chap. n. Section 46.
1] OF THE DIALECTIC 23
the whole universe by means of the lower categories only. Such
an attempt lay at the bottom of Hume's scepticism, when he
endeavoured to treat the notion of causality as derived from
that of sequence, and to consider all that was added as false
and illusive. For absolute scepticism is impossible, and his treat-
ment of the higher category as an unwarranted inference from
the lower involves the assertion of the validity of the latter.
Such an attempt, again, has been made by Mr Spencer, as well
as by the large number of writers who adopt the provisional
assumptions of physical science as an ultimate position. They
endeavour to explain all phenomena in terms of matter and
motion, and to treat all special laws by which they may be
governed as merely particular cases of fundamental principles
taken from physical science.
But if we agree with Hegel in thinking that the category of
Being is inadequate to explain the world which we know without
the successive introduction of the categories, among others, of
Cause, Life, and Self-Consciousness, and that ea ch, categoxy^in-
evitably r equires its successor, all such attempts m us_t,iri£vit£LbIy
fajl. Any attempt, for example, to reduce causation to an un-
justifiable inference from succession, to explain life merely in
terms of matter and motion, or knowledge merely in terms of
life, would involve a fatal confusion. For it would be an attempt
at explanation by that which is, in itself, incomplete, unreal,
and contradictory, and which can only be made rational by
being viewed as an aspect of those very higher categories, which
were asserted to have been explained away by its means.
22, Even if this were all, the result of the dialectic would
be of great importance. It would have refuted all attempts to
establish a complete and consistent materialism, and would have
demonstrated the claims of the categories of spirit to a place
in construing part at least of the universe. But it has done more
than this. For it does not content itself with showing that the
lower categories lead necessarily to the higher, when the question
relates to those portions of experience in which the higher
categories are naturally applied by the uncritical consciousness.
It also demonstrates that the lower categories, in themselves,
and to whatever matter of intuition they may be applied, involve
24 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
the higher categories also. Not only is Being inadequate to
explain, without the aid of B ecoming, those phenomena which
we all recognise in ordinary life as phenomena of change, but
it is also unable to explain those others which are commonly
considered as merely cases of unchanging existence. Not only
is the idea of Substance inadequate to deal with ordinary cases
of scientific causation, but without the idea of Cause it becomes
involved in contradictions, even when keeping to the province
which the uncritical consciousness assigns to it. Not only is it
impossible to explain the phenomena of vegetable and animal
life by the idea of mechanism, but that idea is inadequate even
to explain the phenomena of physics. Not only can consciousness
not be expressed merely in terms of life, but life is an inadequate
category even for biological phenomena. With such a system we
are able to admit, without any danger either to its consistency
or to its practical corollaries, all that science can possibly claim
as to the interrelation of all the phenomena of the universe, and
as to the constant determination of mind by purely physical
causes. For not onlj have we justified the categories of spirit,
^llJL-gLli'-g.Xfi-^Ilbjef'^pd fli p, whole world of expe rience to their
T^e. We are entitled to assert, not only that spirit cannot be
reduced to matter, but also that matter must be reduced to
spirit. It is of no philosophical importance, therefore, though
all things should, from the scientific standpoint be determined
^y material causes. For all material determination is now known
jto be only spiritual determination in disguise.
23. The conclusion thus reached is one which deals with pure
thought, since the argument has rested throughout on the nature
of pure thought, and on that only, and the conclusion itself is
a statement as to the only form of pure thought which we can
use with complete correctness. But we have not found anything
which would enable us to discard sensation from its position as
an element of experience as necessary and fundamental as pure
thought itself, and if Hegel did draw such a consequence from
it, we must hold that he has taken an unjustifiable step forwards.
All the thought which we know is in its essential nature mediate,
and requires something immediate to act on, if it is to act at
all. And this immediate element can be found — so far as our
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 25
present knowledge is concerned — only in sensation, the necessary
background and accompaniment of the dialectic process, which
is equally essential at its end as at its beginning. For an attempt
to ehminate it would require that Hegel should, in the first place,
explain how we could ever conceive unmediated or self-mediated
thought, and that he should, in the second place, show that the
existence of this self-subsistent thought was impHed in the
existence of the mediating and independent thought of every-
day life. For since it is only the validity of our every-day thought
which we find it impossible to deny, it is only that thought which
we can take as the basis of the dialectic process. Even if, in
the goal of the dialectic, thought became self-subsistent in any
intelhgible sense, it would be necessary to show that this self-
subsistence issued naturally from the finite categories, in which
thought is unquestionably recognised as mediate only.
I shall endeavour to prove later on^ that Hegel made no
attempt to take up this position. The conclusion of the Logic
is simply the assertion that the one category by which experience
can be judged with complete correctness is the Absolute Idea.
It makes no attempt to transcend the law which we find in all
experience by which the categories cannot be used of reality,
nor indeed apprehended at all, without the presence of immediate
data to serve as materials for them.
24. To sum up, the general outline of the Hegelian Logic,
from an epistemological point of view, does not differ greatly,
I believe, from that of Kant. Both philosophers justify the
application of certain categories to the matter of experience,
by proving that the validity of those categories is impUed in
the validity of other ideas which the sceptical opponent cannot
or does not challenge^. The systems differ largely in many points,
particularly in the extent to which they push their principles.
And Hegel has secured a firmer foundation for his theory than
Kant did, by pushing back his deduction till it rests on a category
— the category of Being, — the validity of which with regard to
experience not only never had been denied, but could not be
denied without contradiction. It is true also that Kant's work
^ Chap. n. Section 48.
* Note to Second Edition. Cp. note to Section 19.
26 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
was clearly analytic, while Hegel's had also a synthetic side,
and may even be said to have brought that side into undue, or
at any rate misleading, prominence. But the general principle
of the two systems was the same, and the critic who finds no
fundamental fallacy in Kant's criticism of knowledge, should
have no difiiculty in admitting that the Hegelian Logic, if it
keeps itself free from errors of detail, forms a valid theory of
epistemology.
25. But the Logic claims to be more than this, and we must
now proceed to examine what has been generally held to be at
once the most characteristic and the weakest part of Hegel's
philosophy. How far does he apply the results of his analysis
of knowledge to actual reality, and how far is he justified in
doing so?
It is beyond doubt that Hegel regarded his Logic as possessing,
in some manner, ontological significance. But this may mean
one of two very different things. It may mean only that the
system rejects the Kantian thing-in-itself, and denies the ex-
istence of any reality except that which enters into experience,
80 that the results of a criticism of knowledge are valid of reality
also. But it may mean that it endeavours to dispense with or
transcend all data except the nature of thought itself, and to
deduce from that nature the whole existing universe. The
difference between these two positions is considerable. The first
maintains that nothing is real but the reasonable, the second
that reality is nothing but rationality. The first maintains that
we can explain the world of sense, the second that we can explain
it away. The first merely confirms and carries further the process
of rationalisation, of which all science and all finite knowledge
consist ; the second differs entirely from science and finite know-
ledge, substituting a self-sufficient and absolute thought for
thought which is relative and complementary to the data of
sense.
It is, I maintain, in the first of these senses, and the first only,
that Hegel claims ontological validity for the results of the Logic,
and that he should do as much as this is inevitable. For to dis-
tinguish between conclusions epistemologically valid and those
which extend to ontology imphes a belief in the existence of
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 27
something which does not enter into the field of actual or possible
knowledge. Such a belief is totally unwarranted. The thing-in-
itself as conceived by Kant, behind and apart from the phenomena
which alone enter into experience, is a contradiction. We cannot,
we are told, know what it is, but only that it is. But this is itself
an important piece of knowledge relating to the thing. It involves
a judgment, and a judgment involves categories, and we are thus
forced to surrender the idea that we can be aware of the existence
of anything which is not subject to the laws governing experience.
Moreover, the only reason which can be given for our belief in
things-in-themselves is that they are the ground or substratum
of our sensuous intuitions. But this is a relation, and a relation
involves a category. Indeed every statement which can be made
about the thing-in-itself contradicts its alleged isolation.
26. It cannot be denied, however, that Hegel does more than
is involved in the rejection of a thing-in-itself outside the laws of
experience. Not only are his epistemological conclusions declared
to have also ontological validity, but he certainly goes further
and holds that, from the consideration of the existence of pure
thought, we are able to deduce the existence of the worlds of
Nature and Spirit. Is this equivalent to an admission that the
worlds of Nature and Spirit can be reduced to, or explained away
by, pure thought?
We shall see that this is not the case when we reflect that
the dialectic process is no less analytic of a given material than
it is synthetic from a given premise, and owes its impulse as
much to the perfect and concrete idea which is implicit in ex-
perience, as to the imperfect and abstract idea which is explicitly
before the student. For if the idea is, when met with in reality,
always perfect and concrete, it is no less true that it is, when
met with in reality, invariably, and of necessity, found in connec-
tion with sensuous intuition, without which even the relatively
concrete idea which ends the Logic is itself an illegitimate ab-
straction. This being the case it follows that, as each stage of
the Logic insists on going forward to the next stage, so the
completed logical idea insists on going forward and asserting
the coexistence with itself of sensuous perception. It does not
postulate any particular sensuous perception, for the idea is
28 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch.
equally implicit in all experience, and one fragment is as good as
another in which to perceive it. We are thus unable to deduce any
of the particulars of the world of sense from the Logic. But we
are able to deduce that there must be such a world, for without
it the idea would be still an abstraction and therefore still con-
tradictory. We are able to predicate of that world whatever is
necessary to make it the complement of the world of pure
thought. It must be immediate, that thought may have some-
thing to mediate, it must be individual and isolated piece from
piece that thought may have something to relate. It must be,
in short, the abstract individual, which, together with the
abstract universal of thought, forms the concrete reality, alike
individual and universal, which alone is consistent and self-
sustained.
27. If this is so, it follows that there is nothing mysterious
or intricate about the deduction of the world of Nature from
the Logic, and of the world of Spirit from the world of Nature.
It is simply the final step in the self-recovery of the spirit from
the illegitimate abstractions of the understanding — the recovery
which we have seen to be the source of all movement in the
dialectic. Once granted a single category of the Logic, and all
the others follow, since in the world of reality each lower category
only exists as a moment of the Absolute Idea, and can therefore
never by itself satisfy the demands of the mind. And, in like
manner, the world of pure thought only exists as an abstraction
from concrete reality, so that, granted pure thought, we are
compelled by the necessity of the dialectic to grant the existence
of some sensuous intuition also. It is perhaps conceivable that,
in some future state of knowledge, the completion of the dialectic
process might be seen to involve, not only the mere existence
of Nature and Spirit, but their existence with particular charac-
teristics, and that this might be carried so far that it amounted
to a complete determination, in one way or another, of every
question which could be asked concerning them. If this should
be the case, we should be able to deduce a priori from the char-
acter of pure thought the whole contents of science and history.
Even then, however, we should not have taken up the position
that the immediate element in Nature and Spirit could be reduced
1] OF THE DIALECTIC 29
to pure thought. For we should not be endeavouring to deduce
the immediate merely from the mediate, but from the mediate
compared with the concrete reality of which they are both
moments. The true force of the proof would he in the existence
of this synthesis. At present, however, the world of sense appears
to us to contain a large number of particulars which are quite
indifferent to pure thought, so that it might be as well embodied
in one arrangement of them as in another. This may possibly
be an inevitable law of knowledge. It certainly expresses the
state of our knowledge at present. It follows that the Philosophy
of Nature and Spirit will consist only in observing the progress
of the pure idea as it appears in the midst of phenomena to a large
extent contingent to it, and cannot hope to account for all the par-
ticulars of experience. But this is all that Hegel attempts to do.
He endeavours to find the idea in everything, but not to reduce
everything to a manifestation of the idea. Thus he remarks in the
Philosophy of Spirit, " This development of reality or objectivity
brings forward a row of forms which must certainly be given
empirically, but from an empirical point of view should not be
placed side by side and outside each other, but must be known
as the expression which corresponds to a necessary series of
definite notions, and only in so far as they express such a series
of notions have interest for philosophic thought^."
28. If this explanation be correct, it will follow that Hegel
never endeavoured to claim ontological validity for his Logic
in the second sense mentioned above — by attempting, that is,
to deduce all the contents of experience from the nature of pure
thought only. The deduction which does take place is not
dependent merely on the premise from which it starts, which is
certainly to be found in the nature of pure thought, but also
on the whole to which it is working up, and which is implicit
in our thought. If we can proceed in this way from Logic to
Nature and Spirit, it proves that Logic without the additional
elements which occur in Nature and Spirit is a mere abstraction.
And an abstraction cannot possibly be the cause of the reality
from which it is an abstraction. There can be no place here,
therefore, for the attempt to construct the world out of abstract
^ Enc. Section 387, lecture note, p. 42.
30 THE GENERAL NATURE [ch,
thought, of which Hegel's philosophy is sometimes supposed to
have consisted.
The importance of the ontological significance of the dialectic,
even in this limited extent, is, however, very great. We are now
enabled to assert, not only that, within our experience, actual
or possible, everything can be explained by the Absolute Idea,
but also that all reality, in any sense in which we can attach any
intelligible meaning to the word, can also be explained by that
idea. I cannot have the least reason to believe in, or even to
imagine possible, anything which does not in the long run turn
out to contain and be constituted by the highest category. And
since that category, as was pointed out above, expresses the
deepest nature of the human mind, we are entitled to believe
that the universe as a whole is in fundamental agreement with
our own nature, and that whatever can rightly be called rational
may be safely declared to be also real.
29. From this account of the Hegelian system it will appear
that its main result is the completion of the work which had been
carried on by German philosophy since the publication of the
Critique of Pure Reason — the establishment, by means of the
transcendental method, of the ratioijality of the Universe. There
was much left for Hegel to do. For the Critique of Pure Reason
was a dualism, and had all the qualities of a dualism. Man's
aspirations after complete rationality and complete justice in
life were checked by the consideration of the phenomenal side
of his own nature, which delivered him over to the mercy of a
world in one of whose elements — the irrational manifold — he
saw only what was alien to himself. And the defect of the Critique
of Pure Reason in this respect was not completely remedied by
the Critique of Practical Reason. The reconciliation was only
external: the alien element was not to be absorbed or tran-
scended but conquered. It was declared the weaker, but it kept
its existence. And the whole of this argument had a slighter
basis than the earlier one, since it rested, not on the validity of
knowledge, but on the validity of the moral sense — the denial
of which is not as clearly a contradiction of itself. Moreover,
it is not by any means universally admitted that the obligation
to seek the good is dependent on the possibility of realising it
I] OF THE DIALECTIC 31
in full. And if it is not so dependent, then the validity of the
moral sense does not necessarily imply the validity of the Ideas
of Reason. Even in the Critique of Judgment the reconciliation
of the two sides was still external and incomplete.
Nor had spirit a much stronger position with Kant's im-
mediate successors. Fichte, indeed, reduced the Non-Ego to a
shadow, but just for that reason, as Dr Caird remarks, rendered
it impossible to completely destroy it. And the Absolute of
Schelhng, standing as it did midway between matter and spirit,
could be but slight comfort to spirit, whose most characteristic
features and most important interests had Httle chance of pre-
servation in a merely neutral basis.
Hegel on the other hand asserted the absolute supremacy of
reason. For him it is the key to the interpretation of the whole
universe; it finds nothing alien to itself wherever it goes. And
the re ason for which he thus claimed unrestricted power was^
demonstrated to contain every category up to the Absolute Ide a.
It is this demonstration — quite as much as the rejection of the
possibility that anything in the universe should be alien to reason
— which gives his philosophy its practical interest. For from
the practical point of view it is of little consequence that the
world should be proved to be the embodiment of reason, if we
are to see in reason nothing higher than reciprocity, and are
compelled to regard the higher categories as mere subjective
delusions. Such a maimed reason as this is one in which we can
have scarcely more pleasure or acquiescence than in chaos. If
the rational can be identified with the good, it can only be in
respect of the later categories, such as End, Life, and Cognition.
CHAPTER II
DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE DIALECTIC
30. In the last chapter I have explained the view of Hegel's
philosophy which seems to me the most probable. It is now
necessary to examine some objections which have been raised
to the possibility of interpreting Hegel in this manner. With
regard to three points in particular various commentators have
taken a different view of Hegel's meaning. It has been held that
the dialectic process has no reference whatever to experience,
but takes place in pure thought considered apart from anything
else. It has been held that, whether this be so or not, yet at the
end of the dialectic we reach, in the Absolute Idea, a form of
thought which exists in and by itself, and does not merely
mediate data immediately given to the mind by some other
source. And, lastly, it has been held that the deduction of Nature
and Spirit from Logic is to be taken as an attempt to degrade
them into mere forms of the latter, and to declare that all things
are reducible to thought alone.
31. The first of these points has been discussed by Tren-
delenburg in his Logische Untersuchungen. According to him,
Hegel attempted what was impossible, and achieved what was
useless. He attempted, by observation of the pure notion in
its most abstract stage, and apart from everything but itself,
to evoke all the other stages of the pure notion, and so reach
a result of general validity a priori. But since we can extract
from an idea, taken by itself, nothing more than is already in
it, and since an idea, independent of the data which it connects
and mediates, is unthinkable, any such dialectical evolution as
Hegel desired was impossible. In point of fact, all appearance
of advance from one category to another is due, according to
Trendelenburg, to surreptitious appeals to experience. In this
way the sterility of pure thought was conquered, but with it
the cogency of this dialectic process also disappeared, and it
CH. n] DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE DIALECTIC 33
became merely empirical and contingent, without a claim to be
called philosophy.
On the question as to the actual results of the dialectic we
shall consider Trendelenburg's views further on. As to Hegel's
intention, he says "Although the Wissenschaftslehre of Fichte
extracted the Non-Ego from the Ego, yet he does not go on to
real notions. The dialectic has appropriated his methods; it
takes the same course in position, opposition, and reconciliation.
It does not make so much difference that it begins with the
notion of Being, for it is the empty image of Being. If it never-
theless comes to the notions of reality and to concrete forms,
we do not perceive whence it gets to them. For pure thought
will not accept them, and then permeate them, but endeavours
to make them. Thought, expressed in this way, is born blind
and has no eyes towards the outside^."
32. In answer to this we may quote Mr F. H. Bradley. "An
idea prevails that the Dialectic Method is a sort of experiment
with conceptions in vacuo. We are supposed to have nothing
but one single isolated abstract idea, and this solitary monad
then proceeds to multiply by gemmation from or by fission of
its private substance, or by fetching matter from the impalpable
void. But this is a mere caricature, and it comes from confusion
between that which the mind has got before it and that which
it has within itself. Before the mind there is a single conception,
but the mind itself, which does not appear, engages in the process,
operates on the datum, and produces the result. The opposition
between the real, in the fragmentary character in which the
mind possesses it, and the true reaUty felt within the mind, is
the moving cause of that unrest which sets up the dialectical
process^."
The fact seems to be that Trendelenburg's interpretation of
Hegel's attempt to construct a dialectic of pure thought, is
inadequate in two ways. He supposes, first, that the incomplete
thought irom which we start is conceived to exist only in its
incompleteness, and is intended to have as yet no actual relation
1 Logische Untersuchungen, Vol. i. p. 92. My references to this work are to
the edition of 1862.
2 Logic, Book m. Part i. Chap. 2. Section 20.
M.H. 3
34 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
to the concrete reality to which it is afterwards to attain. In
fact, he says, the process does depend on a reference to concrete
reahty, but, in so far as this is so, the original attempt, which
was to construct an objectively valid dialectic by means of pure
thought, has broken down. I shall try, however, to show that
such a relation to reality was in Hegel's mind throughout, and
that it leads to conclusions of objective validity. If pure thought
meant anything inconsistent with this, it would certainly be
sterile. But there is nothing in this which is inconsistent with
pure thought, for the notion, as contained implicitly in reaUty
and experience, is precisely of the same nature as the isolated
piece which we begin by consciously observing, though it is more
complete.
And, secondly, Trendelenburg appears to think that thought,
to be pure, must be perceived by itself, and not in concrete
experience, which always contains, along with pure thought,
the complementary moment of sensation. If this was the case,
it would most certainly be sterile, or rather impossible. So far
from one category being able to transform itself, by the dialectic
process, into another, no category could exist at all. For all
thought, as we have seen^, requires something immediate on
which to act. But this need not prevent the dialectic process
from being one of pure thought. As was explained above"^ the
only part of experience from which the dialectic process derives
its cogency, and the only part which changes in it, is the element
of pure thought, although the dialectic process, like all other
acts of reasoning, can only take place when the thought is joined
with sensation.
Whether the reference to experience in Hegel's Logic destroys
its claims to absolute and a priori validity will be discussed in
the next chapter. At present we have to ask whether the appeal
to experience is inconsistent with the original intention of the
dialectic, as Trendelenburg asserts, and whether it was only used
by Hegel because the absurdity of his original purpose drove
him, more or less unconsciously, to make such an appeal, or
whether, on the other hand, it was all along an essential part of
the system that it should have such a relation to experience.
» Chap. I. Section 27. ^ Chap. i. Section 15.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 35
33. At the beginning of Section 6 of the Encyclopaedia Hegel
says that "at first we become aware of these contents" of philo-
sophical knowledge "in what we call experience.... As it is only
in form that philosophy is distinguished from other modes of
obtaining an acquaintance with this same sum of being, it must
necessarily be in harmony with actuality and experience." This
passage supports the view that Hegel was conscious of the
manner in which his dialectic rested on experience. For, even
if it were possible for philosophy to observe pure thought in-
dependently of experience, it is certain that "other means of
obtaining an acquaintance with this same sum of being" —
science, namely, and common sense — have no field for their
action except experience. It is no doubt the case that, as Hegel
mentions in Section 8, philosophy has "another circle of objects,
which" empirical knowledge "does not embrace. These are Free-
dom, Mind, and God." But, although philosophy deals with
these conceptions, it does so, according to Hegel, only by starting
from empirical knowledge. It is, for example, only by the con-
templation of the finite objects perceived by the senses that we
arrive at the knowledge of God^. And, as we are now considering
the basis, and not the extent, of philosophy, the fact that we
can rise to knowledge of that which is never represented in
sensuous intuition is not to the point.
34. Again, in Section 9, he points out that "the method of
empirical science exhibits two defects. The first is that the
Universal, or general principle contained in it, the genus or kind,
&c., is of its own nature indeterminate and vague, and therefore
not on its own account connected with the Particular or the
details. Either is external and accidental to the other, and it is
the same with the particular facts which are brought into union :
each is external and accidental to the others. The second defect
is that the beginnings are in every case data and postulates,
neither accounted for nor deduced. In both these points the
form of necessity fails to get its due. Hence reflection, whenever
it sets itself to remedy these defects, becomes speculative thinking,
the thinking proper to philosophy." Further on in the same
section he says that "the relation of speculative science to the
^ Enc. Section 12, quoted on p. 36 below.
3—2
36 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [cH.
other sciences may be stated in the following terms. It does not
in the least neglect the empirical facts contained in the other
sciences but recognises and adopts them: it appreciates and
apphes towards its own structure the universal element in these
sciences, their laws and classifications; but besides all this, into
the categories of science, it introduces, and gives currency to,
other categories. The difference looked at in this way is only a
change of categories."
The method of philosophy then is separated by no difference
of kind from the method of science, and must therefore also
deal with experience. It takes the materials of science, and
carries further the process of arrangement and analysis which
science began. Whether, in doing so, it actually goes so far as
to destroy the basis from which it started, is a question which
will be considered later i. The changes which it produces are in
any case very extensive. Fresh categories are introduced, and
not merely as additions, but as altering materially the meaning
of the categories of science which now turn out to be abstract
and of imperfect validity. The process must not be confounded
with one which should simply carry scientific generalisations up
to the highest point, using only the categories of science, and
making the ordinary scientific presuppositions. The result may
in one sense be said to differ from the result of science in kind
and not only in degree. But the method only differs in degree.
The special categories of philosophy are not introduced "out of
a pistol" but are the necessary consequence of reflection on the
categories of science and the contradictions they display. And,
if there is this continuity between science and philosophy, we
are placed in the dilemma of either supposing that Hegel imagined
science to be possible without experience, or admitting that for
him the dialectic method, the method of philosophy, also required
experience as its presupposition.
35. The whole of Section 12 has a very important bearing
on this question. The following extracts are especially significant.
Philosophy "takes its departure from experience; including
under that name both our immediate consciousness and the
inductions from it. Awakened, as it were, by this stimulus,
1 Sections 47-49.
11] OF THE DIALECTIC 37
thought is vitally characterised by raising itself above the natural
state of mind, above the senses and inferences from the senses
into its own unadulterated element, and by assuming, accordingly,
at first a stand-aloof and negative attitude towards the point
from which it draws its origin." And further on " On the relation
between immediacy and mediation in consciousness. . .here it may
be sufficient to premise that, although the two 'moments' or
factors present themselves as distinct, still neither of them can
be absent, nor can one exist apart from the other. Thus the
knowledge of God " (compare Section 1 — " Truth, in that supreme
sense in which God and God only is the Truth") "as of every
supersensible reality, is in its true character an exaltation above
sensations or perceptions: it consequently involves a negative
attitude to the initial data of sense, and to that extent implies
mediation. For to mediate is to take something as a beginning,
and to go onward to a second thing ; so that the existence of this
second thing depends on our having reached it from something ^
else contradistinguished from it. In spite of this the knowledge s.
of God is independent (selbststandig) and not a mere consequence ^
of the empirical phase of consciousness ; in fact, its independence sj
is essentially secured through this negation and exaltation. No >-
doubt, if we attach an unfair prominence to the fact of mediation, ^
and represent it as implying a state of conditionedness (Beding-
theit), it may be said — not that the remark would mean much —
^
that philosophy is the child of experience, and owes its rise to *^ "^
an a posteriori fact. (As a matter of fact, thinking is always the ^
negation of what we have immediately before us.) With as much ^^ ^
truth however we may be said to owe eating to the means of t^ ^
nourishment, so long as we can have no eating without them. ji^ JT
If we take this view, eating is certainly represented as ungrateful ; vf>
it devours that to which it owes itself. Thinking, upon this view
of its action, is equally ungrateful." And again, "In relation to
the first abstract universality of thought there is a correct and
well-grounded sense in which we may say, that we may thank h^ ^
experience for the development of philosophy. For, firstly, the
empirical sciences do not stop short at the perception of the
individual features of a phenomenon. By the aid of thought,
they come forward to meet philosophy with materials for it, in
5c yu
38 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [oh.
the shape of general uniformities, i.e. laws and classifications of
the phenomena. When this is done, the particular facts which
they contain are ready to be received into philosophy. This,
secondly, implies a certain compulsion on thought itself to pro-
ceed to these concrete specific truths. The reception into philo-
sophy of these scientific materials, now that thought has removed
its immediacy, and made it cease to be mere data forms at the
same time a development of thought out of itself. Philosophy
then owes its development to the empirical sciences. In return
it gives their contents what is so vital to them, the freedom of
thought — gives them, in short, an a priori character. These
contents are now warranted necessary, and no longer depend on
the evidence of facts merely, that they were so found and so
experienced. The fact of experience thus becomes an illustration
and image of the original and completely self-supporting activity
of thought."
36. The peculiar importance of this section lies in the emphasis
laid simultaneously on both the elements of the dialectic process.
On the one hand the start is definitely asserted, as in the quota-
tion from Section 9, to be made from experience. On the other
hand we are told that the result relates itself negatively towards
the point from which it draws its origin. This precludes on the
one side the theory that Hegel endeavoured to produce the
dialectic process by mere reflection on the nature of pure thought
in abstraction, and, on the other side, denies that a reference to
experience involves a merely empirical argument. The reception
into philosophy of the material furnished by science is declared
to be identical with the development of thought out of itself.
We are enabled also to understand correctly, by means of this
Section, certain expressions with regard to the dialectic process
which are occasionally interpreted by critics as meaning that
the medium of the Logic is abstract pure thought. For example,
here as in other places, Hegel repudiates the idea that "philo-
sophy is a child of experience, and owes its existence to an a
fosteriori element." Such an idea, we are told, is "unfair." Such
expressions might lead us to reject the theory of the dialectic
offered above, if it was not for the explanation which here
follows them. It is only unfair to say this, Hegel continues, in
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 39
the same sense in which it would be unfair to say that we owe
eating to the means of nourishment. Now it is unquestionable
that, without something to eat, eating is impossible, and if
eating does not depend on the existence of something to eat, it
follows that the existence of experience may be indispensable
to the existence of philosophy, although philosophy has been
declared not to depend on experience. Mediation, as Hegel uses
the word, is not equivalent to dependence, and it is possible for
thought to require a mediation by sense, and therefore to be
helpless without it, while it is nevertheless, in Hegelian ter-
minology, not in a state of dependence (Bedingtheit) on it.
Without the data which are supplied to us by sense, the dialectic
could not exist. It is not, however, caused by those data, but
is necessarily combined with them in a higher unity. It is no
more dependent on them than any other abstraction from a whole
is on its fellow abstractions from the same whole. Each step
which it takes depends, as we have seen, on the relation which
the previous step bears to the goal of the process. The whole
process may thus fairly be said not to be dependent at all.
The independence of the idea of God is declared to rest on
its negation and exaltation above the empirical side of conscious-
ness. This independence cannot possibly mean, therefore, the
absence of all connection between the two, for to be related to
a thing even negatively, is, as Hegel himself points out on
occasion (as in his treatment of the ideas of finitude and infinity,
Section 95), itself a condition, and in this sense a dependence.
The independence here can only consist in the fact that, although
the beginning is in experience, which contains an empirical side,
yet in the result the idea of God is separated from the particular
empirical facts with which the process started, and is free from
all likeness to them, although they form its demonstration and
justification. Whether this is possible or not, it appears to be
this which Hegel means in asserting his dialectic to be independent
of all experience, and this is quite compatible with an experi-
ential basis.
It may be objected that in this Section Hegel is not speaking
of his own system, but of the origin of philosophy in general.
It is, no doubt, true that the origin of philosophy from a
40 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
liistorical standpoint is one of the points discussed here. But if
we look at Section 14, we shall find that the two questions are
considered by Hegel as identical. "The same evolution of
thought," he says, "which is exhibited in the history of philo-
sophy is presented in the System of Philosophy itself." It is
clear, therefore, that he regards the process traced in Section 12
as one which is not only historically accurate but also philo-
sophically valid, and that he holds the relation of experience to
the dialectic, which is there defined, as that which really exists.
37. We find similar statements in his criticism of the In-
tuitionist School. In explaining their position, he says (Section
70), "What this theory asserts is that truth lies neither in the
Idea as a merely subjective thought, nor in mere being on its
own account; that mere being fer se, a being that is not of the
Idea, is the sensible and finite being of the world. Now all this
only affirms, without demonstration, that the Idea has truth
only by means of being, and being has truth only by means of
the Idea. The maxim of immediate knowledge rejects an in-
definite empty immediacy (and such is abstract being, or pure
unity taken by itself) and affirms in its stead the unity of the
Idea with being. And it acts rightly in so doing. But it is stupid
not to see that the unity of distinct terms or modes is not merely
a purely immediate unity, i.e. unity empty and indeterminate,
but that it involves the principle that one term has truth only
as mediated through the other, or, if the phrase be preferred,
that either term is only mediated with truth through the other."
On the one hand then he asserts that truth does not lie in
the idea as separated from the sensible and finite being of the
world. But the idea in its unity with the sensible and finite
being of the world is experience. This unity, however, is only
mediate — that is to say, it is not, as the Intuitionists supposed
it to be, perceived immediately, nor evident from the nature of
thought itself. It lies rather in the mediation of each with truth
only by means of the other, which supports the view asserted
above — that Hegel makes no attempt to use pure thought in
abstraction from the data of sense, but holds truth to lie only
in the whole from which these two elements are abstracted.
Hegel here denies one immediacy and admits another, both
U] OF THE DIALECTIC 41
of which are called by the same name in English. He denies the
validity of intuition, if by intuition is meant Jacobi's unmittel-
bares Wissen, which perceives immediately the unity of thought
and being. But he admits that intuition, if we mean by it the
Kantian Anschauung, is essential to knowledge, for without
" the sensible and finite being of the world " the idea has no truth.
38. Bearing this in mind we are able to see that there is
nothing in Section 75 inconsistent with the position I have
attributed to Hegel. He there says, "It has been shown to be
untrue in fact to say that there is an immediate knowledge, a
knowledge without mediation either by means of something else
or in itself. It has also been explained to be false in fact to say
that thought advances through finite and conditioned categories
only, which are always mediated by something else, and to forget
that in the very act of mediation the mediation itself vanishes."
The first of these statements will present no difficulties, for
it is quite consistent to deny the existence of immediate know-
ledge, while admitting the existence of an immediate element in
knowledge. Indeed, the assertion that all knowledge consists in
the mediation of the immediate at once affirms that there is an
immediate, and denies that it is knowledge.
Hegel's reminder that in the act of mediation the mediation
itself vanishes does not concern us here. For we are now con-
sidering the basis on which the dialectic process rests, and not
the end which it reaches. The latter must be considered further
on. The fact that the dialectic process consists in mediating the
immediate is enough to show that it must have some relation
to experience, since only in experience can the immediate be
found.
39. Passing on to the Doctrine of the Notion, we have
(Section 166, lecture note): "The notion does not, as under-
standing supposes, stand still in its own immobility. It is rather
an infinite form, of boundless activity, as it were the punctum
saliens of all vitahty, and thereby self-differentiating (sich von
sich selbst unterscheidend). This disruption of the notion into
the difference of its constituent functions, — a disruption imposed
by the native act of the notion, is the judgment. A judgment
therefore, means the particularising of the notion. No doubt the
42 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
notion is implicitly tlie particular. But in the notion as notion,
the particular is not yet explicit, and still remains in transparent
unity with the universal. Thus for example, as we remarked
before (Section 160, lecture note), the germ of a plant contains
I ^ its particular, such as root, branches, leaves, &c., but these
details are at first present only potentially, and are not realised
till the germ uncloses. This unclosing is, as it were, the judgment
of the plant. The illustration may also serve to show how neither
the notion nor the judgment is merely found in our head, or
merely framed by us. The notion is the very heart of things,
and makes them what they are. To form a notion of an object
means therefore to become aware of its notion; and when we
proceed to a criticism or judgment of the object, we are not
Hil performing a subjective act, and merely ascribing this or that
predicate to the object. We are, on the contrary, observing the
object in the specific character imposed by its notion."
This analogy may illustrate the view which we have been
considering. In the growth of a tree the positive element is in
the seed only. The air, earth, and water, although they are
necessary to the development of the tree, do not play a positive
part in its growth. It is the nature of the seed alone which
determines that a plant shall be produced, and what sort of
plant it shall be. But the surrounding conditions, of suitable
soil and so on, are conditions without which the seed cannot
realise the end of its nature. In this analogy, the seed will
correspond to the category of Being, the completely mature plant
to the Absolute Idea, and the air, earth, and water, to the matter
of intuition. If we look more closely, the resemblance to actual
plant life is not perfect, since different amounts of light, heat,
and manure will change the size and colour, though not the
^i species of the flower, which gives to these surroundings a more
''' active part than Hegel allows to the matter of intuition. But
since Hegel says, without restriction, that the germ of the plant
|u| contains its particulars, he must be supposed to ignore the
nil amount of quantitative change which depends on the circum-
■i^ stances in which the plant is placed, and in this case the analogy
i J IS exact.
^ The point of the comparison, if the above explanation is
,!«(
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 43
correct, lies in the fact that the growth of the plant has certain
conditions which do not determine the nature of the develop-
ment, though without their presence the development could not
exist at all. That this is the point which Hegel wished to make
is rendered probable by his having taken as his example a case
of organic life. For in organic life we are able to distinguish
between the cause of growth and the essential conditions of it
in a way that would be impossible if we were considering an
event governed only by mechanical laws. In the latter case we
can only say that the cause is the sum of all the necessary con-
ditions, and we are unable to consider any one of them as more
fundamental than the others. But with organic life we have
introduced the idea of a final cause, and we are thus enabled
to distinguish between the positive cause and the conditions
which are necessary but not positive. Hegel's declaration that
the growth of the notion must be judged by the principles of
organic growth, enables us to make this distinction, without
which we should be unable to understand that the relation held ;
by the data of sense to the dialectic process should be indis- fp I
pensable, and yet negative.
40. Again (Section 232, lecture note) he says, "The necessity
which cognition (Erkennen) reaches by means of demonstration
is the reverse of what formed its starting-point. In its starting-
point cognition had a given and a contingent content ; but now,
at the close of its movement, it knows its content to be necessary.
This necessity is reached by means of subjective activity.
Similarly, subjectivity at starting was quite abstract, a bare
tabula rasa. It now shows itself as a modifying and determining
principle. In this way we pass from the idea of cognition to that
of will. The passage, as will be apparent on a closer examination,
means that the universal, to be truly apprehended, must be
apprehended as subjectivity, as a notion self -moving, active,
and form-imposing." Hegel is speaking here of finite cognition
at the point at which it passes over into volition. But he is
speaking of it before the change has yet been made, for the "it,"
which knows its content to be necessary, can only be taken as
meaning cognition. The process here described starts with finite
cognition, which is not philosophy, but the ordinary thought of
44 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [OH.
every-day life. By this process the passage is made to volition.
The advance lies in the fact that, while knowledge started from
the given and contingent, it now knows its content to be necessary.
But when this change has taken place in the content, cognition
has become philosophy. (Compare Section 9, quoted on p. 35
above. "The second defect is that the beginnings are in every
case data and postulates, neither accounted for nor deduced.
In both these points the form of necessity fails to get its due.
Hence, reflection whenever it sets itself to remedy these defects,
becomes speculative thinking, the thinking proper to philo-
sophy.") And the universal, under the form of subjectivity,
has been apprehended as a self-moving notion, which also shows
that by this point knowledge has become philosophy. And the
process by which it has advanced begins with the given and the
contingent, which can only be found in sense. The advance of
the dialectic towards the Absolute Idea has therefore a basis in
experience.
41. In Section 238, Hegel, in considering the organic elements
of the speculative method, states that its beginning is being or
immediacy. "When it means immediate being the beginning is
taken from intuition (Anschauung) and perception — the initial
stage in the analytical method of finite cognition. When it means
universality, it is the beginning of the synthetic method. But
since the Logical Idea (das Logische) is as much a universal as
it is in being, since it is as much presupposed by the notion as
the notion itself immediately is, its beginning is a synthetical
as well as an analytical beginning.
(Lecture note.) "Philosophical method is analytical as well
as synthetical, not indeed in the sense of a bare juxtaposition
or mere alternating employment of these two methods of finite
cognition, but rather in such a way that it holds them merged
in itself. In every one of its movements, therefore, it displays
an attitude at once analytical and synthetical. Philosophic
thought proceeds analytically, in so far as it only accepts its
object, the Idea, and while allowing it its own way is only, as
it were, an onlooker at its movement and development. To this
extent philosophising is wholly passive. Philosophic thought,
however, is equally synthetic, and evinces itself to be the action
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 45
of the notion itself. To that end, however, there is required an
effort to keep back the incessant impertinence of our own fancies
and private opinions."
Continuing the same subject, he says in Section 239, "The
advance renders explicit the judgment implicit in the Idea. The
immediate universal, as the notion implicit, is the dialectical
force, which on its own part deposes its immediacy and uni-
versality to the level of a mere stage or 'moment.' Thus is
produced the negative of the beginning, the original datum is
made determinate: it exists for something, as related to those
things which are distinguished from it — the stage of Reflection.
"Seeing that the immanent dialectic only states explicitly what
was involved in the immediate notion, this advance is analytical,
but seeing that in this notion this distinction was not yet stated,
it is equally synthetical.
(Lecture note.) "In the advance of the idea the beginning
exhibits itself as what it implicitly is. It is seen to be mediated
and derivative, and neither to have proper being nor proper
immediacy. It is only for the consciousness which is itself
immediate, that Nature forms the commencement or immediacy,
and that Spirit appears as what is mediated by Nature. The truth
is that Nature is due to the statuting of Spirit, (das durch den
Geist Gesetzte,) and it is Spirit itself which gives itself a pre-
supposition in Nature."
42. In this passage the double foundation of the dialectic is
clearly admitted, and its connection with the double aspect of
the process is made clear. We must have, in the first place, pure
thought given to us as a fact — we cannot know the nature of
thought unless thinking has taken place. From one point of
view, then, the dialectic process is the observation of a subject
matter already before us. In this aspect philosophy "allows the
idea its own way" and "is only, as it were, an onlooker at its
movement and development." And in so far as this is so we have
the unequivocal declaration that "the beginning is taken from
sensation or perception" — since pure thought is never found
except as an element in the whole of experience. But at the
same time the process is not merely one of empirical selection
of first one character and then another from the concrete whole.
46 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [cm
When once the first and simplest judgment has been made about
experience — the judgment which is involved in the application
of the category of Being — the various steps of the dialectic
process will grow by an inner necessity out of that judgment.
This judgment will be the beginning as universality, as the other
aspect was the beginning as immediate being; and, in so far as
the beginning is universal, the process is synthetic and "evinces
itself to be the action of the notion itself."
The explanation of the union of the two processes lies in the
fact that the reality present to our minds in experience is always
the full and concrete notion. This is the logical frius of the move-
ment, although the unanalysed mass and the abstract notion of
Being may be the temporal 'prius in that stage of finite reflection
which precedes philosophy. "In the onward movement of the
idea the beginning exhibits itself as what it is implicitly. It is
seen to be mediated and derivative, and neither to have proper
being nor proper immediacy." And again, in Section 242, the
notion "is the idea, which, as absolutely first (in the method)
regards this terminus as merely the annihilation of the show or
semblance, which made the beginning appear immediate, and
made itself seem a result. It is the knowledge that the idea is
one systematic whole." All less complete ideas are illegitimate
abstractions from this whole, and naturally tend therefore to
approximate to it. And such a process may be viewed from two
sides. It may be regarded from the point of view of the whole —
in which case the dialectic process will be viewed as gradually
retracing the steps of abstraction which had led to the idea of
pure Being, and rebuilding the concrete object till it again co-
incided with reality. Or it may be regarded from the point of
view of the incomplete and growing notion, when the advance
will seem to be purely out of the notion itself. " Seeing that the
immanent dialectic only states explicitly what was involved in
the immediate notion, this advance is analytical, but seeing that
in this notion this distinction was not yet stated, it is equally
synthetical."
And these two aspects — the analytic from the standpoint of
the concrete and perfect notion, and the synthetic from the
standpoint of the yet imperfect notion, — correspond respectively
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 47
to aspects for which the beginning is taken from sensation or
perception, and from the action of the notion itself. In so far
as we look on the motive force of the dialectic process as residing
in the completeness of the concrete notion, the process depends
on the contemplation of reality and therefore of sensation and
perception. For the sensation, although contributing no positive
element to the process, is the necessary condition of our becoming
conscious of the nature of thought. But in so far as we look on
the motive force of the process as supplied by the incompleteness
of the growing notion, we shall bring into prominence the fact
that the process is after all one of pure thought. And we only
get a true view of the whole when we combine the two and see
that the stimulus is in the relation of the abstract and explicit
idea to the complete and implicit idea, that the process is one of
pure thought perceived in a medium of sensation and therefore
synthetic and analytic at once.
43. To this we may add the following extract from the
Philosophy of Spirit (Encyclopaedia, Section 447, lecture note),
*'In sensation there is present the whole Reason — the collected
material of Spirit. All our images, thoughts, and ideas, of ex-
ternal nature, of justice, of ethics, and of the content of religion,
develop themselves from our intelligence as used in sensation;
as they themselves, on the other hand, when they have received
their complete explanation are again concentrated in the simple
form of sensation.... This development of Spirit out of sensation,
however, has commonly been understood as if the intelhgence
was originally completely empty, and therefore received all
content from outside as something quite strange to it. This is
a mistake. For that which the intelligence appears to take in
from outside is in reality nothing else than the reasonable, which
is therefore identical with spirit, and immanent in it. The activity
of spirit has therefore no other goal, except, by the removal of
the apparent externality to self of the implicitly reasonable
object, to remove also the apparent externaUty of the object
to spirit."
Here we learn that the reasonable, with which the Logic deals,
is first given to us in sensation, and as apparently external to
self, and that it is by starting from that which is given in
48 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [CH.
sensation that we learn the nature of spirit. To act in this way
is a fundamental characteristic of spirit — "the activity of spirit
has no other goal" — and therefore it must be in this way that
our minds act when they are engaged on the dialectic process.
44. I have endeavoured to show, by the consideration of these
passages from Hegel's writings, that his method possesses two
characteristics. These are, first, that it is a process of pure
thought, but only possible in the presence of matter of intuition ;
second, that the motive force of the whole process is involved
in the relation between the incomplete form of the notion, which
at any moment may be explicitly before us, and the complete
form which is present imphcitly in all our thought as in all other
reality.
We must now pass to another question. The vaHdity of each
stage of the dialectic, as we have seen, depended on the one
before, and all of them ultimately on the first stage — the category
of Being. The validity of this again we found to depend on the
fact that its denial would be suicidal^.
Now it must be admitted that this is a mere inference, and
not explicitly stated by Hegel. Such a statement would be most
natural at the beginning of the whole dialectic process, but it
is neither there nor elsewhere. No justification whatever is given
of the idea of Being. It is merely assumed and all the consequences
that follow from it, however cogent in themselves, are left, so
to speak, suspended in the air with no explicit argument any-
where to attach them to reality. The explanation of this strange
peculiarity is, I think, largely to be found in the state of philo-
sophy at the time when Hegel wrote.
45. The argument of the dialectic could, if the theory in
the previous chapter is correct, have been arranged as follows.
The basis of the whole would be the existence of the
world of experience, which no sceptic can wholly deny, since
denial itself always imphes the existence of something. The
barest admission that could be made, however, with regard
to this world of experience, would involve that it should be
brought under the category of Being, whose validity would be
therefore granted. But as, in the process of the dialectic, the
1 Chap. I. Section 18.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 49
category of Being developed contradictions which led up to fresh
categories, and so on, the validity of these categories also, as
applied to reality, must be granted, since they follow from the
validity of the category of Being.
Kant, who had to establish his system in the face of sceptical
criticism, naturally emphasised the transcendental character of
the argument, and the cogency with which his conclusions could
be applied to the world of reality, involved as they were in
propositions which his adversaries were not prepared to dispute.
But Hegel's position was different. He lived in an age of Idealism,
when the pure scepticism of Hume had ceased to be a living
force, and when it was a generally accepted view that the mind
was adequate to the knowledge of reality. Under such cir-
cumstances Hegel would naturally lay stress on the conclusions
of his system, in which he more or less differed from his con-
temporaries, rather than on the original premises, in which he
chiefly agreed with them, and would point out how far the end
was from the beginning, rather than how clearly it might be
derived from it. To this must be added Hegel's marked preference
for a constructive, rather than a polemical treatment, which
appears so strongly in all his works^. But this has exposed his
system to severe disadvantages in the reaction against all Idealism
which has taken place since his death. For the transcendental
form becomes necessary when the attacks of scepticism have to
be met, and its absence, though due chiefly to the special char-
acter of the audience to whom the philosophy was first addressed,
has led to the reproaches which have been so freely directed
against Absolute Idealism, as a mere fairy tale, or as a theory
with internal consistency, but without any relation to facts.
The same causes may perhaps account for the prominence of
the synthetic over the analytic aspect of the dialectic, which may
be noticed occasionally throughout the Logic. The criticism of
idealists would naturally be devoted more to the internal con-
sistency of the system than to its right to exist at all, on which
point they would probably have no objection to raise. To meet
such criticisms it would be necessary to lay emphasis on the
^ Note to Second Edition. I have omitted a sentence which implied that
Hegel's arguments were transcendental in the Kantian sense.
M.H. 4
50 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
synthetic side of the process, while to us, who in most cases
approach the whole question from a comparatively negative
standpoint, it would seem more natural to bring forward the
analytic side, and to show that the whole system was involved
in any admission of the existence of reality.
46. Hegel speaks of his logic as without any pre-supposition.
This is taken by Trendelenburg as equivalent to an assertion that
it has no basis in experience. But we have seen that the only
postulate which Hegel assumed was the validity of the category
of Being — that is, the existence of something. Now this, though
not directly proved, can scarcely be said to be assumed, if it is
involved in all other assertions. And a system which requires
no other postulate than this might fairly be said to have no pre-
supposition. The very fact that the argument exists proves that
it was entitled to its assumption, for if the argument exists, then
the category of Being has validity, at any rate, of one thing —
the argument itself. And this is compatible with all the relation
to experience which the dialectic needs, or will admit.
A parallel case will be found in Hegel's criticism of Kant's
refutation of the ontological argument^. He there treats the
actual existence of God, who for him is equivalent to the Absolute
Reality, as a matter which can be passed over in silence, since
its denial — the denial of any reality in the universe — is suicidal.
It is really the same fact — the existence of some reality — which,
under another aspect, is assumed at the beginning of the Logic.
We may reasonably suppose that Hegel treated it in the same
way, holding that a postulate which could not be denied without
self-contradiction need not be considered as a pre-supposition
at all. From all more particular pre-suppositions he doubtless
claims that his logic is free. But this claim is not incompatible
with the relation of the dialectic to experience, which was
suggested in the last chapter.
It must also be noted that Hegel says of the proofs of the
existence of God which are derived from the finite world "the
process of exaltation might thus appear to be transition, and to
involve a means, but it is not a whit less true that every trace
of transition and means is absorbed, since the world, which
1 Cp. Sections 63, 64.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 51
might have seemed to be the means of reaching God, is explained
to be a nullity '^Z' And in Section 12, in the passage quoted above,
he tells us that philosophy is unfairly said to be the child of
experience, since it "involves a negative attitude to the initial
acts of the senses." Now in the Logic the result certainly stands
in a negative relation to the beginning, for the inadequacy of
the category of Being to express reality has been demonstrated
in the course of the dialectic. The category of Being would then,
in Hegel's language, have been absorbed, and it would be unfair
to say that the dialectic depended on it. Under these circum-
stances it is only natural that he should not call its validity a
pre-supposition.
47. There is, then, a constant relation to experience through-
out the course of the dialectic. But, even if this is so, does that
relation remain at the end of the process? It has been asserted
that, although throughout the Logic Hegel may treat thought
as mediate, and as only existing as an element in a whole of which
the other element is an immediate datum, yet, when we reach
the Absolute Idea, that Idea is held to be self-centred and capable
of existing by itself in abstraction from everything else. It must
be admitted that such a transition would be unjustifiable^, but
I am unable to see any reason to suppose that Hegel held any
such belief.
We must discriminate between those characteristics of the
immediate element of experience which are indispensable if
experience is to be constituted at all, and those which are not
indispensable. The essential characteristics may all be summed
up in immediacy. All thought that we know, or that we can
conceive, has its action only in mediation, and its existence
without something immediate on which it may act would be a
contradiction. On the other hand it is not essential that this
immediate should be also contingent. "The contingent may be
described as what has the ground of its being, not in itself, but
in somewhat else^." Now it is quite possible that, in a more
advanced state of knowledge, we might be able to trace back all
the data immediately given in experience till we had referred
1 Enc. Section 50. ^ Cp. Chap. ra. Section 99.
' Enc. Section 145, lecture note.
52 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [CH.
them to an individuality or organic whole from the nature of
which they could all be deduced. Contingency would be here
eliminated, for all experience would be referred to a single unity
and determined by its notion. The only question which could
then arise would be, "Why was the ultimate nature of reality
thus and not otherwise? " The question would, no doubt, be one
to which no answer could be given. This would not, however,
render the nature of reality in any way contingent. For such
a question would be meaningless. Enquiries as to the reasons of
things have their place only within the universe, whose existence
they presuppose. We have no right to make them with regard
to the universe itself. Thus in the case we have supposed con-
tingency would be entirely eliminated, yet immediacy would
remain untouched. We should still know reality, not by thought
alone, but because it was given to us.
48. It seems probable that Hegel did suppose that the Absolute
Idea, when completely realised, involved the elimination of the
contingent, w^hich indeed he treats^ as part of a lower category,
which is, of course, transcended in the highest. It may certainly
be doubted whether human knowledge could ever attain, as a
matter of fact, to this height of perfection. In particular, it may
be asked whether such a state of knowledge would not require
other means than our present senses for the perception of reality
outside ourselves. But whether the elimination of Contingency
is or is not possible, the point which is important to us here is
that, should it take place, it does not involve the elimination of
the immediate, and therefore does not prove that Hegel had any
intention of declaring thought to be self-sufficing, even when it
reached the Absolute Idea.
In the stage immediately before the Absolute Idea — that of
ordinary cognition and volition — it is evident that the idea is
not self-sufficing, since it is certain that we can neither think
nor resolve in every-day life without some immediate data. Now
the point of transition between this category and the Absolute
Idea is stated to be "the unity of the theoretical and practical
idea, and thus at the same time the unity of the idea of life with
that of cognition. In cognition we had the idea in the shape of
1 Enc. Section 145.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 53
differentiation. The process of cognition has issued in the over-
throw of this differentiation, and the restoration of that unity
which, as unity, and in its immediacy, is in the first instance
the Idea of Life^." In this there is nothing which tends to the
elimination of immediacy, or to the self-sufficiency of thought,
but only the complete discovery in the outside world of the pure
thought which is also in us.
Again, in the idea of Life, thought is certainly not self-sufficing,
since one of the essential characteristics of this category is that
the soul is in relation to a body, which involves, of course, sensa-
tion. Now the Absolute Idea is a synthesis of this category and
the category of Cognition. Thought is mediate in both of these.
How then can it be immediate in the synthesis? The correction
of inadequacies in the Hegelian logic comes by the emphasis of
one side in the thesis and of the other in the antithesis, the
synthesis reconciling the two. The synthesis, throughout the
entire dialectic, can only advance on the thesis and antithesis
on points in which they disagree with one another. On points
in which they agree it can make no change. And when, in
Absolute Spirit, Hegel reaches that which he unquestionably
believes to be self-mediated and self-sufficing, he only does so
because it is a synthesis of the mediating logic and the element
of immediacy or "givenness" which first occurs in nature. But
within the logic there is no immediacy to balance the admitted
mere mediacy of the finite categories, and the distinction of
mediacy and immediacy cannot therefore, within the logic, be
transcended.
49. We find no sign again of transcended mediation in the
direct definition of the Absolute Idea. "Dieses aus der Dif^erenz
und Endlichkeit des Erkennens zu sich zuriickgekommene und
durch die Thatigkeit des Begriffs mit ihm identisch gewordene
Leben ist die speculative oder absolute Idee. Die Idee als Einheit
der subjectiven und der objectiven Idee ist der Begriff der Idee,
dem die Idee als solche der Gegenstand, dem das Objekt sie ist;
ein Objekt, in welches alle Bestimmungen zusammen gegangen
sind2."
The second sentence of the definition asserts that the idea is
1 Enc. Section 236, lecture note. ^ Enr. Sections 235, 236.
54 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
the "Gegenstand und Objekt" to the notion of the idea. This
cannot, it appears to me, be taken as equivalent to a statement
that thought here becomes self-subsistent and self-mediating.
It seems rather to signify that that which is immediately given
to thought to mediate, is now known to be itself thought, although
still immediately given. In other words, the Absolute Idea is
realised when the thinker sees in the whole world round him
nothing but the realisation of the same idea which forms his own
essential nature — is at once conscious of the existence of the
other, and of its fundamental similarity to himself. The expression
that the idea as such is the object to the notion of the idea seems
rather to support this view by indicating that the idea as object
is viewed in a different aspect from the idea as subject. If im-
mediacy was here gained by thought, so that it required no
object given from outside, it would have been more natural to
say that the idea was its own object, or indeed that the dis-
tinction of subject and object had vanished altogether.
If this is the correct interpretation of this passage, then
thought remains, for Hegel, in the Absolute Idea, what it has
been in all the finite categories. Although the content of all
experience contains, in such a case, nothing which is not a mani-
festation of the pure Absolute Idea, yet to every subject in whom
that idea is realised, the idea is presented in the form of immediate
data, which are mediated by the subject's own action. The
fundamental nature of subject and object is the same, but the
distinction between them remains in their relation to one another.
No doubt Hegel regards as the highest ideal of the dialectic
process something which shall be self-mediated, and in which
mediation as an external process vanishes. But this he finds in
Absolute Spirit, which is a synthesis of the Absolute Idea with
the element of immediate presentation. The Absolute Idea is
still an abstraction, as compared with the whole of Absolute
Spirit, and is not self-mediated.
50. We have now to consider the third objection which has
been raised to the theory of Hegel's meaning explained in the
first chapter. This objection is that Hegel has ascribed ontological
validity to his dialectic to a greater extent than this theory
admits, and that he has attempted to account by pure thought.
II] OF THE DIALECTIC 55
not only for the rationality, but also for the entire existence of
the universe. This is maintained by Professor Seth, who objects
to the system chiefly, it would seem, on this ground. He says,
for example, "Hegel apparently says, on one occasion, that his
own elaborate phraseology means no more than the ancient
position that vov<i rules the world, or the modern phrase, there
is Reason in the world ^. If the system is reducible to this very
general proposition, our objections would certainly fall to the
ground^."
Somewhat earlier he expresses the position, which he believes
Hegel to hold, with great force and clearness, Hegel " apparently
thinks it incumbent upon him to prove that spirit exists by a
necessity of thought. The concrete existence of the categories (in
Nature and Spirit) is to be deduced from their essence or thought-
nature ; it is to be shown that they cannot not be. When we have
mounted to the Absolute Idea, it is contended, we cannot help
going further. The nisus of thought itself projects thought out
of the sphere of thought altogether into that of actual existence.
In fact, strive against the idea as we may, it seems indubitable
that there is here once more repeated in Hegel the extraordinary
but apparently fascinating attempt to construct the world out
of abstract thought or mere universals^."
51. The passages from which most information on this point
are to be expected will be those in the Greater and Smaller
Logics, in which the transition to the world of Nature is de-
scribed. These are quoted and abridged as follows by Professor
Seth. "'The Absolute Idea is still logical, still confined to the
element of pure thoughts.... But inasmuch as the pure idea of
knowledge is thus, so far, shut up in a species of subjectivity,
it is impelled to remove this limitation ; and thus the pure truth,
the last result of the logic, becomes also the beginning of another
sphere and science^.' The Idea, he recalls to us, has been defined
as 'the absolute unity of the pure notion and its reality' — 'the
pure notion which is related only to itself; but if this is so, the
two sides of this relation are one, and they collapse, as it were,
^ Enc. Section 24, lecture note.
2 Hegelianism and Personality, pp. 124, 125. ' op. cit. pp. 110, 111.
* Werke, v. pp. 352, 353.
56 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
'into the immediacy of Being.' 'The Idea as the totality in this
form is Nature. This determining of itself, however, is not a
process of becoming, or a transition ' such as we have from stage
to stage in the Logic. 'The passing over is rather to be under-
stood thus — that the Idea freely lets itself go, being absolutely
sure of itself and at rest in itself. On account of this freedom,
the form of its determination is likewise absolutely free — namely,
the externality of space and time existing absolutely for itself
without subjectivity.' A few lines lower he speaks of the ' resolve
(Entschluss) of the pure Idea to determine itself as external
Idea.' Turning to the Encyclopaedia we find, at the end of the
Smaller^Logic^, a more concise but substantially similar state-
ment. ' The Idea which exists for itself, looked at from the point
of view of this unity with itself, is Perception ; and the Idea as
it exists for perception is Nature... The absolute /reet^om of the
Idea consists in this, that in the absolute truth of itself (i.e.,
according to Hegel's usage, when it has attained the full per-
fection of the form which belongs to it) 'it resolves to let the
element of its particularity — the immediate Idea as its own
reflection — go forth freely from itself as Nature.' And in the
lecture note which follows we read, as in the Larger Logic, ' We
have now returned to the notion of the Idea with which we
began. This return to the beginning is also an advance. That
with which we began was Being, abstract Being, and now we have
the Idea as Being; but this existent Idea is Nature^.' "
52. It is certainly possible at first sight to take these passages
as supporting Professor Seth's theory. But we must consider
that, according to that theory, Hegel is made to occupy a position,
not only paradoxical and untenable, but also inconsistent. If,
as I have endeavoured to show above, and as is admitted by
Professor Seth, Hegel fully recognises the fact that the whole
dialectic movement of pure thought only takes place in that
concrete whole in which sense data are a moment correlative
with pure thought — because thought could not exist at all with-
out immediate data — how can he suppose that the movement of
pure thought produces the sensations which are the conditions
of its own existence? Are we not bound to adopt any other
^ Enc. Section 244. * Hegelianism and Personality, pp. 105, 106.
II] OF THE DIALECTIC 57
explanation, rather than suppose him guilty of such a glaring
contradiction?
Such an explanation was offered in the last chapter^, where
it was pointed out that, as the comparison of the abstract idea
with the concrete idea was the origin of the dialectic movement
within the Logic, so the comparison of the concrete idea with
the full whole of reality, compared with which the concrete
notion itself was an abstraction, was the origin of the transition
from Logic to Nature and Spirit — a transition in which there
was no attempt to construct the world out of abstract thought,
because the foundation of the argument was the presence,
implicit in all experience, of the concrete reality whose necessity
was being demonstrated.
Such a theory, at one time. Professor Seth was willing to
accept as correct, and now considers as "the explanation which
a conciliatory and soberminded Hegelian would give of Hegel's
remarkable tour deforced His account is substantially the same
as that given above. " Here, again, then, as throughout the Logic,
it might be said we are merely undoing the work of abstraction
and retracing our steps towards concrete fact. This, as we have
seen, implies the admission that it is our experiential knowledge
of actual fact which is the real motive-force impelling us onward
— impelling us here from the abstract determinations of the
Logic to the (/^asi-reaUty of Nature, and thence to the full
reality of spirit. It is because we ourselves are spirits that we
cannot stop short of that consummation. In this sense we can
understand the feeling of ' hmitation ' or incompleteness of which
Hegel speaks at the end of the Logic. The pure form craves, as
it were, for its concrete realisation^."
He subsequently, however, rejects this position, and indeed
seems scarcely to see its full meaning. For his "soberminded
Hegehan," who accepts this reading, will, he informs us, "lay
as little stress as possible upon the so-called deduction. Further
reflection," he continues, "has convinced me, however, that
Hegel's contention here is of more fundamental import to his
system than such a representation allows. Perhaps it may even
be said, that, when we surrender this deduction, though we may
1 Section 26. * op. cit. pp. 108, 109.
58 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
retain much that is valuable in Hegel's thought, we surrender
the system as a whole. For, however readily he may admit,
when pressed, that in the ordo ad individimm experience is the
quarry from which all the materials are derived, it must not be
forgotten that he professes to offer us an absolute philosophy.
And it is the characteristic of an absolute philosophy that every-
thing must be deduced or constructed as a necessity of thought.
Hegel's system, accordingly, is so framed as to elude the necessity
of resting anywhere on mere fact. It is not enough for him to
take self-conscious intelligence as an existent fact, by reflection
on whose action in his own conscious experience and in the
history of the race certain categories are disclosed, reducible by
philosophic insight to a system of mutually connected notions,
which may then be viewed as constituting the essence or formal
structure of reason. He apparently thinks it incumbent on him
to prove that spirit exists by a necessity of thought. The con-
crete existence of the categories (in Nature and Spirit) is to be
deduced from their essence or thought-nature : it is to be shown
they cannot not be^."
53. Now in this passage there are two separate charges made
against Hegel, which Professor Seth apparently thinks are
identical. The one is that "thought of its own abstract nature
gives birth to the reality of things," that is, that, given thought,
Nature and Spirit can be deduced. That they are deduced from
thought in some way cannot be denied, but Professor Seth
rejects the idea that the deduction is partly analytical, and
declares that Hegel endeavoured to demonstrate the existence
of the worlds of Nature and Spirit by pure synthesis from the
world of Logic. But this is not all. Hegel is also accused of
endeavouring to prove "the concrete existence of the categories
from their essence.'' This is properly a second charge. But
Professor Seth appears to identify it with the first, by speak-
ing of the concrete existence as "in nature and spirit," and
by making essence identical with the nature of thought. This
identification is, I venture to think, unjustifiable.
In the first place every proposition about Nature and Spirit
is not one which involves real existence. We might say, for
1 op. cit. pp. 109, 110.
II] OF THE DIALECTIC 59
example, "Dragons must occupy space," or "Angels must have
some way of gaining immediate knowledge." Both propositions
might be perfectly correct, even if neither dragons nor angels
existed, because our propositions would deal only with essence.
They might be put in a hypothetical form, such as, "If there
were dragons, they would occupy space." (In this discussion I
adopt Professor Seth's use of the word essence to signify the
nature of a thing, which remains the same, whether the thing
exists or not. It must not, of course, be confounded with Hegel's
use of the same word to denote the second stage of the Logic,
which merely describes one stage among others in what Professor
Seth would call the essence of thought.)
On the other hand, as we have seen above, a proposition
relating to pure thought may refer to real existence. " Being is
synthesised in Becoming" is such a proposition, for the category
of Being is applicable, we know, to real existence. And as the
essences of Being and Becoming are united, and as the existence
of Being has been proved, we are able to state the proposition
concerning the relation of Being and Becoming as one of real
existence.
The confusion of real existence with the worlds of Nature
and Spirit is not inexplicable. For all real existence has its
immediate side, and must therefore be presented by sense, outer
or inner, while thought, again, is correlative to sense, and, so
to speak opposed to it, both being complementary elements in
experience. Thought consequently gets taken as if it was opposed
to real existence. But the fact of the existence of thought can
be presented to us by inner sense as something immediate, and
we are then as sure of its real existence as we could be of anything
in the world of Nature. The office of thought is to mediate ; but
it actually exists, or it could not mediate; and in virtue of its
actual existence any instance of thought may be immediately
known; in which case it is mediated by other thought. The
existence of logic proves in itself that we can think about thought.
Thought therefore can become a datum, and its real existence can
be known. It is true that it is an abstraction, and that its real
existence is only as an element of experience. But this is true
also of the particulars of sense.
60 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
54. Since, then, propositions concerning Nature and Spirit
may be really "essential and hypothetical" while propositions
concerning pure thought may deal with real existence, it follows
that the deduction of Nature and Spirit from Logic does not
necessarily involve the fallacious attempt to argue from essence
to existence. This is the case whether the deduction is both
analytic and synthetic in its nature, as I have endeavoured to
maintain, or is of a purely synthetic nature, as Professor Seth
supposes.
On the first of these suppositions the argument might have
been merely from the essence of thought to the essence of Nature.
In that case the final conclusion would have run, thought cannot
exist without Nature, or, if there is thought there is Nature.
Hegel, however, was not satisfied with such a meagre result, and
his argument is from existence to existence. The course of the
Logic, in the first place, may be summed up thus — we have an
immediate certainty that something exists, consequently the
category of Being is valid of reality. But the Absolute Idea is
involved in the category of Being. Therefore the Absolute Idea
is applicable to that which really exists, and we can predicate
reality of that Idea. After this follows the transition to the world
of Nature, which is of a similar character. The Absolute Idea
really exists. But it (since it is of the nature of thought) can
only exist in combination with data of sense. Therefore data of
sense really exist. Thus the conclusion certainly deals with real
existence, but that character has been given to the argument,
not by any juggling with pure thought, but by a premise at the
beginning relating to real existence — namely, that something must
exist. The evidence for this proposition is immediate, for it rests
on the impossibility of denying it without asserting at the same
time the reality at least of the denial and of the thinker. And
this assertion depends on the immediately given, for the existence
of the words or ideas which form the denial are perceived by
sense, outer or inner, while the existence of the thinker is an
inference from, or rather an implication in, the fact that he has
sensations or thoughts, of the existence of which — thoughts as
well as sensations — he has immediate knowledge.
The same would be the case if the deduction were purely
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 61
synthetic, one which endeavoured to make the world of Nature
and Spirit a mere consequence and result of the world of thought.
The argument would be invalid for reasons which we shall pre-
sently notice, but not because it attempted to pass from essence
to existence. For we have every right to believe that thought
exists, and it is from this existent thought (the presence of which
within the Logic passes unchallenged by Professor Seth) that
Hegel passes on to Nature and Spirit.
The two charges then — of deducing Nature and Spirit merely
from thought, and of deducing existence from essence — are by
no means identical, and must be taken separately. It will perhaps
be more convenient to begin with the first, which is the less
sweeping of the two.
55. "Thought out of its own abstract nature gives birth to
the reality of things" says Professor Seth in his criticism, and,
if this is Hegel's meaning, we must certainly admit that he has
gone too far. Thought is, in its essential nature, mediate. As
Trendelenburg remarks^ the immediacy of certain ideas in the
dialectic is only comparative and equivalent to self-mediation.
Real immediacy belongs to nothing but the data of intuition.
And therefore thought cannot exist unless it has something
immediately given which it may mediate. It is, of course, per-
fectly true that the immediate cannot remain unmediated. The
only merely immediate thing is the pure sensation, and the pure
sensation taken by itself cannot become part of experience, and
therefore, since it has certainly no existence out of experience,
does not exist at all. But although immediacy, as such, is a mere
abstraction, so is mediation, and, therefore, thought. Green's
extraordinary suggestion that "the notion that an event in the
way of sensation is something over and above its conditions may
be a mistake of ours^," and again that "for the only kind of
consciousness for which there is reality, the conceived conditions
are the reality," ignores the fact that the ideal of knowledge
would in this case be a mass of conditions which conditioned
nothing, and of relations with nothing to relate. Such an eleva-
tion of an abstraction into an independent reality is not excelled
^ Logische Untersuchungen, Vol. i. p. CS,
2 Works, Vol. n. p. 190.
62 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [CH.
in audacity by any of the parallel fallacies of materialism, against
which Green was never weary of protesting.
But if thought is a mere element in the whole of reality, having
no more independent existence than mere sense has, it is certainly
impossible that thought should produce reality — that the sub-
stantial and individual should depend on an abstraction formed
from itself. And this is what Hegel believed, if we are to accept
Professor Seth's statement.
56. This theory is rendered the more remarkable by the
admission that, within the Logic, the deduction has that analytic
aspect which is required to make it valid. "The forward move-
ment is in reaUty a movement backward: it is a retracing of
our steps to the world as we know it in the fulness of its real
determinations^." Can we believe that Hegel, after using one
method of dialectic process to display the nature of pure thought,
employs the same dialectic in an absolutely different sense when
he wishes to pass from logic to nature? Logic, Nature, and Spirit
are declared to be thesis, antithesis, and synthesis ; so are Being,
Not-Being, and Becoming. In the case of the latter it is admitted
that the true reality lies only in the synthesis, and that no
attempt is made to construct it out of the thesis. What reason
is there for supposing such an attempt in the case of the more
comprehensive deduction which we are now discussing?
Professor Seth attempts to answer the question by drawing
a distinction between epistemology and ontology in this respect.
As to the former, he says, it may be true that Hegel held that
we only arrive at a knowledge of pure thought by abstraction
from experience, while yet it may be true that he considered that
the other element in experience was originally produced by, and
is in the objective world dependent on, pure thought. It is
perhaps worth remarking that this derives no countenance from
Sections 238 and 239 of the Encyclopaedia quoted above^, where
the union of analysis and synthesis is spoken of as "the philo-
sophic method" and as belonging to "philosophic thought"
without any suggestion that it only applies to one department
of philosophy.
But the distinction is one which would only be tenable if the
^ Hegelianism and Personality, p. 92. ^ p^ 44^
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 63
elements of which experience is composed were self-subsistent
entities, capable of existing apart as well as together. Thus it
might be said that, although in a certain experiment oxygen and
hydrogen were produced out of water, yet from a scientific point
of view we should rather consider them as the elements of which
water was made up, they, and not the water, being the ultimate
reality. But this analogy will not hold here. For the element
of immediacy — the datum given through sense — is as necessary
and essential to the existence of the idea, as the sides of a triangle
are to its angles. The existence of the immediate element is
essential to anything really concrete, and the idea is only an
element in, and an abstraction from, the concrete. Now the
existence of an abstraction apart from the concrete, or the depen-
dence of the concrete on an abstraction from itself, is a contradic-
tion. And that the idea is a mere abstraction from experience
is not merely an accident of a particular way of discovering it,
but its very essence. Its existence lies solely in mediation, and
it cannot, therefore, ever be self-sufficient. It is rather an aspect
which we can perceive in experience, than an element which can
be separated from it, even ideally, without leading us into error.
Its independent existence would thus be a very glaring con-
tradiction. And for Hegel, as for other people, contradictions
could not really exist. Each stage in the Logic is a contradiction,
it is true, but then those stages have no independent existence.
The self-consistent reahty is always behind it. " The consumma-
tion of the infinite aim. . .consists merely in removing the illusion
which makes it seem as yet unaccomplished^."
57. And Hegel himself distinctly denies the asserted purely
synthetical character of the transition. "It is clear," he says,
"that the emergence of Spirit from Nature ought not to be
expressed as if nature was the Absolute Immediate, the First,
that which originally statutes, and Spirit on the other hand was
only statuted (gesetzt) by it; rather is Nature statuted by Spirit,
and the latter is the absolute First. Spirit, in and for itself, is
not the simple result of Nature, but in truth its own result; it
evolves itself out of the assumptions which it itself makes, out
of the logical idea and external nature, and is the truth of the
^ Enc. Section 212, lecture note.
64 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [CH.
former as well as of the latter — that is to say the true form of
the Spirit which is merely in itself, and of the Spirit which is
merely outside itself. The appearance of the mediation of Spirit
by another is transcended by Spirit itself, since this, so to say,
has the consummate ingratitude to transcend that through which
it seeks to be mediated, to mediatise it, to reduce it to something
which only exists through spirit, and in this way to make itself
completely independent^," Spirit, the final result of the process,
is thus declared to be also its logical ground, and the process of
the Idea to Nature and from Nature to Spirit has therefore an
analytic, as well as a synthetic aspect, since the end of the process
is only to come to explicit knowledge of its ground, which, as its
ground, must have been present to it all along, though not yet
in full and explicit consciousness. It may be remarked that Hegel
uses exactly the same metaphor of ingratitude to describe the
relation of Spirit to the apparent commencement of the process,
as he used long before to express the connection between pure
thought and the empirical details, from the consideration of
which pure thought started^. This may serve as a slight additional
reason for our belief in the theory that the force of the transition
to Spirit lies in the implicit presence of Spirit all along, and not
in a merely synthetic advance from pure thought through Nature.
For in the logic, as Professor Seth admits, the logical prius of
the advance is to be found at the end, and not at the beginning,
of the process. We may also compare Section 239 of the Encyclo-
paedia, lecture note — "the truth is that Nature is due to the
statuting of Spirit, and it is Spirit itself which gives itself a pre-
supposition in Nature." This view is incompatible with any
attempt to represent Nature as statuted by Logic alone.
58. To deny the purely synthetic deduction of Nature from
Logic, which we have just been considering, is not equivalent
to denying that there is any deduction at all intended, which
would be obviously incorrect. It is implied that these are the
only two alternatives, when Professor Seth tells us that the
"soberminded Hegelian," who denies the purely synthetic
deduction, "will lay as little stress as possible upon the so-called
^ Enc. Section 381, lecture note, p. 23.
* Enc. Section 12, p. 36 above.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 65
deduction. Further reflection has convinced me, however," he
continues, " that Hegel's contention here is of more fundamental
importance to his system than such a representation allows.
Perhaps it may even be said that, when we surrender this
deduction, though we may retain much that is valuable in Hegel's
thought, we surrender the system as a whole^." No doubt it is
essential to the theory that there shall be a deduction, so that
the whole system, from the category of Being to Absolute Spirit,
shall be bound closely together. But this is not incompatible
with the soberminded view of the dialectic, for, as we have seen,
the deduction may be one which is analytic as well as synthetic,
and may derive its cogency from the implicit presence, at its
starting-point, of its result.
59. The treatment of the problem of contingency in the
dialectic presents a curious alternation between two incompatible
points of view, by the first of which contingency is treated as a
category, while by the second it is attributed to the incapacity
of Nature to realise the Idea. It is not necessary to consider
here the criticisms which might be made on either of these ex-
planations. It is sufl&cient to point out that, while the former
does not imply the theory which Professor Seth adopts as to
the general purpose of the Logic, the latter is quite incompatible
with it.
As to the first, it is to be noticed that the attempt to convert
contingency into a logical category is not necessarily identical
with an attempt to ignore reality. " The contingent," says Hegel,
"roughly speaking, is what has the ground of its being, not in
itself, but in somewhat else.... The contingent is only one side
of the actual, the side namely of reflection into somewhat else^."
It is thus by no means the same thing as the real, which includes,
even if it does not consist exclusively of, the self-subsistent entity
or entities which have their ground in themselves, or, if that
expression be objected to, are primary and without any ground
at all. The elimination of the contingent is thus quite compatible
with the existence of factual reality.- This is confirmed by Hegel's
remark in the same section that "to overcome this contingency
1 op. cit. pp. 109, 110.
2 Enc. Section 145, lecture note.
66 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
is, roughly speaking, the problem of science." For the object
of ordinary science is certainly not to ehminate factual reality.
The same expression suggests that the elimination of con-
tingency does not, for Hegel, involve the elimination of im-
mediacy. For the object of ordinary science is not to eliminate
the data of sense, but to arrange and classify them. And this
is confirmed by the definition quoted above. Contingency con-
sists in explanation from the outside. That which can be explained
entirely from itself would not, it appears, be contingent to Hegel,
even if part of the explanation was given in the form of a mere
datum. No doubt at present all immediacy, involving as it does
presentation in sense, outer or inner, requires explanation from
outside, and is therefore contingent. But, as was pointed out
above in a different connection^, there is nothing in the nature
of immediacy which prevents us from supposing a state of know-
ledge in which the immediate data, being traced back to some
self-centred reality, should require no explanation from without,
and consequently should lose their contingency, while they
preserved their immediacy. The introduction, therefore, of con-
tingency as a category which, like other categories, is transcended,
does not fairly lead to the conclusion that Hegel believed in the
possibility of mediating thought ever becoming self-sufficient.
On the other hand, the theory that contingency is caused by
the inabihty of Nature to realise the idea^, is clearly incompatible
with an attempt to produce Nature out of pure thought. For,
if the world of Nature, as such an attempt would require, is
deduced by pure synthesis from the world of reason, and by the
free passage of the latter, how can the impotence arise? The
only possible explanation of such impotence must be in some
independent element, which the idea cannot perfectly subdue,
and this is inconsistent with the theory of pure synthesis. It
may be doubted whether this view is compatible with the general
theory of the dialectic at all. But it is certainly, as Professor
Seth admits^, quite incompatible with "an absolute philosophy"
in his use of the phrase. If this was Hegel's view of contingency,
it must be taken as a proof of the presence of an analytic element
in the process. For then the failure of thought to embody itself
1 Section 47. * Enc. Section 16. » op. cit. p. 139.
u] OF THE DIALECTIC G7
completely in nature, whether consistent or not, would not be
so glaringly inconsistent as in the other case. It might then
possibly be a casual error. But it is difficult to suppose that Hegel
could have slipped by mistake into the assertion that thought,
while producing the whole universe, was met in it by an alien
element.
60, We must now proceed to the second charge made against
the transition from the Logic — that it involves an argument
from essence to existence. Such an argument would doubtless
be completely fallacious. Any proposition about existence must
either be directly based on immediate experience of reality, or
must be connected, by a chain of inferences, with a proposition
that is so based. The difference between the real and the ideal
worlds is one which mere thought can never bridge over, because,
for mere thought, it does not exist. As Kant says, the difference
between twenty real thalers and twenty thalers which are only
imagined to be real, does not appear in the idea of them, which
is the same whether they exist or not. The difference lies in the
reference to reality, which makes no part of the idea. If, there-
fore, we confined ourselves to thought, we should be unable to
discover whether our thalers were in truth real, or whether we
had only imagined their reality. And even if, starting from the
nature of thought taken in abstraction from sense, we could
evolve the idea of the entire universe (and we have seen^ that
without sense we could perceive nothing of the nature of thought),
it would remain purely ideal, and never be able to explain the
fact that the world actually existed. For the difference between
the real world, and a world, exactly hke it, but only imagined
to exist, is a difference which pure thought could not perceive,
and therefore could not remove. It is impossible to argue that
contradictions would drive it on, for the contradictions of thought,
as we have seen, arise from its being abstract, and can do no
more than restore the concrete whole from which a start was
made. If reality was not given as a characteristic of that concrete
whole, no abstraction from it will afford a basis from which the
dialectic process can attain to reality.
61. Before, however, we decide that Hegel has been guilty
^ Section 14.
5—2
68 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
of so great a confusion, we should require convincing evidence
that his language must be interpreted to mean that existence
in reality can be deduced from the essence of thought. And the
evidence offered seems by no means sufficient.
In discussing the first charge made by Professor Seth, I have
given reasons for supposing that the analytic aspect of the method,
which Professor Seth admits to be present within the Logic, is
also to be found in the transition from Logic to Nature and
Spirit. Now we have seen above^ that the absence of such an
analytic element would not imply of necessity that the argument
is from essence to existence. But, on the other hand, the presence
of that element would render it certain that no attempt was made
to proceed to existence from essence. For the presence of the
analytic aspect in the transition means that we are working
towards the development, in explicit consciousness, of the full
value of the whole which was previously before us in implicit
consciousness, and the existence of this whole is the motive force
of the transition. If, therefore, the result reached by the dialectic
has real existence, so also the datum, of which the dialectic pro-
cess is an analysis, must have real existence. The argument is
thus from existence to existence. That a movement is in any
way analytic implies that its result is given, at any rate implicitly,
in its data. But an argument from essence to existence would
most emphatically go beyond its data, producing something fresh.
If, therefore, we have reason to reject the first charge of Professor
Seth against the validity of the transition from the Logic to the
rest of the system, the second charge falls to the ground with it.
62. In defence of his view Professor Seth, pointing out that
Hegel calls his philosophy absolute, says that "it is the character-
istic of an absolute philosophy that everything must be deduced
or constructed as a necessity of thought^," No quotations, how-
ever, are given from Hegel in support of this interpretation. And
the one definition which Hegel himself gives of the word in the
Encyclopaedia turns on quite a different point. "According to
Kant, the things that we know about are to us appearances only,
and we can never know their essential nature, which belongs to
another world, which we cannot approach.... The true statement
* Section 54. * op. cit. p. 110.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 69
of the case is rather as follows. The things of which we have direct
consciousness are mere phenomena, not for us only, but in their
own nature; and the true and proper case of these things, finite
as they are, is to have their existence founded not in themselves
but in the universal divine Idea. This view of things, it is true,
is as idealist as Kant's, but in contradistinction to the subjective
idealism of the Critical Philosophy should be termed absolute
ideahsm^." The meaning of the epithet Absolute is here placed
exclusively in the rejection of the Kantian theory that knowledge
is only of phenomena. But the assertion that reality may in itself
become the object of knowledge is not equivalent to the assertion
that conclusions regarding reality can be reached by merely con-
sidering the nature of thought. If Absolute had this additional
and remarkable meaning Hegel would surely have mentioned it
explicitly.
63. Again, Hegel rejects Kant's well-known criticism on the
ontological proof of the existence of God, and, as this criticism
turns on the impossibility of predicating reality through any
arguments based only on the definition of the subject, it has been
supposed that Hegel did not see this impossibility. "It would
be strange," Hegel says, "if the Notion, the very inmost of mind,
if even the Ego, or above all the concrete totality we call God
were not rich enough to include so poor a category as Being^."
"Most assuredly" is Professor Seth's comment on this, "the
Notion contains the category of Being; so does the Ego, that is
to say, the Idea of the Ego, and the Idea of God, both of which
are simply the Notion under another name. The category of
Being is contained in the Ego and may be disengaged from it."
But, he continues, "It is not the category 'Being' of which we
are in quest, but that reality of which all categories are only
descriptions, and which itself can only be experienced, immedi-
ately known, or lived. To such reality or factual existence, there
is no logical bridge^."
But before we conclude that Hegel has asserted the existence
of such a logical bridge, it will be well to bear in mind his warning
in the section quoted above, that in God "we have an object
1 Enc. Section 45, lecture note. ^ Enc. Section 51.
* op. cii. p. 119.
70 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [ch.
of another kind than any hundred thalers, and unlike any one
particular notion, representation, or whatever else it may be
called." In what this peculiarity consists is not clearly explained
here. But in the middle of the preceding section we find, "That
upward spring of the mind signifies that the being which the
world has is only a semblance, no real being, no absolute truth ;
it signifies that beyond and above that appearance, truth abides
in God, so that true being is another name for God^."
Now, if God is identical with all true being, he certainly has
"that reality of which all categories are only descriptions." For,
if he has not, nothing has it, since there is no reality outside him,
and the denial of all reality is as impossible as the denial of all
truth, — to deny it is to assert it. For if the denial is true, it must
be real, and so must the person who makes it. The only question
then is whether the category of Being can be predicated of this
real God, and in this case Professor Seth admits that Hegel was
quite right in his judgment that the predication could be made,
if it was worth while. It would seem then that he is scarcely
justified in charging Hegel with endeavouring to construct a
logical bridge to real or factual existence, Hegel was speaking
of something whose real existence could not be doubted except
by a scepticism which extended to self-contradiction. Thus he
considered himself entitled to assume in his exposition the actual
existence of God, and only deliberated whether the predicate of
Being could or could not be attached to this existence. To do
this he pronounced to be perfectly legitimate, and perfectly use-
less — legitimate, because we can say of all reality that it is;
useless, because the full depth of realit}^ in which all categories
can be found, is expressed so inadequately by this, the simplest
and most abstract of all the categories.
64. Kant's objections do not affect such an ontological argu-
ment as this. He shows, no doubt, that we have no right to
conclude that anything really exists, on the ground that we have
made real existence part of the conception of the thing. No
possible attribute, which would belong to the thing if it existed,
can give us any reason to suppose that it does exist. But this
was not Hegel's argument. He did not try to prove God's
1 Enc. Section 50.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 71
existence simply from the divine attributes. He relied on two
facts. The first was that the conception of God proved that if
anything exists, God must exist. The second was that exr
perience existed, and therefore God must exist^. The important
point in the conception of God, for Hegel's purpose here, was
not that he was the most real of beings, nor that he contained
all positive qualities, but that he was the only real being. For
the existence of an ens realissimum or of an oninitndo realitatis
can be denied. But the existence of all reality cannot be denied,
for its denial would be contradictory. And, on Hegel's definition,
to deny God's existence is equivalent to denying all reality, for
"true being is another name for God."
"If, in an identical judgment," says Kant, "I reject the
predicate and retain the subject, there arises a contradiction
and hence I say that the former belongs to the latter necessarily.
But if I reject the subject as well as the predicate there is no
contradiction, because there is nothing left which can be con-
tradicted.... The same applies to the concept of an absolutely
necessary being. Remove its existence, and you remove the
thing itself, with all its predicates, so that a contradiction becomes
impossible^." But the Hegelian argument rests on the fact that
you cannot remove "the thing itself" because the statement by
which you do it, and yourself likewise, are actually existent, and
must have some ultimate reality behind them, which ultimate
reality, called by Hegel God, is the thing whose removal is in
question. Thus there is a contradiction. You can only get rid
of the Hegelian God by getting rid of the entire universe. And
to do this is impossible.
It must be noticed, however, that this form of the ontological
argument can only prove the existence of a God who is conceived
as the sole reality in the universe. If we ourselves, or anything
else, are conceived as existing, except as parts of him, then the
denial of his existence does not involve the denial of all reality,,
and has therefore no contradiction contained in it. Kant's
refutation will stand as against all attempts to prove, by the
ontological argument, the existence of a God not conceived as
^ Note to Second Edition. The two preceding sentences have been altered.
* Critique of Pure Reason, Book ii. Chap. m. Section 4.
72 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [cH.
immanent in all existence. It will also be conclusive against all
attempts to demonstrate, by means of the ontological argument,
any particular quality or attribute of God, unless that attribute
can be shown to be essential to his all-inclusive reality, in which
case, of course, we should, by denying it, deny the reality also.
Kant was right in holding that the ontological argument could
not establish the existence of a God, as conceived by his dog-
matic predecessors, or as conceived by himself in the Critique
of Practical Reason. Hegel was right in holding that it was valid
of a God, defined in the Hegelian manner.
65. Professor Seth also relies on Hegel's treatment of the
individual character of existence. "He adroitly contrives to
insinuate that, because it is undefinable, the individual is there-
fore a valueless abstraction^." And he quotes from the Smaller
Logic, "Sensible existence has been characterised by the attri-
butes of individuality, and a mutual exclusion of the members.
It is well to remember that these very attributes are thoughts
and general terms.... Language is the work of thought, and hence
all that is expressed in language must be universal.... And what
cannot be uttered, feeling or sensation, far from being the
highest truth is the most unimportant and untrue^." Professor
Seth calls this "Hegel's insinuated disparagement of the indi-
vidual." But, if anything is disparaged, it is not the individual,
but sensible existence. When we say that individuality is not a
quality of sensible existence, but depends upon thought, this
diminishes the fullness and reality of sensible existence, but not
necessarily of individuality. And it is of vital importance which
of these two it is which Hegel disparages. For "the individual
is the real," and an attack on individuality, an attempt to make
it a mere product of thought, would go far to prove that Hegel
did cherish the idea of reducing the whole universe to a mani-
festation of pure thought. "The meanest thing that exists has
a life of its own, absolutely unique and individual, which we can
partly understand by terms borrowed from our own experience,
but which is no more identical with, or in any way like, the
description we give of it, than our own inner life is identical with
the description we give of it in a book of philosophy^." But to
^ op. cit. p. 128. ^ Enc. Section 20. ^ Hegelianism and Personality, p. 125.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 73
deny the importance of the sensible element in experience, taken
as independent, is justifiable.
It is no doubt perfectly true that we are only entitled to say
that a thing is real, when we base that judgment on some datum
immediately given to us, and also that those data can only be
given us by sense, — inner or outer. But it does not at all follow
that the sensible, taken by itself, is real. Thought also is essential
to reality. In the first place it would be impossible for us to be
self-conscious without thought, since mere unrelated sensation
is incompatible with self-consciousness. Now without self-con-
sciousness nothing would be real for us. Without self-conscious-
ness sensations could not exist. For an unperceived sensation
is a contradiction. Sensations exist only in being perceived ; and
perception is impossible without comparison at the least, which
involves thought, and so self-consciousness.
Mere sensation may surely then be called unimportant — even
Kant called it blind — since it has no reality at all, except in a
unity in which it is not mere sensation. It is as much an abstrac-
tion as mere thought is. The importance lies only in the concrete
whole of which they are both parts, and this reality is not to
be considered as if it was built up out of thought and sensation.
In that case the mere sensation might be said to have some
reality, though only in combination. But here the sensation, as
a mere abstraction, must be held not to exist in the concrete
reality, but merely to be capable of distinction in it, and thus to
have of itself no reality whatever.
It is of course true that it is only the immediate contents of
experience which need mediation by thought to give them reality,
and not self-subsistent entities, — such as our own selves. But
Hegel's charge of unimportance was made against sensations,
which are not self-subsistent entities, but simply part of the
content of experience.
In the Introductory Chapter, in which the passage quoted
above is found, Hegel was merely trying to prove that thought
was essential, not that it was all-sufficient. It will therefore
quite agree with the context if we take this view of what it
was to which he denied importance. It would certainly have
made his position clearer, if he had, at the same time, asserted
74 DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS [CH.
the abstractness and unimportance of thought without sense,
as emphatically as he had asserted the abstractness and un-
importance of sense without thought, but the former is implied
in the passages^ by which the dialectic is made to depend on
experience, and explicitly affirmed in the passage from the
Philosophy of Spirit^ in which the logical idea is declared to be
dependent on Spirit, and to be mediated by it. For in Spirit we
have the union of the two sides which, when separated, present
themselves to us as the mediating thought and the immediate
datum.
66. We are told also that the tendency of the whole system
is towards the undue exaltation of logic and essence, at the
expense of nature and reality. In support of this it is said that,
although Hegel "talks (and by the idiom of the language cannot
avoid talking) of 'der absolute Geist' (the absolute spirit) that
by no means implies, as the literal English translation does, that
he is speaking of God as a Subjective Spirit, a singular intelligence.
. . .The article goes with the noun in any case, according to German
usage; and 'absolute spirit' has no more necessary reference to
a Concrete Subject than the simple 'spirit' or intelligence which
preceded it^." It may be the case that Hegel did not conceive
Absolute Spirit as a single inteUigence. Indeed it seems probable
that he did not do so, but the point is too large to be discussed
here. But even in that case, it does not follow that the Absolute
Spirit cannot be concrete. If it is conceived as an organism or
society of finite intelligences, it will still be a concrete subject,
although it will possess no self-consciousness or personality of
its own. If it is regarded as manifested in an unconnected
agglomeration of finite intelligences, it may not be a subject,
but will still be concrete, since it will consist of the finite in-
telligences, which are certainly concrete. No doubt, if a definition
or description be asked for of Absolute Spirit, the answer, like
all definitions or descriptions, will be in abstract terms, but a
definition, though in abstract terms, may be the definition of
a concrete thing. Even if the Absolute Spirit was a singular
intelligence, any explanation of its nature would have to be made
^ Sections 33-42 above. ^ Section 43 above.
' Hegelianism and Personality, p. 151.
n] OF THE DIALECTIC 75
by ascribing to it predicates, which are necessarily abstract
terms.
And against this asserted tendency on Hegel's part to take
refuge in abstractions we may set his own explicit declarations.
He continually uses abstract as a term of reproach and declares
that the concrete alone is true. Now it cannot be denied that
Nature is more concrete than the pure idea, or that Spirit is
more concrete than Nature. This would lead us, apart from other
considerations, to suppose that the logical prius of the universe
was to be looked for in Spirit, which is the most concrete of all
things^, and not in the Idea, which is only imperfectly concrete,
even in its highest form.
* Philosophy of Spirit, Section 377, p. 3.
CHAPTER III
THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC
67. The question now arises, whether the dialectic as sketched
in the last two chapters, is a valid system of philosophy. The
consideration of this question here must necessarily be ex-
tremely incomplete. Some seventy or eighty transitions from
one category to another may be found in the Logic, and we should
have to consider the correctness of each one of these, before we
could pronounce the dialectic, in its present form at least, to
be correct. For a chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and
if a single transition is inconclusive, it must render all that comes
beyond it uncertain. All we can do here is to consider whether
the starting-point and the general method of the dialectic are
valid, without enquiring into its details.
We shall have in the first place to justify the dialectical pro-
\ cedure — so different from that which the understanding uses in
^ the affairs of every-day life. To do this we must show, first, that
the ordinary use of the Understanding implies a demand for the
complete explanation of the universe, and then that such an
explanation cannot be given by the Understanding, and can be
given by the Reason in its dialectical use, so that the Under-
standing itself postulates in this way the validity of dialectic
rthought. In the second place we must prove that the point from
[Which the dialectic starts is one which it may legitimately take
I for granted, and that the nature of the advance and its relation
to experience are such as will render the dialectic a valid theory
Lof^knowledge. In this connection the relation of the idea of
Movement to the dialectic process must also be considered. And
finally the question will arise whether we are justified in applying
this theory of knowledge as also a theory of being, and in deducing
the worlds of Nature and Spirit from the world of Logic.
68. It is to be noticed that the first and second arguments
are very similar in their nature. We start respectively from
CH. m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 77
the common thought of the Understanding, and from the idea
of Being, and vve endeavour to J»roye_ the vahdity of the_
spe culative m etho d and of th e Absolute Idea , because they are
assumed in, and postulated by, the propositions from which
we started. Before going further, therefore, we ought to consider
some general objections which have been made against such
arguments.
They have been stated with great clearness by Mr Arthur
Balfour in his Defence of Philosophic Doubt. "When a man,"
he says, "ia,coii3djlcedJ;iy.jaLJb:ajisc£jidenta1 aigumeni^J.t muftt ^_^^
be. ..because he p erceives that a jsfirfcaiiL relation or principle is [, Y3-'»'^-^
necessary to constitute his admitted experience. This is to him nj^,u^jA^L^
a fact, the truth of which he is obliged to recognise. But another
fact, which he may also find it hard to dispute, is that he himself, —^
and, as it would appear, the majority of mankind, have habitually
l^ad this experience..adthouke.vpxthinking.it.under tMsuXelatioo;
and this second fact is one which it does not seem easy to in-
terpret in a manner which shall harmonise with the general
theory. The transcendentalist would, no doubt, say at once that
the relation in question had always been thought implicitly,
even if it had not always come into clear consciousness; and
having enunciated this dictum he would trouble himself no
further about a matter which belonged merely to the 'history
of the individual.' B_ut if an implicit thought means in this
connection what it means eygryBLbLfiie else^jt is simply a thought
which is logically bound up in some other thought^^and which
for that reason may always be called into existence J?^ it. Now
f rom~tEis very definition, it is plain that so long as a thought is
implicit it does not exist. It is a mere possibility, which may
indeed at any moment become an actuality, and which, when
once an actuality, may be indestructible; but which so long as
it is a possibility can be said to have existence only by a figure
of speech.
" If, therefore, this meaning of the word ' implicit ' be accepted,
we find ourselves in a difficulty. Either an object can exist and
be a reality to an intelligence which does not think of it unde»
relations which, as I now see, are involved in it, i.e. without which
I cannot now think of it as an object; or else I am in error, when
78 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [CH.
I suppose myself and other people to have ignored these relations
in past times^."
The second of these alternatives, as Mr Balfour points out,
cannot be adopted. It is certain that a large part of mankind
have never embraced the transcendental philosophy, and that
even those who accept it did not do so from their earliest child-
hood. It follows, he continues, that we must accept the first
alternative, in which case the whole transcendental system
"vanishes in smoke."
69. The dilemma, however, as it seems to me, rests upon a
confusion of the two different senses in which we may be said
to be conscious of thought. We may be said, in the first place,
to be conscious of it whenever we are conscious of a whole ex-
perience in which it is an element. In this sense we must be
conscious of all thought which exists at all. We must agree with
Mr Balfour that "if the consciousness vanishes, the thought
must vanish too, since, except on some crude materialistic
hypothesis, they are the same thing^." But in the second sense
we are only conscious of a particular thought when we have
singled it out from the mass of sensations and thoughts, into
which experience may be analysed, when we have distinguished
it from the other constituents of experience, and know it to be
a thought, and know what thought it is. In this sense we may
have thought without being conscious of it. And indeed we
must always have it, before we can be conscious of it in this sense.
For thought first comes before us as an element in the whole
of experience, and it is not till we have analysed that whole,
and separated thought from sensation, and one thought from
another, that we know we have a particular thought. Till then
we have the thought without being explicitly conscious that we
have it.
Now I submit that Mr Balfour's argument depends on a
paralogism. When he asserts that we must always be conscious
of any relation which is necessary to constitute experience, he
is using "to be conscious of" in the first sense. When he asserts
that all people are not always conscious of all the ideas of the
dialectic as necessary elements in experience, he is using "to
^ Defence of Philosophic Doubt, p. 94. ^ o^_ gj^ p jqq^
in] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALEOTIC 79
be conscious of" in the second sense. And if we remove this
ambiguity the difficulty vanishes.
We are only conscious of thought as an element in experience.
Of thought outside experience we could not be conscious in any
sense of the word, for thought cannot even be conceived except
as relating and mediating some data. But thought of which we
are not conscious at all is, as Mr Balfour remarks, a non-entity.
And no thought does exist outside experience. Both thought
and the immediate data which it mediates exist only as combined
in the whole of experience, which is what comes first into con-
sciousness. In this lie the various threads of thought and sensa-
tion, of which we may be said to be conscious, in so far as we
are conscious of the whole of which they are indispensable
elements. But we do not know how many, nor of what nature,
the threads are, until we have analysed the whole in which they
are first presented to us, nor, till then, do we clearly see that
the whole is made up of separate elements. Even to know this
involves some thinking about thought. There is no contradiction
between declaring that certain relations must enter into all
conscious thought, and admitting that those relations are known
as such only to those who have endeavoured to divide the whole
of experience into its constituent parts, and have succeeded in
the attempt.
The use of the word ''implicit" to which Mr Balfour objects,
can be explained in the same way. If it means only what he
supposes, so that an implicit thought is nothing but one "which
is logically bound up in some other thought, and which for that
reason may always be called into existence by it" — then indeed
to say that a thought is impHcit is equivalent to saying that it
does not exist. But if we use the word — and there seems no
reason why we should not — in the sense suggested by its deriva-
tion, in which it means that which is wrapped up in something
else, then it is clear that a thing may be impficit, and so not dis-
tinctly seen to be itself, while it nevertheless exists and is perceived
as part of the whole in which it is involved.
70. In speaking of such an answer to his criticisms, Mr
Balfour objects that it concedes more than transcendentafism
can afiord to allow. "If relations can exist otherwise than as
80 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [CH.
they are thought, why should not sensations do the same? Why
should not the 'perpetual flux' of unrelated objects — the meta-
physical spectre which the modern transcendentahst labours so
hard to lay — why, I say, should this not have a real existence?
We, indeed, cannot in our reflective moments think of it except
under relations which give it a kind of unity; but once allow
that an object may exist, but in such a manner as to make it
nothing for us as thinking beings, and this incapacity may be
simply due to the fact that thought is powerless to grasp the
reahty of things^."
This, however, is not a fair statement of the position. The
transcendentahst does not assert that an object can exist in
such a manner as to be nothing for us as thinking beings, but
only that it may exist, and be something for us as thinking
beings, although we do not recognise the conditions on which
its existence for us depends. Thus we are able to admit that
thought exists even for those people who have never made the
slightest reflection on its nature. And, in the same way, no
doubt, we can be conscious of related sensations without seeing
that they are related, for we may never have analysed experience
as presented to us into its mutually dependent elements of sensa-
tion and thought. But it does not follow that sensations could
exist unrelated. That would mean that something existed in
consciousness (for sensations exist nowhere else), which not only
is not perceived to comply with the laws of consciousness, but
which actually does not comply with them. And this is quite a
different proposition, and an impossible one.
71. Passing now to the peculiarities of the dialectic method,
their justification must be one which will commend itself to the
Understanding — that is to thought, when, as happens in ordinary
life, it acts according to the laws of formal logic, and treats the
various categories as stable and independent entities, which have
no relation to one another, but that of exclusion. For if specula-
tive thought, or Eeason, cannot be justified before the Under-
standing, there will be an essential dualism in the nature of
thought, incompatible with any satisfactory philosophy. And
since mankind naturally, and until cause is shown to the
^ op. cit. p. lOL
in] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 81
contrary, takes up the position of the Understanding, it will be
impossible that we can have any logical right to enter on the
dialectic, unless we can justify it from that standpoint, from
which we must set out when we first begin to investigate meta-
physical questions.
The first step towards this proof is the recognition that the
Understanding necessarily demands an absolute and complete
explanation of the universe. In dealing with this point, Hart-
mann^ identifies the longing for the Absolute, on which Hegel
here relies, with the longing to "smuggle back" into our beliefs
the God whom Kant had rejected from metaphysics. God, how-
ever, is an ideal whose reality may be demanded on the part
either of theoretical or of practical reason. It is therefore not
very easy to see whether Hartmann meant that the longing, as
he calls it, after the Absolute, is indulged only in the interest
of religion and ethics, or whether he admits that it is demanded,
whether justifiably or not, by the nature of knowledge. The
use of the term "longing" (Sehnsucht), however, and the
expressions " mystisch-religioses Bediirfuiss," and "unverstand-
liche Gefiihle," which he appUes to it, seem rather to suggest
the former alternative.
In this case grave injustice is done to the Hegelian position.
The philosopher does not believe in the Absolute merely because
he desires it should exist. The postulate is not only an emotional
or ethical one, nor is the Absolute itself by any means primarily
a religious ideal, whatever it may subsequently become. If, for
example, we take the definition given in the Smaller Logic, " der
Begrifi der Idee, dem die Idee als solche der Gegenstand, dem
das Objekt sie ist^," it is manifest that what is here chiefly
regarded is not a need of religion, but of cognition. Indeed the
whole course of the Logic shows us that it is the desire for
complete knowledge, and the impatience of knowledge which is
seen to be unsatisfactory, which act as the motive power of the
system. It is possible, no doubt, that Hegel's object in devoting
himself to philosophy at all was, as has often been the case with
philosophers, mainly practical, and that his interest in the
absolute was excited from the side of ethics and religion rather
^ Ueber die diaUktische Methode, B. n. 4. * Enc. Section 236.
M.H. 6
82 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [CH.
than of pure thought. But so long as he did not use this interest
as an argument, it does not weaken his position. The ultimate
aim which a philosopher has in his studies is irrelevant to our
criticism of his results, if the latter are valid in themselves.
72. The need of the Absolute is thus a need of cognition. We
must ask, then, whether the Understanding, in its attempts to
solve particular problems, demands a complete explanation of
the universe, and the attainment of the ideal of knowledge? This
question must be answered in the affirmative. For although we
start with particular problems, the answer to each of these will
raise fresh questions, which must be solved before the original
difficulty can be held to be really answered, and this process goes
on indefinitely, till we find that the whole universe is involved
in a complete answer to even the slightest question. As was
pointed out above^ any explanation of anything by means of
the surrounding circumstances, of an antecedent cause, or of its
constituent parts, must necessarily raise fresh questions as to
the surroundings of those surroundings, the causes of those
causes, or the parts of those parts, and such series of questions,
if once started, cannot stop until they reach the knowledge of
the whole surrounding universe, of the whole of past time, or
of the ultimate atoms, which it is impossible to subdivide further.
In fact, to state the matter generally, any question which
the Understanding puts to itself must be either. What is the
meaning of the universe? or. What is the meaning of some part
of the universe? The first is obviously only to be answered by
attaining the absolute ideal of knowledge. The second again can
only be answered by answering the first. For if a thing is part
of a whole it must stand in some relation to the other parts.
The other parts must therefore have some influence on it, and
part of the explanation of its nature must lie in these other parts.
From the mere fact that they are parts of the same universe,
they must all be connected, directly or indirectly.
73. The Understanding, then, demands the ideal of know-
ledge, and postulates it whenever it asks a question. Can it,
we must now enquire, attain, by its own exertions, to the ideal
which it postulates? It has before it the same categories as the
1 Section 13-
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 83
Reason, but it differs from the Reason in not seeing that the
higher categories are the inevitable result of the lower, and in
believing that the lower are stable and independent. " Thought,
as Understanding, sticks to fixity of characters, and their dis:
tinctness from one another : every such limited abstract it treats
as having a subsistence and being of its own^." It can use the
higher categories, then, but it has no proof of their validity,
which can only be demonstrated, as was explained in Chap, i.,
by showing that they are involved in the lower ones, and finally
in the simplest of all. Nor does it see that an explanation by
a higher category relieves us from the necessity of finding a
consistent explanation by a lower one. For it does not know, as
the Reason does, that the lower categories are abstractions from
the higher, and are unfit to be used for the ultimate explanation
of anything, except in so far as they are moments in a higher
unity.
It is this last defect which prevents the Understanding from
ever attaining a complete explanation of the universe. There is,
as we have said, nothing to prevent the Understanding from
using the highest category, that of the Absolute Idea. It contains
indeed a synthesis of contradictions, which the Understanding
is bound to regard as a mark of error, but so does every category
above Being and Not-Being, and the Understanding nevertheless
uses these categories, not perceiving that they violate the law
of contradiction, as conceived by formal logic. It might there-
fore use the Absolute Idea as a means of explaining the universe,
if it happened to come across it (for the perception of the necessary
development of that idea from the lower categories belongs
only to the Reason), but it would not see that it summed up all
other categories.
And this would prevent the explanation from being com-
pletely satisfactory. For the only way in which contradictions
caused by the use of the lower categories can be removed by
the employment of the Absolute Idea lies in the synthesis, by
the Absolute Idea, of those lower categories. They must be seen
to be abstractions from it, to have truth only in so far as they
are moments in it, and to have no right to claim existence or
1 Enc. Section 80.
6—2
84 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
validity as independent. This can only be known by means of
the Reason. For the Understanding each category is indepen-
dent and ultimate. And therefore any contradictions in which
the Understanding may be involved through the use of the lower
categories can have no solution for the Understanding itself.
Till we can rise above the lower categories, by seeing that they
express only inadequate and imperfect points of view, the con-
tradictions into which they lead us must remain to deface our
system of knowledge. And for this deliverance we must wait
for the Reason.
^^ 74. If the lower categories do produce contradictions, then,
I we can only extricate ourselves from our difficulty by aid of the
/ Reason. But are such contradictions produced, in fact, when
we treat those categories as ultimate and endeavour to com-
pletely explain anything by them? This question would be most
fitly answered by pointing out the actual contradictions in each
case, which is what Hegel undertakes throughout the Logic. To
examine the correctness of his argument in each separate case
would be beyond the scope of this work. We may however point
out that this doctrine did not originate with Hegel. In the early
Greek philosophy we have demonstrations of the contradictions
inherent in the idea of Motion, and traces of a dialectic process
are found by Hegel in Plato. Kant, also, has shown in his
Antinomies that the attempt to use the lower categories as com-
plete explanations of existence leads with equal necessity to
directly contradictory conclusions.
r* '^nd we may say on general grounds that any category which
/ involves an infinite regress must lead to contradictions. Such
S. 3T'e7 for example, the category of Force, which explains things
^^ as manifestations of a force, the nature of which must be deter-
mined by previous manifestations, and the category of Causality,
which traces things to their causes, which causes again are effects
and must have other causes found for them. Such an infinite
regress can never be finished. And an unfinished regress, which
we admit ought to be continued, explains nothing, while to
impose an arbitrary limit on it is clearly unjustifiable.
Again, all categories having no ground of self-differentiation
in themselves may be pronounced to be in the long run un-
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 85
satisfactory. For thought demands an explanation which shall
unify the data to be explained, and these data are in themselves
various. If the explanation, therefore, is to be complete, and
not to leave something unaccounted for, it must show that there
is a necessary connection between the unity of the principle and
the plurality of the manifestation.
Now many of the lower categories do involve an infinite
regress, and are wanting in any principle of self-differentiation.
They cannot, therefore, escape falling into contradictions, and
as the Understanding cannot, as the Reason can, remove the
difficulties by regarding these categories as sides of a higher
truth in which the contradiction vanishes, the contradictions
remain permanent, and prevent the Understanding from reaching
that ideal of knowledge at which it aims.
75. On this subject Hartmann^ reminds us that Hegel con-
fesses that the Understanding cannot think a contradiction —
in the sense of unifying it and explaining it. All, as he rightly
points out, that the Understanding can do is to be conscious of
the existence of contradictions. This, he contends, will not serve
Hegel's purpose of justifying the Reason. For, since the recog-
nition of the existence of contradictions can never change the
incapacity of the Understanding to think them, the only result
would be "a heterogeneity or inconsequence" of being, which
presents these contradictions, and thought, which is unable to
think them. This inconsequence might end, if Hegel's assertion
be correct that contradictions are everywhere, in a total separa-
tion between thought and being, but could have no tendency
to make thought dissatisfied with the procedure of the Under-
standing, and willing to embrace that of the Reason.
This, however, misrepresents Hegel's position. The con-
tradictions are not in being, as opposed to thought. They are
in all finite thought, whenever it attempts to work at all. The
contradiction on which the dialectic relies is, that, if we use
one finite category of any subject-matter, we find ourselves
compelled, if we examine what is implied in using, to use also,
of the same subject-matter, its contrary. The Understanding
recognises this contradiction, while at the same time it cannot
^ op. cit. B. II. 4.
86 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
think it, — cannot, that is, look at it from any point of view from
which the contradiction should disappear. It cannot therefore
take refuge in the theory that there is a heterogeneity between
itself and being, for it is in its own working that it finds some-
thing wrong. If the law of contradiction holds, thought must
be wrong when it is inevitably led to ascribe contrary predicates
to the same subject, while if the law of contradiction did not
hold, no thought would be possible at all. And if, as the dialectic
maintains, such contradictions occur with every finite category
— that is, whenever the Understanding is used, the Under-
standing must itself confess that there is always a contradiction
in its operations, discoverable when they are scrutinised with
sufficient keenness. Either, then, there is no vahd thought at
all — a supposition which contradicts itself, — or there must be
some form of thought which can harmonise the contradictions
which the Understanding can only recognise.
76. But if the Understanding is reduced to a confession of
its own insufficiency, is the Reason any better off? Does the
solution offered by the Reason supply that complete ideal of
knowledge which all thought demands? The answer to this
question will depend in part on the actual success which the
Absolute Idea may have in explaining the problems before us
so as to give satisfaction to our own minds. But the difference
between the indication in general terms of the true explanation,
and the working out of that explanation in detail is so enormous,
that we shall find but little guidance here. It may be true that
"the best proof that the universe is rational lies in rationalising
it," but, if so, it is a proof which is practically unattainable^.
The only general proof open to us is a negative one. The
dialectic comes to the conclusion that each of the lower categories
cannot be regarded as ultimate, because in each, on examination,
it finds an inherent contradiction. In proportion as careful con-
sideration and scrutiny fail to reveal any corresponding contra-
diction in the Absolute Idea, we may rely on the conclusion of
, the dialectic that it is the ultimate and only really adequate
category^.
1 Cf. Chap. vn.
2 Note to Second Edition. A paragraph has been omitted here.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 87
77. What then should be the attitude of the Understanding
towards the Reason? We have shown that the Understanding
at once postulates, and cannot attain, a complete and harmonious
ideal of knowledge. Supposing that the Reason can, as it asserts,
attain this ideal, is the Understanding therefore bound to admit
its validity?
It is no doubt perfectly true, as Hartmann points out^, that
our power of seeking for anything, or even the necessity we
may be under of seeking it, is not in itself the least proof that
we shall succeed in our search. It does not then directly follow
that, because there is no other way than the Reason by which
we could attain that which the Understanding postulates, we
can therefore attain it by means of the Reason. And this might
have been a decisive consideration if Hegel had attempted to
prove the validity of the Reason to the Understanding in a
positive manner. But to do this would have been unnecessary,
and, indeed, self-destructive. For such a proof would have gone
too far. It would have proved that there was nothing in the
Reason which was not also in the Understanding — in other words,
that there was no difference between them. If there are two
varieties of thought, of which one is higher and more compre-
hensive than the other, it will be impossible from the nature of
the case for the lower and narrower to be directly aware that
the higher is valid. From the very fact that the higher will have
canons of thought not accepted by the lower, it must appear
invalid to the latter, which can only be forced to accept it by
external and indirect proof of its truth. And of this sort is the
justification which the Reason does offer to the Understanding.
It proves that we have a need which the Understanding must
' recognise, but cannot satisfy. This leaves the hearer with two
alternatives. He may admit the need and deny that it can be
satisfied in any way, which, in the case of a fundamental pos-
tulate of thought, would involve complete scepticism. If he does
not do this, he must accept the validity of the Reason, as the
only source by which the demand can be satisfied.
The first alternative, however, in a case like this, is only
nominal. If we have to choose between a particular theory and
^ op. cit. II. B. 4.
88 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
complete scepticism, we have, in fact, no choice at all. For
complete scepticism is impossible, contradicted as it would be
by the very speech or thought which asserted it. If Hegel's
demonstrations are correct, there is to be found in every thought
something which for the Understanding is a contradiction. But
to reject all thought as incorrect is impossible. There must
therefore be some mode of thought, higher than the Under-
standing, and supplementary to it, by which we may be justified
in doing continually that which the Understanding will not allow
us to do at all. And this is the Reason.
78. We are thus enabled to reject Hartmann's criticism that
the dialectic violates all the tendencies of modern thought, by
sundering the mind into two parts, which have nothing in common
with one another^. The Understanding and the Reason have this
in common, that the Reason is the only method of solving the
problems which are raised by the Understanding, and therefore
can justify its existence on the principles which the Under-
standing recognises. For the distinctive mark of the Reason is,
as Hegel says, that "it apprehends the unity of the categories
in their opposition," that it perceives that all concrete categories
are made up of reconciled contradictions, and that it is only in
these syntheses that the contradictory categories find their true
meaning. Now this apprehension is not needed in order to detect
the contradictions which the finite categories involve. This can
be done by the Understanding. And when the Understanding
has done this, it has at any rate proved its own impotence, and
therefore can scarcely be said to be essentially opposed to Reason,
since it has forfeited its claim to any thorough or consistent use
at all.
The w hole justification of the Reason, as the necessary co m-
plem ent of the Understanding, is repeated in each triad _oLthe
Logic. The fact that the thesis leads of necessity to the antithesis,
which is its contrary^ is one of the contradictions which prove
the impotence of the Understanding. We are forced^ either to
admit the syn thesis offered by the Reason, or to deny_the
possibility of reconciling the thes is and antithesis. The thesis
itself, again, was a modified form of the synthesis of a lower
^ op. cit. II. B. 3.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 89
thesis and antithesis. To deny it will therefore involve the denial
of them also, since it offers the only means of removing their
contradiction. And thus we should be driven lower and lower,
till we reach at last an impossible scepticism, the only escape
from which is to accept the union of opposites which we find in
the Reason.
Thus the Reason, though it does something which the Under-
standing cannot do, does not really do anything which the
Understanding denies. What the Understanding deni es is the .^N^
possibility of_ co inbining two contrary notions as they stand . ^ j ^s^
e ach independent and appa rentl y sp1f-cnmplet e. What the Reason
does, is to merge t hese ideas in a higher o ne_,„iJLjgiLicIi iJieir
oppositi on, while in one se nse preserved^ Js also transcended.
This is not what is denied by the Understanding, for the U nder-
stan ding is incapable of realising the position. Reason is not
c ontrary to, but beyond the Unde rstandmgr It is true that
whatever is beyond the Understanding may be said to be in one
sense contrary to it, since a fresh principle is introduced. But
as the Understanding has proved that its employment by itself
would result in chaos, it has given up its assertion of indepen-
dence and leads the way naturally to Reason. Thus there are
not two faculties in the mind with different laws, but two
methods of working, the lower of which, though it does not of
course contain the higher, yet leads up to it, postulates it, and
is seen, in the light of the higher method, only to exist as leading
up to it, and to be false in so far as it claims independence. The
second appears as the completion of the first; it is not merely
an escape from the difficulties of the lower method, but it explains
and removes those difficulties ; it does not merely succeed, where
the Understanding had failed, in rationalising the universe, but
it rationalises the Understanding itself. Taking all this into
consideration the two methods cannot properly be called two
separate faculties, however great may be the difference in their
working.
79. We must now pass to the second of the three questions
proposed at the beginning of this chapter — namely, the internal
consistency of the system. And it will be necessary to consider
in the first place what foundation is assumed, upon which to
90 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
base our argument, and whether we are entitled to this assump-
tion.
Now the idea from which the dialectic sets out, and in which
it professes to show that all the other categories are involved,
is the idea of Being. Are we justified in assuming the validity
of this idea? The ground on which we can answer this question
in the affirmative is that the rejection of the idea as invalid
would be self-contradictory, as was pointed out above^. For it
would be equivalent to a denial that anything whatever existed.
And in that case the denial itself could not exist, and the validity
of the idea of Being has not been denied. But, on the other hand,
if the denial does exist, then there is something whose existence
we cannot deny. And the same dilemma applies to doubt, as
well as to positive denial. If the doubt exists, then there is
something of whose existence we are certain; if the doubt does
not exist, then we do not doubt the validity of the category.
And both denial and doubt involve the existence of the thinking
subject.
We have thus as firm a base as possible for our argument.
It is not only a proposition which none of our opponents
do in fact doubt, but one which they cannot by any possibility
doubt, one which is involved and postulated in all thought and
in all action. Whatever may be the nature of the superstructure,
the foundation is strong enough to carry it.
80. The next consideration must be the validity of the process
by which we conclude that further categories are involved in
the one from which we start. In this process there are three
steps. We go from thesis to antithesis, from thesis and antithesis
to synthesis, and from synthesis again to a fresh thesis. The dis-
tinctness of the separate steps becomes somewhat obscured
towards the end of the Logic, when the importance of negation,
as the means by which the imperfect truth advances towards
perfection, is considerably diminished. It will perhaps be most
convenient to take the steps here in the form in which they exist
at the beginning of the Logic. The effect produced on the validity
of the process by the subsequent development of the method will
be discussed in the next chapter.
1 Chap. I. Section 18.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 91
It is not necessary to say much of the transition from the
synthesis to the fresh thesis. It is, in fact, scarcely a transition
at alP. It is, as can be seen when Recoming passes into Being
Deter minate, r ather a c ontemplation- of the sam e truth fr om a
fresh .poiiit_.Qfjd.ew — immediacy in the place of reconciling
mediation — than an advance to a fresh truth. Whether in fact
this new category is always the same as the previous synthesis,
looked at from another point of view, is a question of detail
which must be examined independently for each triad of the
Logic, and which does not concern us here, as we are dealing
only with the general principles of the system. But if the old
synthesis and the new thesis are really only different expressions
of the same truth, the passage from the one to the other is valid
even according to formal Logic. Since nothing new is added at
all, nothing can be added improperly.
81. Our general question must be put in a negative form
to suit the transition between thesis and antithesis. It would
be misleading to ask whether we were justified in assuming that,
since the thesis is valid, the antithesis is valid too. For the result
of the transition from thesis to antithesis is to produce, till the
synthesis is perceived, a state of contradiction and scepticism,
in which it will be doubted if either category is valid at all, since
they lead to contradictions. Our question should rather be. Are
we justified in assuming that, unless the antithesis is valid, the
thesis cannot be valid?
The ground of this assumption is that the one category implies
the other. If we examine attentively what is meant by pure
Being, we find that it cannot be discriminated from Nothing.
If we examine Being-for-self, we find that the One can only be
defined by its negation and repulsion, which involves the category
of the Many.
It is objected that these transitions cannot be justified,
because they profess to be acts of pure thought, and it is im-
possible to advance by pure thought alone to anything new.
To this an answer was indicated in the last chapter, where we
found that the motive to the whole advance is the presence in
^ Note to Second Edition. This needs some qualification in detail. Cp. my
Commentary on HegeVa Logic, Section 13.
92 THE VALIDITY OP THE DIALECTIC [ch.
experience, and in our minds as they become conscious of them-
selves in experience, of the concrete reality, of which all categories
are only descriptions, and of which the lower categories are imper-
fect descriptions^. Since pure thought has a double ground from
which it may work — -the abstract and imperfect explicit idea
from which the advance is to be made, and the concrete and
perfect implicit idea towards which the explicit idea gradually
advances — real progress is quite compatible with pure thought.
Because it has before it a whole which is so far merely implicit,
and has not been analysed, it can arrive at propositions which
were not contained, according to the rules of formal logic, in
the propositions from which it starts, but are an advance upon
the latter. On the other hand, the process remains one of pure
thought only, because this whole is not empirically given. It is
not empirically given, although it could not be given if experience
did not exist. For it is necessarily in all experience; and being
the essential nature of all reality, it can be deduced from any
piece of experience whatever. Our knowledge of it is dependent,
not on experience being thus and thus, but only on experience
existing at all. And the existence of experience cannot be called
an empirical fact. It is the presupposition alike of all empirical
knowledge, and of all pure thought. We should not be aware
even of the existence of the laws of formal logic without the
existence of experience. Yet those laws are not empirical,
because, although they have no meaning apart from experience,
they are not dependent on any one fact of experience, but are
the only conditions under which we can experience anything at
all. And for a similar reason, we need not suppose that dialectic
thought need be sterile because it claims to be pure.
82. From another point of view, it is sometimes said that
the transitions of the dialectic only exist because the connection
between the two categories has been demonstrated by means of
facts taken from experience. In that case the dialectic, whatever
value it might have, could not possess the inherent necessity,
which characterises the movements of pure thought, and which
its author claimed for it. It could at most be an induction from
experience, which could never rise above probability, nor be
1 Section 32.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 93
safely applied beyond the sphere in which it had been verified
by experience. I have endeavoured to show above that, since
thought can be pure without being sterile, it does not follow
that an advance must be empirical because it is real. Whether
it is in fact empirical or not, is another matter. If we can con-
ceive any change in the nature of the manifold of sensations, as
distinct from the categories by which they are built up, which
would invalidate any of the transitions of the dialectic, then no
doubt we should have to admit that the system had broken
down. It is of course impossible to prove generally and a 'priori
that no such flaw can be found in any part of the system. The
question must be settled by an investigation of each category
independently, showing that the argument in each depends upon
the movement of the pure notion, and not on any particulars
of sense. To do this would be beyond the scope of my present
essay, but the special importance of the idea of Motion renders
it necessary to discuss Trendelenburg's theory that it has been
illegitimately introduced into the dialectic by the observation
of empirical facts ^.
83. The remaining transition is that from thesis and antithesis
to synthesis. We have seen above^ that if the synthesis does
reconcile the contradictions, we are bound to accept it as valid,
unless we can find some other means of reconciling them. For
otherwise, since we cannot accept unreconciled contradictions
as true, we should have to deny the validity of thesis and anti-
thesis. And since the thesis itself was the only reconciliation
possible for a lower thesis and antithesis, we should have also
to deny the validity of the latter, and so on until, in the denial
of Being, we reached a reductio ad absurdum. All that remains,
therefore, is .to consider whether the synthesis is a sa tisfactory
reconc iliation of contradiction s.
With regard to the general possibility of transcending con-
tradictions, we must remember that the essence of the whole
dialectic lies in the assertion that the various pairs of contrary
categories are only produced by abstraction from the fuller
category in which they are synthesised. We have not, therefore,
to find some idea which shall be capable of reconciling two ideas
1 Sections 91-94. « Section 78.
94 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
whicli had originally no relation to it. We are merely restoring
the unity from which those ideas originally came. It is not, as
we might be tempted to think, the reconciliation of the contra-
diction which is an artificial expedient of our minds in dealing
with reality. It is rather the creation of the contradiction which
was artificial and subjective. The synthesis is the logical pritis
of its moments. Bearing this in mind, we shall see that the
possibility of transcending contradictions is a simpler question
than it appears to be. For all that has to be overcome is a mistake
about the nature of reality, due to the incomplete insight of the
Understanding. The contradiction has not so much to be con-
quered as to be disproved.
84. Hartmann objects that the only result of the union of
two contraries is a blank, and not a richer truth^. This is certainly
true of the examples Hartmann takes, + y and — y, for these,
treated as mathematical terms, do not admit of synthesis, but
merely of mechanical combination.
Hegel never maintained that two such terms as these, opposed
in this way, could ever produce anything but a blank. Hartmann
appears to think that he endeavoured to synthesise them in the
passage in the Greater Logic^, when he makes + y and — y equal
to y and again to 2y. But clearly neither y nor 2y could be a
synthesis oi + y and — y, for a synthesis must introduce a new
and higher idea. All Hegel meant here was that both + y and — y
are of the nature of y, and that they are also both quantities,
so that from one point of view they are both simply y (as a mile
east and a mile west are both a mile) and from another point
of view they are 2y (as in going a mile east, and then returning
westwards for the same distance, we walk two miles). This gives
us no reason to suppose that Hegel did not see that if we oppose
+ yto — y, taking the opposition of the signs into consideration,
the result will be 0.
But this tells us nothing about the possibility of synthesis.
For Hegel does not, to obtain a synthesis, simply predicate the
two opposite categories of the same subject, — a course which he,
like everyone else, would admit to be impossible. He passes to
another category, in which the first two are contained, yet in
1 op. cit. II. B. 7. 2 Werke, Vol. iv. p. 53.
Ill] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 95
such a way that the incompatibility ceases. The result here is
by no means an empty zero, because the synthesis is not a mere
mechanical junction of two contradictory categories, but is the
real unity, of which the thesis and antithesis are two aspects,
which do not, however, exhaust its meaning. Whether the
attempt to find such syntheses has in fact been successful all
through the Logic, is, of course, another question. Such a solu-
tion however would meet Hartmann's difficulty, and he has
given no reason why such a solution should be impossible. The
nature of his example in itself proves that he has failed to grasp
the full meaning of the process. In algebra there is no richer
notion than that of quantity, in which + y and — y are directly
opposed. No synthesis is therefore possible, and the terms cannot
be brought together, except in that external unity which pro-
duces a mere blank. But such a case, which can only be dealt
with by the most abstract of all sciences, cannot possibly be a
fair example of a system whose whole life consists in the gradual
removal of abstractions.
85. We have seen that the cogency of the entire process rests
mainly on the fact that the system is analytic as well as synthetic,
and that it does not evolve an entirely new result, but only
renders explicit what was previously implicit in all experience.
On the ground of this very characteristic of the dialectic, Tren-
delenburg denies that it can have any objective validity. It
may be convenient to quote his account of the dialectic process,
which Professor Seth translates as follows^ : " The dialectic begins
according to its own declaration with abstraction; for if 'pure
being' is represented as equivalent to 'nothing' thought has
reduced the fulness of the world to the merest emptiness. But
it is the essence of abstraction that the elements of thought
which in their original form are intimately united are violently
held apart. What is thus isolated by abstraction, however, cannot
but strive to escape from this forced position. Inasmuch as it
is a part torn from a whole, it cannot but bear upon it the traces
that it is only a part ; it must crave to be completed. When this
completion takes place, there will arise a conception which
contains the former in itself. But inasmuch as only one step
^ Hegdianism and Personality, p. 92.
96 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [en.
of the original abstraction has been retraced, the new conception
will repeat the process ; and this will go on until the full reality
of perception has been restored.... Plainly a whole world may
develop itself in this fashion, and, if we look more narrowly,
we have discovered here the secret of the dialectic method. That
method is simply the art by which we undo or retrace our
original abstraction. The first ideas, because they are the
products of abstraction, are recognised on their first appearance
as mere parts or elements of a higher conception, and the
merit of the dialectic really lies in the comprehensive survey
of these parts from every side, and the thereby increased
certainty we gain of their necessary connection with one
another^." And he immediately continues, "What mean-
while happens in this progress is only a history of subjective
knowledge, no development of the reality itself from its
elements. For there is nothing corresponding in reality which
answers to the first abstraction of pure being. It is a strained
image, produced by the analysing mind, and no right appears
anywhere to find in pure being the first germ of an objective
development."
In answer to this objection I may quote Mr F. H. Bradley,
"you make no answer to the claim of Dialectic, if you establish
the fact that external experience has already given it what it
professes to evolve, and that no synthesis comes out but what
before has gone in. All this may be admitted, for the question
at issue is not. What can appear, and How comes it to appear?
The question is as to the manner of its appearing, when it is
induced to appear, and as to the special mode in which the mind
recasts and regards the matter it may have otherwise acquired.
To use two technical terms which I confess I regard with some
aversion — the point in dispute is not whether the product is d
posteriori, but whether, being a posteriori, it is not a 'priori also
and as welF." And in the previous Section, speaking of the
difference between common recognition and the dialectic, he
says "The content in one case, itself irrational, seems to come
to our reason from a world without, while in the other it appears
^ Logische U titer suchungen. Vol. i. p. 94.
* Logic, Book iii. Part i. Chap. ii. Section 20.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 97
as that natural outcome of our inmost constitution, which satisfies
us because it is our own selves."
86. The process is more than is expressed by Trendelenburg's
phrase "the art by which we retrace or undo our original ab-
stractions " ("die Kunst wodurch die urspriingliche Abstraction
zurlickgethan wird"). For the abstractions are not passively
retraced by us, but insist on retracing themselves on pain of con-
tradiction. Doubtless, as Trendelenburg says, to do this belongs
to the nature of abstractions from a concrete whole. But then
the significance of the dialectic might not unfairly be said to
lie in the fact that it proved that our more abstract thought-
categories were abstractions in this sense — a truth which without
the dialectic we should not have known. All analysis results,
no doubt, in ideas more or less abstract, but not necessarily in
abstractions which spontaneously tend to return to the original
idea analysed. The idea of a living fo ot apart fr om the idea of ^|
a body does contam acontradiction.VVe know that a living loot v^ v
HH only exist in connection with a living body, and if we grant i^
the first to exist at any given time and place we know that we
also admit, by implication, the other. Now the idea of a steam
flour-mill can in like manner be separated into two parts — that
it is moved by steam, and that its object is to grind corn. But
to admit that one of these ideas can be apphed as a predicate
to any given subject is not equivalent to admitting that the
other can be applied to it also, and that the subject is a steam
flour-mill. For a machine moved by steam can be used to weave
cotton, and water-power can be used to grind corn. We have
formed from our original idea two which are more abstract —
the idea of a machine moved by steam, and the idea of a machine
which grinds corn. But neither of them shows the least impulse
to "retrace or undo our original abstraction."
The important question is, then, of which sort are the abstrac-
tions of which Hegel treats in the dialectic? It would, probably,
be generally admitted that those which he ranks as the lower
categories are more abstract, that is to say have less content,
than those which he considers higher. But they may be, for
anything that superficial observation can tell us, the real units,
of which the higher categories are mere combinations. No one
M.H. 7
98 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
will deny that the idea of Causality includes the idea of Being.
But it might contain it only as the idea of a steam flour-mill
contains the idea of steam-power, so that it would not at all
follow that the category of Causality is applicable to all being,
any more than that all steam-power is used for grinding corn.
And we should not be able, from this inclusion of the idea of
Being in the idea of Causality, to conclude that the law of
Causality was applicable anywhere at all, even if the validity
of the idea of Being was admitted. For the particular case in
which Being was combined with Causality might be one which
never really occurred, just as there might be machines moved
by steam-power without any of them being flour-mills.
87. The dialectic, however, puts us in a different position.
From that we learn that Being is an abstraction, the truth of
which can be found only in Causality, and in the higher categories
into which Causality in turn develops. Being, therefore, in-
evitably leads us on to Causality, so that, to whatever subject-
matter we can apply the first as a predicate, to that we must
necessarily apply the other.
The same change takes place in the relations of all the other
categories. Without the dialectic we might suppose Life to be
an effect of certain chemical combinations; with it we find that
Chemism is an abstraction from Life, so that, wherever there is
Chemism there must be Life also. Without the dialectic, again,
we might suppose self-consciousness to be a mere effect of animal
life ; with it, we are compelled to regard all life as merely relative
to some self-consciousness.
The result of the dialectic is thus much more than "the in-
creased certainty we gain of the necessary connection" of parts
of thought "with one another." For it must be remembered
that organic wholes are not to be explained by their parts, but
the reverse, while on the other hand merely composite wholes
can be best explained from the units of which they are made up.
We cannot explain a living body by putting together the ideas
of the isolated limbs, though we might, if our knowledge was
sufficiently complete, explain a limb by the idea of the body
as a whole. But we cannot explain the sizes and shapes of stones
from the, idea of the beach which they make up, while, on the
ra] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 99
other hand, if we knew the sizes, shapes, and positions of all the
stones, we should have complete knowledge of the beach. And
the dialectic professes to show that the lower categories are
contained in the higher in a manner more resembling that in
which a foot is related to a body, than that in which a stone is
related to a beach. The success of the dialectic, therefore, means
no less than this — that, for purposes of ultimate explanation,
we reverse the order of science and the understanding, and,
instead of attempting to account for the higher phenomena of
nature (i.e. those which frima facie exhibit the higher categories)
by means of the laws of the lower, we account for the lower by
means of the laws of the higher. The interest of this for the
theoretical reason is obvious, and its importance for the practical
reason is no less, since the lower categories are those of matter
and the higher those of spirit.
88. So also it is not fair to say that the process is only one
of subjective thought. It is doubtless true that the various
abstractions which form the steps of the dialectic have no
separate existence corresponding to them in the world of reality,
where only the concrete notion is to be found. But the result
is one which has validity for objective thought. For it is by
that result that we learn that the notion is really a concrete
unity, and that there is nothing corresponding in the outside
world to the separated fragments of the notion which form the
stages of finite thought. This is the same conclusion from another
point of view as the one mentioned in the preceding paragraph,
and it is surely both objective and important.
Moreover the objective significance of the dialectic process is
not confined to this negative result. For the different imperfect
categories, although they have no separate objective existence,
yet have an objective existence, as elements in the concrete
whole, which is made up of them. If we ask what is the nature
of the Absolute Idea, we must, from one side, answer that "its
true content is only the whole system, of which we have been
hitherto studying the development^." Since the one absolute
reality may be expressed as the synthesis of these categories,
they have reality in it.
^ Enc. Section 237, lecture note.
7—2
100 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [CH.
Besides this, in the sphere of our ordinary finite thought, in
which we use the imperfect categories as stable and permanent,
the dialectic gives us objective information as to the relative
amounts of truth and error which may be expected from the
use of various categories, and as to the comparative reahty and
significance of different ways of regarding the universe, — as, for
example, that the idea of Life goes more deeply into the nature
of reality than the idea of Mechanism.
89. We are now in a position to meet the dilemma with which
Trendelenburg challenges the dialectic. "Either" he says "the
dialectic development is independent, and only conditioned by
itself, then in fact it must know everything for itself. Or it
assumes finite sciences and empirical knowledge, but then the
immanent process and the unbroken connection are broken
through by what is assumed from outside, and it relates itself
to experience quite uncritically. The dialectic can choose. We
see no third possibility^." And just before he gives a further
description of the second alternative. "It works then only in
the same way and with the same means as the other sciences,
only differing from them in its goal, — to unite the parts to the
idea of the whole."
Neither of these two alternatives is valid. The dialectic develop-
ment is only so far " independent and only conditioned by itself,"
that it does not depend on any particular sensuous content of
experience, and would develop in the same way, whatever that
content might be. But it does not follow that it knows every-
thing for itself. All that part of knowledge which depends upon
one content rather than another — the whole, that is, of what is
ordinarily called science — certainly cannot be reached from the
dialectic alone in the present state of our knowledge, and perhaps
never will be^. Nor does the dialectic, as we have seen, assume
finite sciences and empirical knowledge. In one sense, indeed,
their subject-matter is the condition of its validity, for it en-
deavours to analyse the concrete idea which is implicit in all
our experience. The dialectic may be said therefore, in a sense,
to depend on the fact that we have empirical knowledge, without
which we should be conscious of nothing, not even of ourselves
1 op. cit. Vol. I. pp. 91, 92. 2 cp. Chap. u. Section 59.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 101
(since it is only in experience that we become self-conscious), and
in that case there would be no chance of the complete and concrete
idea being implicitly in our minds, which is a necessary pre-
liminary to our subsequently making it explicit in the dialectic.
This however does not make it depend upon the finite sciences
and empirical knowledge. It is dependent for its existence on
the existence of empirical knowledge, but its nature does not
at all depend on the nature of our empirical knowledge. And it
would only be this latter relation which would 'break through
the immanent process by what is assumed from outside." The
process can be, and is, one of pure thought, although pure
thought is only given as one element in experience.
The dialectic retraces the steps of abstraction till it arrives
at the concrete idea. If the concrete idea were different, the
dialectic process would be different. The conditions of the
dialectic are therefore that the concrete idea should be what it
is, and that there should be experience in which we may become
conscious of that idea. But it is not a condition of the dialectic
that all the contingent facts which are found in experience should
be what they are, and not otherwise. So far as we know, the
relation of the categories to one another might be the same, even
if sugar, for example, was bitter to the taste, and hare-bells had
scarlet flowers. And if such particulars ever should be deducible
from the pure idea, so that they could not be otherwise than
they are without some alteration in the nature of the pure idea,
then they would cease to be merely empirical knowledge. In
our present state the particulars of sense are only empirically
and contingently connected with the idea under which they are
brought. And although, if the dialectic is to exist, the idea must
be what it is, and must have some sensations to complement it,
yet the particular nature of those sensations is entirely indifferent
to the dialectic, which is not dependent upon it in any sense of
the word.
90. It is no doubt the case that an advanced state of the
finite sciences is a considerable help to the discovery of the
dialectic process, and this for several reasons. In the first place
the labour is easier because it is shghter. To detect the necessary
relation between two categories will be easier when both are
102 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
already explicitly before us in consciousness than when only
one is given in this way, and the other has to be constructed.
The inadequacy, for example, of the category of Teleology would
be by itself logically sufficient ground for discovering the category
of Life. But it is much easier to see, when that idea is necessarily
before us in biological science, that it is the necessary consequence
of the idea of Teleology, than it would be to construct it by the
dialectic, although that would be possible for a sufficiently keen
observer. In the second place, the more frequently, and the
more keenly, the finite categories are used in finite science, the
more probable it will be that the contradiction involved in their
use will have become evident, on some occasion or the other,
to some at least of those who use them, and the easier will it
be, therefore, to point out the various inadequacies of each
category in succession, which are the stepping stones of the
dialectic. But all this only shows that the appearance of the
theory of the dialectic in a philosophical system is partly deter-
mined by empirical causes, which surely no one ever denied. It
is possible that we might have had to wait for the theory of
gravitation for some time longer, if it had not been for the
traditional apple, and no one could go beyond a certain point
in mathematical calculation without the help of pens and paper.
But the logical validity of the theory of gravitation, when once
discovered, does not come as a deduction from the existence of
the apple, or of writing materials. With sufficient power, any
of the calculations could have been made without the help of
writing. Any other case of gravitation would have done as well
as the apple, if it had happened to suggest to Newton the problem
which lay in it as much as in the other. And, in the same way,
with sufficient mental acuteness the whole dialectic process could
have been discovered, by starting from any one piece of experience,
and without postulating any other empirical knowledge what-
ever. For the whole concrete idea lies behind experience, and
manifests itself in every part of it. Any fragment of experience,
therefore, would be sufficient to present the idea to our minds,
and thus give us implicitly the concrete truth, whose presence
in this manner is the real source of our discontent with the lower
categories, and consequently is the spring of the dialectic process.
in] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 103
In any single fact in experience, however trifling and wherever
selected, the dialectic could find all the basis of experience that
it needs. Doubtless it would have been a task beyond even
Hegel's strength to evolve the dialectic without a far larger
basis, and without the aid of specially suggestive portions of
experience. But this, while it may have some interest for
empirical psychology, can have none for metaphysics.
91 . I have thus endeavoured to show that the dialectic process
is related to experience in such a way as to avoid sterility, and
at the same time not necessarily to fall into empiricism. We have
now to consider Trendelenburg's contention^ that at one point
an idea of great importance, the idea of Motion, has in fact been
introduced from experience in a merely empirical manner, thus
destroying the value of the Logic as a theory of the nature of
pure thought.
He points out that Hegel endeavours to deduce the category
of Becoming, which involves the idea of Motion, from the two
categories of Being and Not-Being, which are ideas of rest. His
inference is that the idea of Motion has been uncritically im-
ported from experience, and breaks the connection of the Logic.
Certainly no flaw could be more fatal than this, for it occurs at
the second step in the dialectic, and, if it is really a flaw, must
make everything beyond this point useless.
It is certainly true that the category of Becoming involves
the idea of Motion, and that neither the category of Being, nor
the category of Not-Being, do so. There is something in the
synthesis which is neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, if
each of these is taken alone and separately. This, however, is
the necessary result wherever the dialectic process is applied.
That process does not profess to be merely analytic of the premises
we start from, but to give us new truth. If it were not so, it
could have no philosophical importance whatever, but would be
confined to the somewhat sterile occupation of discovering what
consequence could be drawn by formal logic from the assertion
of the simple notion of pure Being — the only premise from which
we start.
92. Whatever Hegel meant by his philosophy, he certainly
1 op. cit. Vol. I. p. 38.
104 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
meant more than this. We must presume then that he had
faced the fact that his conclusions contained more than his
premises. And there is nothing unjustifiable, — nothing which
necessitates the illegitimate introduction of an empirical element
— in this. For we must recollect that the dialectic process has
as its basis, not merely the consciously accepted premises, from
which it proceeds synthetically, but also the implicit concrete
and complete idea which it analyses and brings into distinct
consciousness. There is, therefore, nothing unjustifiable in the
synthesis having more in it than both the thesis and antithesis,
for this additional element is taken from the concrete idea which
is the real motive power of the dialectic advance. As this con-
crete idea is pure thought, no introduction of an empirical
element is necessary.
And, if we examine the process in detail, we shall find that
no such empirical element has been introduced. The first point
at which Motion is involved in the dialectic is not that at which
the category of Becoming is already recognised explicitly as a
category, and as the synthesis of the preceding thesis and anti-
thesis. Before we have a category of motion, we perceive a
motion of the categories; we are forced into the admission that
Becoming is a fundamental idea of the universe because of the
tendency we find in the ideas already accepted as fundamental
to become one another. There is therefore no illegitimate step
in the introduction of the synthesis, for the idea of Motion is
already involved in the relation of the two lower categories to
each other, and the synthesis only makes this explicit.
The introduction of empirical matter must come then, if it
comes at all, in the recognition of the fact that Being is just as
much Nothing, and Nothing is just as much Being. If we start
by positing the first, we find ourselves also positing the second.
The one standpoint cannot be maintained alone, but if we start
from it, we find ourselves at the other. To account for this it is
not necessary to bring in any empirical element. For although
neither of the two categories has the idea of Motion explicitly
in it, each of them is, of its own nature, forced into the move-
ment towards the other, by reason of its own incompleteness and
inadequacy. Now in this there is nothing that requires any aid
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 105
from empirical observation. For Trendelenburg remarks himself,
in the passage quoted above, that all abstractions "cannot but
strive to escape from this forced position." It is thus simply as
the result of the nature of pure thought that we arrive at the
conclusion that there is a motion of the categories. And, having
discovered this, we are only using the data fairly before us when
we recognise a category of motion, and so reconcile the contra-
diction which arises from the fact that two categories, which
profess, as all terms must, to have a fixed and constant meaning,
are nevertheless themselves in continual motion.
Of course all this can only take place on the supposition that
experience does exist. For, in the first place, since pure thought
is only an abstraction, and never really exists except as an
element in experience, it is impossible to come across the ideas
of Being and Not-Being at all, except in experience. And,
secondly, it is only in experience that the concrete idea is implicit,
which brings about the transition from category to category, and
so first introduces the idea of Motion. But this, as was pointed
out above^, involves no dependence on empirical data. All that
is required for the purpose is that element in experience which
is called pure thought, and, although this cannot be present
without the empirical element, the argument does not in the
least depend on the nature of the latter.
93. We are told also that Becoming involves time and space,
which Hegel admits not to be elements of pure thought, but to
belong to the world of nature. Now in the first place it does not
seem necessary that the Becoming referred to here should be
only such as must take place in time or space. It no doubt in-
cludes Becoming in time and space. But it would seem to include
also a purely logical Becoming — where the transition is not from
one event in time to a subsequent event, nor from one part of
space to another, but from one idea to another logically con-
nected with it. The movement is here only the movement of
logic, such as may be said to take place from the premises to
the conclusion of a syllogism. This involves neither space nor
time. It is, of course, true that this process can only be perceived
by us by means of a process in time. We have first to think the
^ Chap. I. Section 15.
106 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
premises and then the conclusion. But this does not make the
syllogism itself a process in time. The validity of the argument
does not depend upon the fact that we have perceived it; and
the movement of attention from one step to another of the
process — a movement which is certainly in time — must not be
confounded with the logical movement of the argument itself,
which is not in time.
It is again, no doubt, true that if we wish to imagine the
process of Becoming, we cannot imagine it, except as taking
place in time. But this is no objection. Imagination is a sen-
suous process, and involves sensuous elements. It does not follow
that it is impossible to think Becoming except as in time.
If then the Becoming of the Logic includes a species of Becoming
which does not take place in time or space, it follows, of course,
that the introduction of that category does not involve the in-
troduction of time and space into the dialectic. But even if we
leave out this point, and confine ourselves to those species of
Becoming which can only take place in time and space, it would
not follow that these notions have been introduced into the
dialectic. For, even on this hypothesis. Becoming only involves
time and space in the sense that it cannot be represented without
them. It could still be distinguished from them, and its nature
as a pure category observed. If indeed the argument by which
we are led on from Becoming to the next category was based
on anything in the nature of time and space, Trendelenburg's
objection would doubtless be made good. But it is no more
necessary that this should be the case, because time and space
are the necessary medium in which we perceive the idea of
Becoming, than that every step of the whole dialectic process
should be tainted with empiricism, because every category can
only be perceived in the whole of experience, in which it is
bound up with empirical elements. And the transition which
Hegel gives to the category of Being-determinate does not
seem in any way to depend upon the nature of time and space,
but rather on the nature of Becoming, as a determination of
thought^.
94. Again, it is said that Being and Not-Being are abstractions,
^ Note to Second Edition. A paragraph has been omitted here.
m] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 107
while Becoming is a "concrete intuition ruling life and death^."
It is no doubt true that we never encounter, and cannot imagine,
a case of Becoming without sensuous intuition. But the same
might be said of any other category. Thought can never exist
without sensation. And the quality of Becoming itself is not
sensation, but thought. What becomes, indeed, must be told us
by sensation, but that it becomes is as much a conception of pure
thought as that it is, or is not. And the ideas of Being and Not-
Being are scarcely more abstract than Becoming is. For they
also cannot come into consciousness except as combined with
intuition. They are doubtless abstract in the sense that we feel
at once their inadequacy to any subject-matter. But this is the
case to almost the same extent with Becoming, if we take it
strictly. As a general rule, when we talk in ordinary discourse
of Becoming, or of any other of the lower categories, we do not
take it by itself, but mix it up with higher categories, such as
Being-determinate, Substance, and Cause. If we do this, Being
and Not-Being may pass as concrete. If we do not do it, but
confine ourselves to the strict meaning of the category. Becoming
shows itself to be almost as abstract and inadequate as pure
Being. The philosophy which corresponds to Becoming is the
doctrine of the eternal flux of all things, and it is difficult to see
how this represents reality much more adequately than the
Eleatic Being, or the Buddhist Nothing. Of course Becoming is
to some extent more adequate than the categories that precede
it, but this is the natural and inevitable result of the fact that
it synthesises them.
95. We must, in conclusion, consider the claims of the Hegelian
system to ontological validity. This subject divides itself into
two parts. In the first place Hegel denies the Kantian restriction
of knowledge to mere phenomena, behind which lie things in
themselves which we cannot know and he asserts that the laws
of thought traced in the logic, as applicable to all possible know-
ledge, are applicable also to all reality. In the second place he
deduces from the Logic the philosophies of Nature and Spirit.
Now as to the first of these two points, I have already en-
deavoured to show that any denial of it involves a contradiction'^.
^ Trendelenburg, op. cit. Vol. i. p. 38. * Chap. i. Section 25.
108 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [CH.
We are told by those who attempt this denial that there are or
may be things which we cannot know. But to know of the
actuality or possibility of such things is to know them — to know
that of which knowledge is impossible. Of course to know only
that things are possible, or even that they actually exist, and to
know nothing else about them, is very imperfect and inadequate
knowledge of them. But it is knowledge. It involves a judgment,
and a judgment involves a category. It is thus impossible to
say that the existence of anything which does not conform to
the universal laws of knowledge is either actual or possible. If
the supporters of things-in-themselves were asked for a defence
of their doctrine, they would be compelled to relate these things
with our sensuous intuitions, through which alone data can be
given to our minds. And this relation would bring them in
connection with the world of knowledge, and destroy their
asserted independence.
In fact the question whether there is any reality outside the
world which we know by experience is unmeaning. There is much
reality which we do not know; it is even possible that there is
much reality which we never shall know. But it must, if we
are to have any right to speak of it at all, belong to the same
universe as the facts which we do not know — that is, be con-
nected with them by the same fundamental laws as those by
which they are connected with one another. Otherwise we can
have no justification for supposing that it exists, since all such
suppositions must rest on some connection with the world of
reality. We are not even entitled to say that it is possible that
there may exist a world unconnected with the world of experience.
For possibility is a phrase which derives all its meaning to us
from its use in the world of experience, and beyond that world
we have no right to use it, since anything brought under that,
or any other predicate, is brought thereby into the world of
the knowable. And a mere empty possibility, not based on the
known existence of at least one of the necessary conditions, is
too indefinite to possess any significance. Anything, however
impossible, may be pronounced possible, if we are only ignorant
enough of the subject-matter, for if our ignorance extends to all
the circumstances incompatible with the truth of the proposition,
in] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 109
all evidence of impossibility is obviously beyond our reach. But
the more ignorance is involved in such a conclusion, the less
valuable it is, and when it is based on complete ignorance, as
any proposition relating to the possibility of a world outside
knowledge must inevitably be, the judgment becomes entirely
frivolous. It is merely negative and does not, as a real judgment
of possibility does, create the slightest expectation of reality,
but is devoid of all rational interest. Such a judgment, as
Mr Bradley points out, " is absurd, because a privative judgment,
where the subject is left entirely undetermined in respect of the
suggestion, has no kind of meaning. Privation gets a meaning
where the subject is determined by a quality or an environment
which we have reason to think would give either the acceptance
or the rej ection of X. But if we keep entirely to the bare universal,
we cannot predicate absence, since the space we call empty has
no existence^." And as Hegel's theory, if valid at all, covers
the whole sphere of actual and possible knowledge, any specula-
tions on the nature of reality outside its sphere are meaningless,
and the results of the dialectic may be predicated of all reality.
96. The demand that the dialectic shall confine itself to a
purely subjective import, and not presume to limit reality by
its results, has been made from a fresh point of view by Mr F. C. S.
Schiller. He says "It does not follow that because all truth in
the narrower sense is abstract, because all philosophy must be
couched in abstract terms, therefore the whole truth about the
universe in the wider sense, i.e. the ultimate account that can
be given of it, can be compressed into a single abstract formula,
and that the scheme of things is nothing more than, e.g., the
self-development of the Absolute Idea. To draw this inference
would be to confuse the thought-symbol, which is, and must be,
the instrument of thought, with that which the symbol expresses,
often only very imperfectly, viz. the reality which is 'known*
only in experience and can never be evoked by the incantations
of any abstract formula. If we avoid this confusion, we shall
no longer be prone to think that we have disposed of the thing
symbohsed when we have brought home imperfection and con-
tradiction to the formulas whereby we seek to express it... to
^ Logic, Book i. Chap. vn. Section 30.
110 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
suppose, e.g., that Time and Change cannot really be charac-
teristic of the universe, because our thought, in attempting to
represent them by abstract symbols, often contradicts itself.
For evidently the contradiction may result as well from the in-
adequacy of our symbols to express realities of whose existence
we are directly assured by other factors in experience, and which
consequently are data rather than problems for thought, as from
the 'merely apparent' character of their reality, and the moral
to be drawn may only be the old one, that it is the function of
thought to mediate and not to create^."
It is no doubt true that there is something else in our ex-
perience besides pure thought — namely, the immediate data of
sensation. And these are independent of thought in the sense
that they cannot be deduced from it, or subordinated to it, but
must be recognised as a correlative and indispensable factor in
experience. But it is not an independent element in the sense
that it can exist or express reality a'part from thought. And it
would have, it seems to me, to be independent in this sense before
we could accept Mr Schiller's argument.
97. Sensation without thought could assure us of the existence
of nothing. Not of any objects outside the sentient being— for
these objects are for us clearly ideal constructions. Not of the
self who feels sensation — for a self is not itself a sensation, and
the assurance of its reality must be an inference. Nay, sensation
cannot assure us of its own existence. For the very terms ex-
istence, reality, assurance, are all terms of thought. To appeal
(as Mr Schiller wishes to do, if I have understood him rightly)
from a dialectic which shows, e.g. that Time cannot be real, to
an experience which tells us that it is real, is useless. For our
assurance of reality is itself an act of thought, and anything
which the dialectic has proved about the nature of thought would
be applicable to that assurance.
It is difficult to see how sensations could even exist without
thought. For sensations certainly only exist for consciousness,
and what could a consciousness be which was nothing but a
chaotic mass of sensations, with no relations among them, and
consequently no unity for itself? But, even if they could exist
^ "The Metaphysics of the Time-Process," Mind, n.s. Vol. iv. No. 14. p. 40.
ml THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 111
without thought, they could tell us nothing of reality or existence,
for reality and existence are not themselves sensations, and all
analysis or inference, by which they might be reached from sen-
sations, must be the work of thought.
By the side of the truth that thought without data can never
make us aware of reality, we must place the corresponding truth
that nothing can make us aware of reality without thought. Any
law therefore which can be laid down for thought, must be a law
which imposes itself on all reality which we can either know or
imagine — and a reality which we can neither know nor imagine is,
as I fancy Mr Schiller would admit, a meaningless abstraction.
To the demand then that we should admit the reality of any-
thing although "we have brought home imperfection and con-
tradiction to the formulas whereby we seek to express it," I
should answer that it is only by the aid of these formulas that
we can pronounce it real. If we cannot think it, we have no right
to pronounce it real, for to pronounce it real is an act of thought.
We should not, therefore, by pronouncing it real, be appealing
from thought to some other means of knowledge. We should be
thinking it, at the same time, to be real and to be self-con-
tradictory. To say that a thing whose notion is self -contradictory
is real, is to say that two or more contradictory propositions are
true — that is, to violate the law of contradiction. If we do this
we put an end to all possibility of coherent thought anywhere.
If a contradiction is not a sign of error it will be impossible to
make any inference whatever.
And so it seems to me, in spite of Mr Schiller's arguments,
that if we find contradictions in our notion of a thing, we must
give up its reality. This does not mean, of course, that we are
to say that there was nothing real behind the contradictory
appearance. Behind all appearance there is some reality. But
this reality, before we can know it, must be re-thought in terms
which are mutually coherent, and although we certainly have
not "disposed of the thing symbohsed when we have brought
home imperfection and contradiction to the formulas whereby
we seek to express it," we can only retain our belief in the thing's
existence by thinking it under some other formula, by which
the imperfection and the contradiction are removed.
112 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
98. There remains only the transition from Logic to Nature
and Spirit. From what has been said in Chapters i and ii, it
will be seen that the vahdity of this transition must be deter-
mined by the same general considerations as determine the
validity of the transitions from one category to another within
the Logic. For the motive power of the transition was the same
— the impatience of its incompleteness felt by an abstraction,
since the whole of thought, even when it has attained the utmost
completeness of which it is capable, is only an abstraction from
the fuller whole of reality. And the method of the transition
is also the same — the discovery of a contradiction arising from
the inadequacy of the single term, which leads us on to the
opposite extreme, which is also found to be contradictory, and
so leaves us no refuge but a synthesis which comprehends and
reconciles both extremes. I have endeavoured to show in the
last chapter that this was all that Hegel ever intended to do,
and that no other deduction of Nature and Spirit from pure
thought can be attributed to him. We have now to consider
whether he was justified in proceeding in this manner.
Is thought incomplete as compared with the whole of reality?
This can scarcely be denied. To admit it does not involve any
scepticism as to the adequacy of knowledge. Thought may be
perfectly capable of expressing the whole of reality, all that is
real may be rational, but it will nevertheless remain true that
all that is real cannot be merely reasoning. For all reasoning
as such is merely mediate, and it is obvious that a mediation
without something which it mediates is a contradiction. This
something must be given immediately. It is true that thought
itself, as an event in our consciousness, may be given immediately,
and may be perceived by inner sense, in the same way that
colours, sounds, and the like, may be perceived by outer sense.
But this means that thought, considered as it is in the Logic
(i.e. not as a datum, but as an activity), can never be self-sub-
sistent, but must always depend on something (even if that
something is other thought), which presents itself immediately.
And thus the Logic, which only deals with the forms by which
we may mediate what is immediately given, does not by itself
contain the whole of reality.
in] THE VALIDITY OP THE DIALECTIC 113
99. This is obviously the case while, as at present, a large
amount of experience is concerned with physical data apparently
entirely contingent to the idea, and with mental data scarcely
less contingent. It is quite clear that the Logic does not as yet
express the whole universe, while we still find ultimate and un-
explained such facts as that one particular number of vibrations
of ether in a second gives us the sensation of blue, and that
another particular number gives us the sensation of red. But
even if the process of rationahsation was carried as far as it
could by any possibility go, if all matter was reduced to spirit,
and every quality of spirit was deduced from the Logic, never-
theless to constitute experience something would have to be
immediately given, and the Logic contemplates nothing but
thought as it deals with something given already. The existence
of thought requires the existence of something given. It is un-
deniable that we think. But we could not think unless there
were something to think about. Therefore there must be some-
thing. This is all of the world of Nature and Spirit which we can
deduce from the Logic. Logic must have its complement and
correlative, and the two must be united in one whole. This, as
I have tried to show, is all Hegel did attempt to deduce from
the Logic. But whether this is so or not, we must admit that
it is all that he has a right to deduce from it. The concrete whole
towards which we are working is the universalised particular,
the mediated immediate, the rationalised datum. Logic is the
universal, the mediating, the rationalising element. There must
therefore be a particular, immediate, given element, and the two
must be reconciled. So much we can deduce by pure thought.
But if this other element has any other qualities except those
just mentioned which make it correlative to Logic, we cannot
deduce them. We must treat them as contingent, and confine
ourselves to pointing out the way in which the Logic is incarnate
in Nature and Spirit, piercing through these contingent par-
ticulars. Philosophy can tell us a priori that Nature and Spirit
do exist, and that all the categories of the Logic must be realised
in them, but how they are realised in the midst of what seem, at
any rate at present, to be contingent particulars, must be a matter
for empirical observation, and not for deduction from Logic.
114 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
100. In what way does the transition from Logic take place?
The suggestion which most naturally occurs to us is that the
element which supplements the deficiency of Logic should be its
antithesis, and the combination of the two in a concrete whole
should form the synthesis. In this case the antithesis would be
the mere abstract and unconnected particularity, which is really
unnameable, since all names imply that the matter of discourse
has been qualified by some judgment. With the very beginnings
of Nature, on this view, we pass to the synthesis, for in Nature
we have already the idea as immediate, as given, as realised in
fact. Spirit and Nature together would thus form the synthesis.
Spirit being distinguished from Nature only as being a more
complete and closer reconciliation of the two elements. It makes
explicit the unity which in Nature is only implicit. But it does
not add any aspect or element which is not in Nature, it is more
elaborated, but not more comprehensive.
This, however, is not the course of the transition which is
actually adopted by Hegel. In this, while the Logic is the thesis,
the antithesis is Nature, and the synthesis is Spirit. The bond of
connection here is that they are the universal, the particular,
and the individual, and that the individual is the synthesis of
the universal and the particular. If it should be objected to this
that there is more in Nature than mere particularity, since the
idea is realised, though imperfectly realised, in Nature, and the
idea is the universal, Hegel's reply, I suppose, would be that this
is the case also with every particular thing, since mere particularity
is an abstraction. We can never perceive anything without a
judgment, and a judgment involves a category. Indeed the very
phrase "thing" implies this.
The difference between the two methods is thus very marked,
not only because of the different place assigned to Nature in
them, but because in the second the antithesis marks a distinct
advance upon the thesis, as a concrete reality, though an im-
perfect one, while in the first the thesis and antithesis are both
alike mere abstractions and aspects which require a reconciliation
before anything concrete is reached.
Here we have two examples of the dialectic process, each
starting from the same point — the Logic — and each arriving at
in] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 115
the same point — Absolute Spirit — but reaching that point in
different ways. What are we to say about them? Is one wrong
and the other right? Or can we argue, from the fact that the
principles of the dialectic would seem to justify either of them,
to the conclusion that there must be some error in those prin-
ciples, since they lead to two inconsistent results? Or, finally,
can we pronounce them both to be correct? To these questions
Hegel, as far as I can find, affords no definite answer, but one
may, I think, be found by following up some indications which
he gives. This I shall endeavour to do in the next chapter^.
101. Before leaving this part of the subject, we must consider
some criticisms which have been passed by Lotze on Idealism,
the most important and elaborate of which occurs in the Micro-
cosmus^. In this he considers the assertion, which he attributes
to Idealism, that Thought and Being are identical. He does not
mention Hegel by name here, but it would seem, from the nature
of the criticisms, and from scattered remarks in other parts of
his writings, that he held his criticisms to apply to the Hegelian
dialectic.
Now in what sense does Hegel say that Thought and Being
are identical? In the first place we must carefully distinguish,
from such an assertion of identity, another assertion which he
does make, — namely, that Being is a category, and therefore a
determination of thought, and that, in consequence, even the
mere recognition that a thing is, can only be effected by thought.
He uses this undeniable truth as an argument against appeals
from the results of thought to immediate facts. For it means
that we can only know that a thing is a fact by means of thought,
and that it is impossible to find any ground, upon which we can
base a proposition, which does not involve thought, and which
is not subject to all the general laws which we can obtain by
analysing what is involved in thinking.
This, however, is not what is meant by Lotze. That the
predicate of Being can only be applied by us to a subject by
means of thought, is a statement which Lotze could not have
doubted, and which he had no reason to wish to deny. He
attacks a very different proposition — that everything which is
^ Sections 131 — 138. ^ Book viii. Chap. i. towards the end.
116 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
included under the predicate of Being, tliat is, everything in the
universe, is identical with thought.
This, again, may have two very different meanings. If we
call the particular reality, of which we are speaking, A, then
we may mean, in the first place, that A's being is identical with
B's thought, when B is thinking about A, — or would be so, if B's
thought was in a state of ideal perfection. Or we may mean,
in the second place, that A's being is identical with his own
thought, i.e. that his only nature is to be a thinking being, and
his only activity is to think. The first view is that A is identical
with what may be thought about him, the second is that A is
identical with what he thinks. These are clearly very different.
102. It is the first of these meanings, it seems, which Lotze
supposes his Idealist to adopt. This appears from his considering
that he has refuted it by showing that there is always in our
knowledge of anything an immediate datum, which thought
must accept as given, and without which it cannot act at all.
"Thought," he says, "is everywhere but a mediating activity
moving hither and thither, bringing into connection the original
intuitions of external and internal perception, which are pre-
determined by fundamental ideas and laws the origin of which
cannot be shown ; it develops special and properly logical forms
peculiar to itself, only in the effort to apply the idea of truth
(which it finds in us) to the scattered multiplicity of perceptions,
and of the consequences developed from them. Hence nothing
seems less justifiable than the assertion that this Thinking is
identical with Being, and that Being can be resolved into it
without leaving any residuum; on the contrary, everywhere in
the flux of thought there remain quite insoluble those individual
nuclei which represent the several aspects of that important
content which we designate by the name of Being^." The fact
that there are immediate elements in our knowledge of other
things could be no reason for doubting that our nature — and
theirs also — lay in thinking, as we shall see later on. But it would
doubtless be an excellent reason for denying that our thought
of the object could ever be identical with the object itself. And
it is this last theory which Lotze must have had in view.
* loc. cit. (English Translation, Vol. ii. p. 354, 4th ed.).
in] THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC 117
103. No doubt Hegel would have been wrong if he had
asserted that Thought and Being were identical in this sense.
But, as I have tried to show in the last chapter^, there is no
reason to suppose that he failed to appreciate the fact that there
is an element of immediacy in all knowledge, and that thought,
without such data, would not only be inadequate, but completely
impotent. The passage which I then quoted from the Philosophy
of Spirit^, declares that Spirit is the logical fHus, not only of
Nature but of Logic. Now Spirit differs from Logic by reason
of the element of immediacy, introduced in Nature, and com-
pletely harmonised with Logic in Spirit. It seems clear then that
Hegel can never have imagined that pure thought could dispense
with the element of immediacy. And, if so, our pure thought
by itself could never have been identical with the content of its
object.
104. The necessity of immediacy for thought, however, does
not prevent the identity of Thought and Being in the second
sense mentioned above. If all reality in the universe consisted
simply of thinking beings there would be no lack of immediate
data for them to mediate. For thought itself can be observed,
and, when observed, forms itself a datum for thought. And a
universe of thinking beings, in connection with one another,
would find their immediate data, A in B, and B in A.
In this sense it seems that Hegel did hold the identity of
Thought and Being — though the phrase is not a very happy one.
That is to say, he held that all reality consisted of self-conscious
beings; and it appears from the Philosophy of Spirit that he
also held that the highest — the only ultimate — activity of Spirit,
in which all others are transcended and swallowed up, is that of
pure thought.
In doing this, he ignored a fact which is made prominent by
Lotze in many parts of his system, though not in the chapter
from which I have quoted. This is, that Spirit has two other
aspects besides thought — namely, volition and feeling — which
are as important as thought, and which cannot be deduced from
it, nor explained by it. I shall have to consider this point at
greater length in Chapter vi, and shall there endeavour to show
^ Sections 56, 57. - Erie. Section 381, lecture note.
118 THE VALIDITY OF THE DIALECTIC [ch. ni
that, while Hegel was justified in identifying all Being with
Spirit, he was not justified in taking the further step of identi-
fying the true nature of Spirit exclusively with pure thought.
105. Such a conclusion, no doubt, would make a considerable
change in the Hegelian system. But it would not involve that
Hegel had ignored the immediate aspect of reality, nor would
it prove that he was wrong in asserting all being to be Spirit.
Nor would it make his philosophy less thoroughly Idealistic. For
the essence of Idealism does not lie in the assertion of the identity
of Thought and Being, though it does lie very largely in the
assertion of a relation between them. That relation may be ex-
pressed by saying that Thought is adequate to express Being,
and Being adequate to embody Thought. On the one hand, no
reality exists beyond the sphere of actual or possible knowledge,
and no reality, when known as completely as possible, presents
any contradiction or irrationality. On the other hand, there is
no postulate which Thought demands in order to construct a
harmonious and self-consistent system of knowledge, which is
not realised in Being.
Hegel, as we have seen, establishes this by demonstrating
that the higher categories are so involved in the lower that, if
we say a thing exists at all, we are obHged to bring it under
predicates which ensure that it will answer completely to the
demands of our reason. In doing this, he arrives at the con-
clusions that the true nature of all Being is Spirit, and that the
true nature of all Spirit is Thought. But important as these
results, — true or false — are, they are only subsidiary as compared
with the more general result that Thought and Being — whether
identical or not — are yet in complete harmony. From the point
of view of theory, we thus know that reality is rational. From
the point of view of practice, we know that reality is righteous,
since the only view of reality which we can consider as com-
pletely rational, is shown to be one which involves our own
complete self-realisation. And it is this assertion that reality
is both rational and righteous which is the distinguishing mark
of Idealism.
CHAPTER IV
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD
106. My object in this chapter will be to show that the
method, by which Hegel proceeds from one category to another
in his Logic, is not the same throughout, but changes materially
as the process advances. I shall endeavour to show that this
change may be reduced to a general law, and that from this
law we may derive important consequences with regard to the
nature and validity of the dialectic.
The exact relation of these corollaries to Hegel's own views
is rather uncertain. Some of them do not appear to be denied
in any part of the Logic, and, since they are apparently involved
in some of his theories, may be supposed to have been recognised
and accepted by him. On the other hand, he did not explicitly
state and develop them anywhere, which, in the case of doctrines
of such importance, is some ground for supposing that he did
not hold them. Others, again, are certainly incompatible with
his express statements. I desire, therefore, in considering them,
to leave on one side the question of how far they were believed
by Hegel, and merely to give reasons for thinking that they are
necessary consequences of his system, and must be accepted by
those who hold it.
107. The passage in which Hegel sums up his position on this
point most plainly runs as follows: "The abstract form of the
advance is, in Being, an other and transition into an other; in
Essence, showing or a reflection in the opposite (Scheinen in dem
Entgegengesetzten) ; in Notion, the distinction of individual from
universality, which continues itself as such into, and is as an
identity with, what is distinguished from it^."
The difference between the procedure in the doctrine of Being
and in the doctrine of Essence is given in more detail earher.
"In the sphere of Essence one category does not pass into
another, but refers to another merely. In Being the form of
1 Enc. Section 240.
120 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [oh.
reference is simply due to our reflection on what takes place;
but this form is the special and proper characteristic of Essence.
In the sphere of Being, when somewhat becomes another, the
somewhat has vanished. Not so in Essence: here there is no
real other, but only diversity, reference of the one to its other.
The transition of Essence is therefore at the same time no tran-
sition ; for in the passage of different into different, the different
does not vanish: the different terms remain in their relation.
When we speak of Being and Nought, Being is independent, so
is Nought. The case is otherwise with the Positive and the
Negative. No doubt these possess the characteristic of Being
and Nought. But the positive by itself has no sense ; it is wholly
in reference to the negative. And it is the same with the negative.
In the Sphere of Being the reference of one term to another is
only impHcit; in Essence, on the contrary, it is explicit. And this
in general is the distinction between the forms of Being and
Essence: in Being everything is immediate, in Essence every-
thing is relative^."
And again, in describing the transition from Essence to the
Notion, he says : " Transition into something else is the dialectical
process within the range of Being; reflection (bringing something
else into light) in the range of Essence. The movement of the
Notion is development ; by which that only is explicitly affirmed
which is already impUcitly speaking present. In the world of
nature, it is organic life that corresponds to the grade of the
notion. Thus, e.g., the plant is developed from its germ. The germ
virtually involves the whole plant, but does so only ideally or
in thought; and it would therefore be a mistake to regard the
development of the root, stem, leaves, and other different parts
of the plant as meaning that they were realiier present, but in
a very minute form, in the germ. That is the so-called 'box-
within-box ' hypothesis ; a theory which commits the mistake of
supposing an actual existence of what is at first found only in
the shape of an ideal. The truth of the hypothesis on the other
hand lies in its perceiving that, in the process of development,
the notion keeps to itself, and only gives rise to alteration of
form without making any addition in point of content. It is this
^ Enc. Section 111, lecture note.
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 121
nature of the notion — this manifestation of itself in its process
as a development of its own self — which is chiefly in view by
those who speak of innate ideas, or who, like Plato, describe
all learning as merely reminiscence. Of course that again does
not mean that everything which is embodied in a mind, after
that mind has been formed by instruction, had been present in
that mind beforehand in a definitely expanded shape.
"The movement of the notion is after all to be looked on only
as a kind of play. The other which it sets up is in reality not
another. Or, as it is expressed in the teaching of Christianity,
not merely has God created a world which confronts Him as
another; He has also from all eternity begotten a Son, in whom
He, a Spirit, is at home with Himself^."
108. The result of this process may be summed up as follows:
The further the dialectic goes from its starting-point the less
prominent becomes the apparent stability of the individual finite
categories, and the less do they seem to be self-centred and inde-
pendent. On the other hand, the process itself becomes more
clearly self-evident, and is seen to be the only real meaning of
the lower categories. In Being each category appears, taken by
itself, to be permanent and exclusive of all others, and to have
no principle of transition in it. It is only outside reflection which
examines and breaks down this pretence of stability, and shows
us that the dialectic process is inevitable. In Essence, however,
each category by its own import refers to that which follows it,
and the transition is seen to be inherent in its nature. But it is
still felt to be, as it were, only an external effect of that nature.
The categories have still an inner nature, as contrasted Avith the
outer relations which they have with other categories. So far
as they have this inner nature, they are still conceived as inde-
pendent and self-centred. But with the passage into the notion
things alter; that passage "is the very hardest, because it pro-
poses that independent actuality shall be thought as having all
its substantiality in the passing over and identity with the other
independent actuality^." Not only is the transition now necessary
to the categories, but the transition is the categories. The reality
in any finite category, in this stage, consists only in its summing
1 Enc. Section 161, lecture note. ^ Enc. Section 159.
122 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
up those which went before, and in leading on to those which
come after,
109. Another change can be observed as the process con-
tinues. In the categories of Being the typical form is a transition
from a thesis to an antithesis which is merely complementary
to it, and is in no way superior to it in value or comprehensive-
ness. Only when these two extremes are taken together is there
for the first time any advance to a higher notion. This advance
is a transition to a synthesis which comes as a consequence of
the thesis and antithesis jointly. It would be impossible to obtain
the synthesis, or to make any advance, from either of the two
complementary terms without the other. Neither is in any re-
spect more advanced than the other, and neither of them can be
said to be more closely connected than the other with the syn-
thesis, in which both of them alike find their explanation and
reconciliation. But when we come to Essence the matter is
changed. Here the transition from thesis to antithesis is still
indeed from positive to negative, but it is more than merely this.
The antithesis is not merely complementary to the thesis, but
is a correction of it. It is consequently more concrete and true
than the thesis, and represents a real advance. And the transition
to the synthesis is not now made so much from the comparison
of the other two terms as from the antithesis alone. For the
antithesis does not now merely oppose a contrary defect to the
original defect of the thesis. It corrects, to some degree, that
original mistake, and therefore has — to use the Hegelian phrase-
ology — "the truth" of the thesis more or less within itself. As
the action of the synthesis is to reconcile the thesis and the
antithesis it can only be deduced from the comparison of the
two. But if the antithesis has — as it has in Essence — the thesis
as part of its own significance, it will present the whole of the
data which the synthesis requires, and it will not be necessary
to recur to the thesis, before the step to the synthesis is taken.
But although the reconciliation can be inferred from the second
term, apart from the first, a reconciliation is still necessary. For,
while the antithesis is an advance upon the thesis, it is also
opposed to it. It is not simply a completion of it, but also a
denial, though a denial which is already an approximation to
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 123
union. This element of opposition and negation tends to dis-
appear in the categories of the Notion. As these approach the
end of the whole process, the steps are indeed discriminated from
one another, but they can scarcely be said to be in opposition.
For we have now arrived at a consciousness more or less explicit
that in each category all that have gone before are summed up,
and all that are to come after are contained implicitly. "The
movement of the Notion is after all to be looked on only as a
kind of play. The other which it sets up is in reality not another."
And, as a consequence, the third term merely completes the
second, without correcting one-sidedness in it, in the same way
as the second term merely expands and completes the first. As
this type is realised, in fact, the distinctions of the three terms
gradually lose their meaning. There is no longer an opposition
produced between two terms and mediated by a third. Each
term is a direct advance on the one before it. The object of the
process is not now to make the one-sided complete, but the
implicit explicit. For we have reached a stage when each side
carries in it already more or less consciousness of that unity of
the whole which is the synthesis, and requires development rather
than refutation.
110. It is natural that these changes should accompany the
one first mentioned. For, as it is gradually seen that each cate-
gory, of its own nature, and not by mere outside reflection on it,
leads on to the next, that next will have inherent in it its relation
to the first. It will not only be the negation and complement
of the thesis, but wall know that it is so. In so far as it does this,
it will be higher than the thesis. It is true that the thesis will
see in like manner that it must be connected with the category
that succeeds it. But this knowledge can only give a general
character of transition to the thesis, for it only knows that it is
connected with something, but does not yet know with what.
But the antithesis does know with what it is connected, since it
is connected with a term which precedes it in the dialectic pro-
cess. And to see how it is inseparably connected with its opposite,
and defined by its relation to it, is an important step towards
the reconciliation of the opposition. A fortiori the greater clear-
ness and ease of the transition will have the same efiect in the
124 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
case of the Notion. For there we see that the whole meaning of
the category lies in its passage to another. The second therefore
has the whole meaning of the first in it, as well as the addition
that has been made in the transition, and must therefore be
higher than the first.
From this follows naturally the change in the relation of the
terms to their synthesis. We have seen that, in proportion as
the meaning of the thesis is completely included in the meaning
of the antithesis, it becomes possible to find all the data required
for the synthesis in the antithesis alone. And when each term
has its meaning completely absorbed in the one which follows it,
the triple rhythm disappears altogether, in which case each term
would be a simple advance on the one below it, and would be
deduced from that one only.
111. While Hegel expressly notices, as we have seen, the in-
creasing freedom and directness of the dialectic movement, he
makes no mention of the different relation to one another assumed
by the various members of the process, which I have just in-
dicated. Traces of the change may, however, be observed in the
detail of the dialectic. The three triads which it will be best to
examine for this purpose are the first in the doctrine of Being,
the middle one in the doctrine of Essence, and the last in the
doctrine of the Notion. For, if there is any change within each
of these three great divisions (a point we must presently con-
sider), the special characteristics of each will be shown most
clearly at that point at which it is at the greatest distance from
each of the other divisions. The triads in question are those of
Being, Not-Being, and Becoming; of the World of Appearance,
Content and Form, and Ratio^; and of Life, Cognition, and the
Absolute Idea^.
Now, in the first of these, thesis and antithesis are on an
absolute level. Not-Being is no higher than Being: it does not
contain Being in any sense in which Being does not contain it.
We can pass as easily from Not-Being to Being as vice versa.
And Not-Being by itself is helpless to produce Becoming — as
^ I follow the divisions of Essence as given in the EncydopcBdia.
2 Cognition is used by Hegel in two senses. Here it is to be taken as Cognition
n general, of which Cognition proper and Volition are species.
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 125
helpless as Being is. The synthesis can only come from the con-
junction of both of them. On the other hand the idea of Content
and Form, according to Hegel, is a distinct advance on the idea
of the World of Appearance, since in Content and Form "the
connection of the phenomenon with self is completely stated."
Ratio, again, although the synthesis of the two previous terms,
is deduced from the second of them alone, while it could not be
deduced from the first alone. It is the relation of Content and
Form to one another which leads us on to the other relation
which is called ratio. The idea of Cognition, also, is a distinct
advance upon the idea of Life, since the defect in the latter, from
which Hegel explains the existence of death, is overcome as we
pass to Cognition. And it is from Cognition alone, without any
reference back to Life, that we reach the Absolute Idea.
112. Another point arises on which we shall find but little
guidance in Hegel's own writings. To each of the three great
divisions of the dialectic he has ascribed a particular variation
of the method. Are we to understand that one variety changes
into another suddenly at the transition from division to division,
or is the change continuous, so that, while the typical forms of
each division are strongly characterised, the difference between
the last step in one and the first step in the next is no greater
than the difference between two consecutive steps in the same
division ? Shall we find the best analogy in the distinction between
water and steam — a quahtative change suddenly brought about
when a quantitative change has reached a certain degree — or
in the distinction between youth and manhood, which at their
most characteristic points are clearly distinct, but which pass
into one another imperceptibly?
On this point Hegel says nothing. Possibly it had never
presented itself to his mind. But there are signs in the Logic
which may lead us to beheve that the change of method is
gradual and continuous.
In the first place we may notice that the absolutely pure type
of the process in Being, is not to be met with in any triad of
Quality or Quantity except the first. Being and Not-Being are
on a level. But if we compare Being an sich with Being for
another, the One with the Many, and mere Quantity with
126 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [CH.
Quantum, we observe that the second category is higher than the
first in each pair, and that it is not merely the complement of the
first, but to a certain degree transcends it. The inherent relation
of thesis to antithesis seems to develop more as we pass on, so
that before Essence is reached its characteristics are already
visible to some extent, and the mere passivity and finitude of
Being is partly broken down.
If, again, we compare the first and last stages of Essence, we
shall find that the first approximates to the type of Being, while
the last comes fairly close to that of the Notion, by substituting
the idea of development for the idea of the reconciHation of
contradictions. Difference, as treated by Hegel, is certainly an
advance on Identity, and not a mere opposite, but there is still
a good deal of opposition between the terms. The advance is
shown by the fact that Difference contains Likeness and Un-
likeness within itself, while the opposition of the two categories
is clear, not only in common usage, but from the fact that the
synthesis has to reconcile them, and balance their various
deficiencies. But when we reach Substance and CausaUty we
find that the notion of contradiction is subordinated to that of
development, nearly as fully as if we were already at the begin-
ning of the doctrine of the Notion.
So, finally, the special features of the doctrine of the Notion
are not fully exhibited until we have come to its last stage. In
the transitions of the Notion as Notion, of the Judgment, and
of the Syllogism, we have not by any means entirely rid ourselves
of the elements of opposition and negation. It is not until we
reach the concluding triad of the Logic that we are able fully
to see the typical progress of the Notion. In the transition from
Life to Cognition, and from Cognition to the Absolute Idea, we
perceive that the movement is all but completely direct, that
the whole is seen to be in each part, and that there is no longer
a contest, but only a development.
It is not safe, however, to place much weight on all this. In
the first place, while Hegel explicitly says that each of the three
doctrines has its special method, he says nothing about any
development of method within each doctrine. In the second place
the difiiculty and uncertainty of comparing, quantitatively and
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 127
exactly, shades of difference so slight and subtle, must always
be very great. And, so far as we can compare them, there seem
to be some exceptions to the rule of continuous development.
We find some triads which approximate more closely to the pure
Being-type than others which precede them, and we find some
which approximate more closely to the pure Notion-type than
others which follow them. But that there are some traces of
continuous development cannot, I think, be denied, and this will
become more probable if we see reason to think that, in a correct
dialectic, the development would be continuous.
113. Before we consider this question we must first enquire
whether the existence of such a development of any sort, whether
continuous or not, might be expected from the nature of the
case. We shall see that there are reasons for supposing this to
be so, when we remember what we must regard as the essence
of the dialectic. The motive power of all the categories is the
concrete absolute truth, from which all finite categories are mere
abstractions and to which they tend spontaneously to return.
Again, two contradictory ideas cannot be held to be true at the
same time. If it ever seems inevitable that they should be, this
is a sign of error somewhere, and we cannot feel satisfied with
the result, until we have transcended and synthesised the con-
tradiction. It follows that in so far as the finite categories
announce themselves as permanent, and as opposed in pairs of
unsynthesised contraries, they are expressing falsehood and not
truth. We gain the truth by transcending the contradictions of
the categories and by demonstrating their instability. Now the
change in the method, of which we are speaking, indicates a
clearer perception of this truth. For we have seen that the process
becomes more spontaneous and more direct. As it becomes more
spontaneous, as each category is seen to lead on of its own nature
to the next, and to have its meaning only in the transition, it
brings out more fully what lies at the root of the whole dialectic
— namely that the truth of the opposed categories Hes only in
the synthesis. And as the process becomes more direct and leaves
the opposition and negation behind, it also brings out more clearly
what is an essential fact in every stage of the dialectic, — that
is, that the impulse of imperfect truth, as we have it, is not
128 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
towards self-contradiction as such, but towards self-completion.
The essential nature of the whole dialectic is thus more clearly
seen in the later stages, which approximate to the type of the
Notion, than in the earlier stages which approximate to the type
of Being.
This is what we might expect a priori. For the content of
each stage in the dialectic is nearer to the truth than that of
the stage before it. And each stage forms the starting-point from
which we go forward again to further truth. At each step, there-
fore, in the forward process, we have a fuller knowkdge of the
truth than at the one before, and it is only natural that this
fuller knowledge should react upon the manner in which the
next step is made. The dialectic is due to the relation between
the concrete whole, imphcit in consciousness, and the abstract
part of it which has become explicit. Since the second element
alters at every step, as the categories approximate to the com-
plete truth, it is clear that its relation to the unchanging whole
alters also, and this would naturally affect the method. And,
since the change in the relation will be one which will make that
relation more obvious and evident, we may expect that every
step which we take towards the full truth will render it possible
to proceed more easily and directly to the next step.
Even without considering the special circumstance that each
step in the process will give us this deeper insight into the
meaning of the work we are carrying on, we might find other
reasons for supposing that the nature of the dialectic process is
modified by use. For the conception of an agent which is purely
active, acting on a material which is purely passive, is a mere
abstraction, and has a place nowhere in reality. Even in the
case of matter, we find that this is true. An axe has not the same
effect at its second blow as at its first, for it is more or less
blunted. A viohn has not the same tone the second time it is
played on, as it had the first. And it would be least of all in
the work of the mind that a rigid distinction could be kept up
between form and matter, between the tool and the materials.
114. Now these arguments for the existence of change in the
method are also arguments for supposing that the change will
be continuous. There is reason to expect a change in the method
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 129
whenever we have advanced a step towards truth. But we
advance towards truth, not only when we pass from one chief
division of the Logic to another, but whenever we pass from
category to category, however minute a subdivision of the pro-
cess they may represent. It would therefore seem that it is to
be expected that the method would change after each category,
and that no two transitions throughout the dialectic would
present quite the same type. However continuous the change
of conclusions can be made, it is likely that the change of method
will be equally continuous.
It may also be noted that the three doctrines themselves form
a triad, and that in the same way the three divisions of each
doctrine, and the three subdivisions of each division, form a
triad. The similarity of constitution which exists between the
larger and smaller groups of categories may perhaps be some
additional reason for anticipating that the smaller transitions
will exert on the method an influence similar to that of the larger
transitions, although, of course, less in amount.
115. We may therefore, I think, fairly arrive at the con-
clusion, in the first place, that the dialectic process does and must
undergo a progressive change, and, in the second place, that this
change is as much continuous as the process of the dialectic
itselfi. Another question now arises. Has the change in the
method destroyed its validity? The ordinary proofs relate only
to the type characteristic of Being, which, as we have now found
reason to believe, is only found in its purity in the very first triad
of all. Does the gradual change to the types characteristic of
Essence and the Notion make any difference in the justification
of the method as a whole?
This question must be answered in the negative. The process
has lost none of its cogency. It consisted, according to the earliest
type, of a search for completeness, and of a search for harmony
between the elements of that completeness, the two stages being
separate. Later on we have the same search for completeness
1 Note to Second Edition. The change occurs in the characteristics men-
tioned in Section 108, and also in those mentioned in Section 109, except the
characteristic that the direct transition to the synthesis is from the antithesis
alone, and not from both thesis and antithesis. This caimot be continuous,
and is found in all the stages after the first.
130 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
and for harmony, but both objects are attained by a single
process. In Being, the inadequacy of the thesis led on to the
antithesis. Each of these ideas was regarded as an immediate
and self-centred whole. On the other hand each of them implied
the other, since they were complementary and opposite sides of
the truth. This brought about a contradiction, which had to be
reconciled by the introduction of the synthesis. Now the change
in the process has the effect of gradually dropping the inter-
mediate stage, in which the two sides of the whole are regarded
as incompatible and yet as inseparably connected. In the stage
of Essence, each category has a reference in its own nature to
those which come before and after it. When we reach the anti-
thesis therefore, we have already a sort of anticipation of the
synthesis, since we recognise that the two sides are connected
by their own nature, and not merely by external reasoning. Thus
the same step by which we reach the idea complementary to our
starting-point, and so gain completeness, does something towards
joining the two extremes in the harmony which we require of
them. For, when we have seen that the categories are in-
herently connected, we have gone a good way towards the per-
ception that they are not incompatible. The harmony thus
attained in the antithesis is however only partial, and leaves a
good deal for the synthesis to do. In the Notion, the change is
carried further. Here we see that the whole meaning of the
category resides in the transition, and the whole thesis is really
summed up in the antithesis, for the meaning of the thesis is
now only the production of the antithesis, and it is absorbed
and transcended in it. In fact the relation of thesis, antithesis
and synthesis would actually disappear in the typical form of
process belonging to the Notion, for each term would be the
completion of that which was immediately before it, since all
the reality of the latter would be seen to be in its transition to
its successor. This never actually happens, even in the final triad
of the whole system. For the characteristic type of the Notion
represents the process as it would be when it started from a
perfectly adequate premise. When, however, the premise, the
explicit idea in the mind, became perfectly adequate and true,
we should have rendered explicit the whole concrete idea, and
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 131
the object of the dialectic process would be attained, so that it
could go no further. The typical process of the Notion is there-
fore an ideal, to which the actual process approximates more
and more closely throughout its course, but which it can only
reach at the moment when it stops completed.
116. The process always seeks for that idea which is logically
required as the completion of the idea from which it starts. At
first the complementary idea presents itself as incompatible with
the starting-point, and has to be independently harmonised with
it. Afterwards the complementary idea is at once presented as
in harmony with the original idea in which it is implied. All
the change lies in the fact that two operations, at first distinct,
are fused into one. The argument of the dialectic all through is,
If we start with a valid idea, all that is implied in it is valid,
and also everything is valid that is required to avoid a con-
tradiction between the starting-point and that which we reach
by means of the starting-point. As we approximate to the end
of the process, we are able to see, implied in the idea before us,
not merely a complementary and contradictory idea on the same
level, but an idea which at once complements and transcends
the starting-point. The second idea is here from the first in
harmony with the idea which it complements. But its justifica-
tion is exactly the same as that of the antithesis in the Being-
type of the process — that is, that its truth is necessarily involved
in the truth of an idea which we have already admitted to be
valid. And thus if we are satisfied with the cogency of the earlier
forms of the process, we shall have no reason to modify our
beUef on account of the change of method.
117. We may draw several important conclusions with regard
to the general nature of the dialectic, from the manner in which
the form changes as it advances towards completion. The first
of these is one which we may fairly attribute to Hegel himself,
since it is evident from the way in which he deals with the
categories, although it is not explicitly noticed by him. This is
the subordinate place held by negation in the whole process. We
have already observed that the importance of negation in the
dialectic is by no means primary^. In the first place Hegel's
1 Chap. I. Section 9.
9—2
132 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
Logic is very far from resting, as is supposed by some critics,
on the violation of the law of contradiction. It rather rests on
the impossibility of violating that law, and on the necessity of
finding, for every contradiction, a reconciliation in which it
vanishes. And not only is the idea of negation destined always
to vanish in the synthesis, but even its temporary introduction
is an accident, though an inevitable accident. The motive force
of the process lies in the discrepancy between the concrete and
perfect idea implicitly in our minds, and the abstract and imper-
fect idea explicitly in our minds, and the essential characteristic
of the process is in the search of this abstract and imperfect idea,
not after its negation as such, but after its complement as such. Its
complement is, indeed, its contrary, because a relatively concrete
category can be analysed into two direct contraries, and therefore
the process does go from an idea to its contrary. But it does not
do so because it seeks denial, but because it seeks completion.
But this can now be carried still further. Not only is the
presence of negation in the dialectic a mere accident, though a
necessary one, of the gradual completion of the idea. We are
now led to consider it as an accident which is necessary indeed
in the lower stages of the dialectic, but which is gradually
ehminated in proportion as we proceed further, and in proportion
as the materials from which we start are of a concrete and
adequate character. For in so far as the process ceases to be
from one extreme to another extreme equally one-sided, both
of which regard themselves as permanent, and as standing in
a relation of opposition towards one another, and in so far as it
becomes a process from one term to another which is recognised
as in some degree mediated by the first, and as transcending it
— in so far the negation of each category by the other disappears.
For it is then recognised that in the second category there is
no contradiction to the first, because, in so far as the change has
been completed, the first is found to have its meaning in the
transition to the second.
The presence of negation, therefore, is not only a mere accident
of the dialectic, but an accident whose importance continuously
decreases as the dialectic progresses, and as its subject-matter
becomes more fully understood.
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 133
118. We now come to a fresh question, of very great im-
portance. We have seen that in the dialectic the relation of the
various finite ideas to one another in different parts of the pro-
cess is not the same — the three categories of Being, Not-Being,
and Becoming standing in different relations among themselves
to those which connect Life, Cognition, and the Absolute Idea.
Now the dialectic process professes to do more than merely
describe the stages by which we mount to the Absolute Idea —
it also describes the nature of that Idea itself. In addition to
the information which we gain about the latter by the definition
given of it at the end of the dialectic, we also know that it
contains in itself as elements or aspects all the finite stages of
thought, through which the dialectic has passed before reaching
its goal. It is not something which is reached by the dialectic,
and which then exists independently of the manner in which
it was reached. It does not reject all the finite categories as
absolutely false, but pronounces them to be partly false and
partly true, and it sums up in itself the truth of all of them.
They are thus contained in it as moments. What relation do
these moments bear to one another in the Absolute Idea?
We may, in the first place, adopt the easy and simple solution
of saying that the relation they bear to one another, as moments
in the Absolute Idea, is just the same as that which they bear
to one another, as finite categories in the dialectic process. In
this case, to discover their position in the Absolute Idea, it is
only necessary to consider the dialectic process, not as one which
takes place in time, but as having a merely logical import. The
process contemplated in this way will be a perfect and complete
analysis of the concrete idea which is its end, containing about
it the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And
this, apparently, would have been Hegel's answer, if the question
had been explicitly proposed to him. For he undoubtedly asserts
that the dialectic expresses the deepest nature of objective
thought.
119. But this conclusion seems open to doubt. For the change
of method results, as we have seen, from a gradually growing
perception of the truth which is at the bottom of the whole
dialectic — the unreality of any finite category as against its
134 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
synthesis, since the truth and reality of each category consists
only in its reference to the next, and in its passage onwards to
it. If this was not true all through the dialectic, there could be
no dialectic at all, for the justification of the whole process is
that the truth of the thesis and the antithesis is contained in
the synthesis, and that in so far as they are anything else but
aspects of the synthesis they are false and deceptive. This then
must be the true nature of the process of thought, and must
constitute the real meaning and essence of the dialectic. Yet
this is only explicitly perceived in the Notion, and at the end
of the Notion — or rather, as I pointed out above, we never attain
to complete perception of it, but only approximate towards it
as our grasp of the subject increases. Before this the categories
appear always as, in their own nature, permanent and self-
centred, and the breaking down of this self-assertion, and the
substitution for it of the knowledge that truth is only found in
the synthesis, appears as opposed to what went before, and as
in contradiction to it, although a necessary and inevitable con-
sequence of it. But if this were really so, the dialectic process
would be impossible. If there really were any independent
element in the lower categories, or any externality in the recon-
ciliation, that reconciliation could never be complete and the
dialectic could never claim, as it undoubtedly does claim, to sum
up all the lower elements of truth.
The very existence of the dialectic thus tends to prove that
it is not in every sense objectively correct. For it would be
impossible for any transition to be made, at any point in the
process, unless the terms were really related according to the
type belonging to the Notion. But no transition in the dialectic
does take place exactly according to that type, and most of them
according to types substantially different. We must therefore
suppose that the dialectic does not exactly represent the truth,
since if the truth were as it represents it to be, the dialectic
itself could not exist. There must be in the process, besides that
element which actually does express the real notion of the tran-
sition, another element which is due to the inadequacy of our
finite thought to express the character of the reality which we
are trying to describe.
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 135
This agrees with what was said above — that the change of
method is no real change, but only a rearrangement of the
elements of the transition. It is, in fact, only a bringing out
explicitly of what is implicitly involved all along. In the lower
categories our data, with their false appearance of independence,
obscure and confuse the true meaning of the dialectic. We can
see that the dialectic has this true meaning, even among these
lower categories, by reflecting on what is implied in its existence
and success. But it is only in the later categories that it becomes
explicit. And it must follow that those categories in which it is
not yet explicit do not fully represent the true nature of thought,
and the essential character of the transition from less perfect to
more perfect forms.
120. The conclusion at which we are thus compelled to arrive
must be admitted, I think, to have no warrant in Hegel. Hegel
would certainly have admitted that the lower categories, re-
garded in themselves, gave views of reality only approximating,
and, in the case of the lowest, only very slightly approximating,
to truth. But the procession of the categories, with its advance
through oppositions and reconciliations, he apparently regarded
as presenting absolute truth — as fully expressing the deepest
nature of pure thought. From this, if I am right, we are forced,
on his own premises, to dissent. For the true process of thought
is one in which each category springs out of the one before it,
not by contradicting it, but as an expression of its truest sig-
nificance, and finds its own truest significance, in turn, by passing
on to another category. There is no contradiction, no opposition,
and, consequently, no reconciliation. There is only development,
the rendering explicit what was implicit, the growth of the seed
to the plant. In the actual course of the dialectic this is never
attained. It is an ideal which is never quite realised, and from
the nature of the case never can be quite realised. In the dialectic
there is always opposition, and therefore always reconciliation.
We do not go straight onward, but more or less from side to side.
It seems inevitable, therefore, to conclude that the dialectic does
not completely and perfectly express the nature of thought.
This conclusion is certainly startling and paradoxical. For
the validity of the dialectic method for any purpose, and its
136 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
power of adequately expressing the ultimate nature of thought,
appear to be so closely bound up together, that we may easily
consider them inseparable. The dialectic process is a distinctively
Hegelian idea. Doubtless the germs of it are to be found in
Fichte and elsewhere ; but it was only by Hegel that it was fully
worked out and made the central point of a philosophy. And in
80 far as it has been held since, it has been held substantially
in the manner in which he stated it. To retain the doctrine, and
to retain the idea that it is of cardinal importance while denying
that it adequately represents the nature of thought, looks like
a most unwarranted and gratuitous distinction between ideas
which their author held to be inseparable.
Yet I cannot see what alternative is left to us. For it is Hegel
himself who refutes his own doctrine. The state to which the
dialectic, according to him, gradually approximates, is one in
which the terms thesis, antithesis, and synthesis can have no
meaning. For in this state there is no opposition to create the
relation of thesis and antithesis, and, therefore, no reconciliation
of that opposition to create a synthesis. "The elements distin-
guished are without more ado at the same time declared to be
identical with one another, and with the whole. . . .The other which
the notion sets up is in reality not another^." Now, nowhere in
the dialectic do we entirely get rid of the relation of thesis, anti-
thesis, and synthesis ; even in the final triad of the process there
are traces of it. The inference seems inevitable that the dialectic
cannot fully represent, in any part of its movement, the real
and essential nature of pure thought. The only thing to be done
is to consider whether, with this important limitation, the pro-
cess has any longer a claim to any real significance, and, if so,
to how much? I shall endeavour to show that its importance can
scarcely be said to have diminished at all.
121. Since the dialectic, if the hypothesis I have advanced
be correct, does not adequately represent the nature of pure
thought itself, although it does represent the inevitable course
our minds are logically bound to follow, when they attempt to
deal with pure thought, it follows that it must be in some degree
subjective. We hav^ now to determine exactly the meaning in
1 Enc, Section 161.
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 137
which we are using this rather ambiguous word. On the one
hand it is clear that the dialectic is not subjective in that sense
in which the word has been defined as meaning "that which is
mine or yours." It is no mere empirical description or generalisa-
tion. For, whatever view we may hold with regard to the success
or failure of the dialectic in apprehending the true nature of
thought, it will not at all affect the question of its internal
necessity, and of its cogency for us. The dialectic is not an account
of what men have thought, or may think. It is a demonstration
of what they must think, provided they wish to deal with Hegel's
problem at all, and to deal with it consistently and truly.
On the other hand, we must now pronounce the dialectic
process to be subjective in this sense — that it does not fully
express the essential nature of thought, but obscures it more or
less under characteristics which are not essential. It may not
seem very clear at first sight how we can distinguish between
the necessary course of the mind when engaged in pure thought,
which the dialectic method, according to this hypothesis, is
admitted to be, and the essential nature of thought, which it is
not allowed that it can adequately express. What, it may be
asked, is the essential nature of thought, except that course
which it must and does take, whenever we think?
We must remember, however, that according to Hegel thought
can only exist in its complete and concrete form — that is, as
the Absolute Idea. The import of our thought may be, and of
course often is, a judgment under some lower category, but our
thought itself, as an existent fact, distinguished from the meaning
it conveys, must be concrete and complete. For to stop at any
category short of the complete whole involves a contradiction,
and a contradiction is a sign of error. Now our judgments can
be, and often are, erroneous. And so we can, and do, make judg-
ments which involve a contradiction. But there would be no
meaning in saying that a fact is erroneous, and therefore, if we
find a contradiction in any judgment, we know that it cannot
be true of facts. It follows that, though it is unquestionably
true that we can predicate in thought categories other than the
highest, and even treat them as final, it is no less certain that
we cannot, with complete truth, explain thought, any more than
138 THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE METHOD [ch.
any other aspect of reality, by any category but the Absolute
Idea.
This explains how it is possible for the actual and inevitable
course of thought not to express fully and adequately its own
nature. For thought may be erroneous or deceptive, when it is
treating of thought, as much as when it is treating of any other
reality. And it is possible that under certain circumstances the
judgment expressed in our thoughts may be inevitably erroneous
or deceptive. If these judgments have thought as their subject-
matter we shall then have the position in question — that the
necessary course of thought will fail to express properly its own
nature.
122. The mistake, as we have already noticed, comes from
the fact that, whereas the logical relations, which form the
content of the Absolute Idea, and express the true nature of
thought, consist in a direct development in which each term
only exists in the transition to another, the actual process,
on the other hand, is one from contrary to contrary, each of
which is conceived as possessing some stability and indepen-
dence. The reason of this mistake lies in the nature of the process,
which is one from error to truth. For while error remains in our
conclusions, it must naturally afTect our comprehension of the
logical relations by which those conclusions are connected, and
induce us to suppose them other than they are. In particular,
the mistake may be traced to the circumstance that the dialectic
starts with the knowledge of the part, and from this works up
to the knowledge of the whole. This method of procedure is
always inappropriate in anything of the nature of an organism.
Now the relation of the moments of the Absolute Idea to the
whole of which they are parts is still more close and intimate than
is the relation of the parts of a living organism to the organism
itself. And here, therefore, even more than with organisms, will
it be inadequate and deceptive to endeavour to comprehend the
whole from the standpoint of the part. And this is what the
dialectic, as it progresses, must necessarily do. Consequently,
not only are the lower categories of the dialectic inadequate
when taken as ultimate, but their relation to each other is
not the relation which they have in the Absolute Idea, and
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 139
consequently in all existence. These relations, in the dialectic,
represent more or less the error through which the human mind
is gradually attaining to the truth. They do not adequately
represent the relations existing in the truth itself. To this extent,
then, the dialectic is subjective.
123. And the dialectic is also to be called subjective because
it not only fails to show clearly the true nature of thought, but,
as we noticed above, does not fully express its own meaning —
the meaning of the process forwards. For the real meaning of
the advance, if it is to have any objective reality at all — if it
is to be a necessary consequence of all attempts at thorough and
consistent thinking, must be the result of the nature of thought
as it exists. Our several judgments on the nature of thought
have not in themselves any power of leading us on from one
of them to another. It is the relation of these judgments to the
concrete whole of thought, incarnate in our minds and in all
our experience, which creates the dialectic movement. Since this
is so, it would seem that the real heart and kernel of the process
is the movement of abstractions to rejoin the whole from which
they have been separated, and that the essential part of this
movement is that by which we are carried from the more abstract
to the more concrete. This will be determined by the relations
in which the finite categories stand to the concrete idea, when
they are viewed as abstractions from it and aspects of it — the
only sense in which they have any truth. But the true relation
of the abstractions to the concrete idea is, as we have already seen,
that to which the dialectic method gradually approximates, but
which it never reaches, and not that with which it starts, and
which it gradually, but never entirely, discards. And so the
dialectic advance has, mixed up with it, elements which do not
really belong to the advance, nor to the essence of pure thought,
but are merely due to our original ignorance about the latter,
of which we only gradually get rid. For all that part of the actual
advance in the dialectic, which is different from the advance
according to the type characteristic of the Notion, has no share
in the real meaning and value of the process, since it does not
contribute to what alone makes that meaning and value, namely
the restoration of the full and complete idea. What this element
140 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE IVIETHOD [ch.
is, we can learn by comparing the movement of the dialectic
which is typical of Being, with that which is typical of the
Notion. It is the opposition and contradiction, the immediacy
of the finite categories, and the way in which they negate their
antitheses, and resist, until forced into submission, the transition
to their syntheses. It is, so to speak, the transverse motion as
opposed to the direct motion forward. The dialectic always moves
onwards at an angle to the straight line which denotes advance
in truth and concreteness. Starting unduly on one side of the
truth, it oscillates to the other, and then corrects itself. Once
more it finds that even in its corrected statement it is still one-
sided, and again swings to the opposite extreme. It is in this
indirect way alone that it advances. And the essence of the
process is the direct part alone of the advance. The whole point
of the dialectic is that it gradually attains to the Absolute Idea.
In so far then as the process is not direct advance to the absolute,
it does not express the essence of the process only, but also the
inevitable inadequacies of the human mind when considering a
subject-matter which can only be fully understood when the
consideration has been completed.
And, as was remarked above, it also fails to express its own
meaning in another way. For the imperfect type of transition,
which is never fully eliminated, represents the various categories
as possessing some degree of independence and self-subsistence.
If they really possessed this, they could not be completely
absorbed in the synthesis, and the dialectic could not be suc-
cessful. The fact that it is successful proves that it has not given
a completely correct account of itself, and, for this reason also,
it deserves to be called subjective, since it does not fully express
the objective reality of thought.
124. Having decided that the dialectic is to this extent sub-
jective, we have to consider how far this will reduce its cardinal
significance in philosophy, or its practical utility. I do not see
that it need do either. For all that results from this new position
is that the dialectic is a process through error to truth. Now we
knew this before. For on any theory of the dialectic it remains
true that it sets out with inadequate ideas of the universe and
finally reaches adequate ideas. We now go further and say that
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 141
the relation of these inadequate ideas to one another does not
completely correspond to anything in the nature of reahty. But
the general result is the same — that we gain the truth by the
dialectic, but that the steps by which we reach it contain imper-
fections. We shall see that our new view does not destroy the
value of the dialectic, if we consider in more detail in what that
value consists.
The importance of the dialectic is threefold. The first branch
of it depends chiefly on the end being reached, and the other two
chiefly on the means by which it is reached. The first of these
lies in the conclusion that if we can predicate any category
whatever of a thing, we are thereby entitled to predicate the
Absolute Idea of it. Now we can predicate some category of
anything whatever, and the Absolute Idea is simply the descrip-
tion in abstract terms of the human spirit, or, in other words,
the human spirit is the incarnation of the Absolute Idea. From
this it follows that the mind could, if it only saw clearly enough,
see a nature like its own in everything. The importance of this
conclusion is obvious. It gives the assurance of that harmony
between ourselves and the world for which philosophy always
seeks, and by which alone science and religion can be ultimately
justified.
Hegel was entitled, on his own premises, to reach this con-
clusion by means of the dialectic. And the different view of the
relation of the dialectic to reality, which I have ventured to put
forward, does not at all affect the validity of the dialectic for
this purpose. For the progress of the dialectic remains as necessary
as before. The progress is indirect, and we have come to the
conclusion that the indirectness of the advance is not in any way
due to the essential nature of pure thought, but entirely to our
own imperfect understanding of that nature. But the whole
process is still necessary, and the direct advance is still essential.
And all that we want to know is that the direct advance is
necessary. We are only interested, for this particular purpose,
in proving that from any possible standpoint we are bound in
logical consistency to advance to the Absolute Idea. In this
connection it is not of the least importance what is the nature
of the road we travel, provided that we must travel it, nor
142 THE DEVELOPMENT OP THE METHOD [ch.
whether the process expresses truth fully, provided that the final
conclusion does so. Now the theory propounded above as to the
dialectic process leaves the objectivity and adequacy of the result
of the dialectic unimpaired. And therefore for this function the
system is as well adapted as it ever was,
125. The second ground of the importance of the Hegelian
logic consists in the information which it is able to give us about
the world as it is here and now for us, who have not yet been able
so clearly to interpret all phenomena as only to find our own
most fundamental nature manifesting itself in them. As we see
that certain categories are superior in concreteness and truth to
others, since they come later in the chain and have transcended
the meaning of their predecessors, we are able to say that certain
methods of regarding the universe are more correct and significant
than others. We are able to see that the idea of organism, for
example, is a more fundamental explanation than the idea of
causality, and one which we should prefer whenever we can apply
it to the matter in hand.
Here also the value of the dialectic remains unimpaired. For
whether it does or does not express the true nature of thought
with complete correctness ; it certainly, according to this theory,
does show the necessary and inevitable connection of our finite
judgments with one another. The utility which we are now con-
sidering lies in the guidance which the dialectic can give us to
the relative validity and usefulness of these finite judgments.
For it is only necessary to know their relations to one another,
and to know that as the series goes further, it goes nearer to the
truth. Both these things can be learnt from the dialectic. That
it does not tell us the exact relations which subsist in reahty
is unimportant. For we are not here judging reality, but the
judgments of reason about reality.
126. The third function of the dialectic process is certainly
destroyed by the view of it which I have explained above. The
dialectic showed, for Hegel, the relation of the categories to one
another, as moments in the Absolute Idea, and in reality. We
are now forced to consider those moments- as related in a way
which is inadequately expressed by the relation of the categories
to one another. We are not however deprived of anything
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 143
essential to the completeness of the system by this. In the first
place, we are still able to understand completely and adequately
what the Absolute Idea is. For although one definition was given
of it by which "its true content is only the whole system of which
we have been hitherto studying the development," yet a more
direct and independent one may also be found^. Our inability
to regard the process any longer as an adequate analysis of the
Absolute Idea will not leave us in ignorance of what the Absolute
Idea really is.
And, in the second place, we are not altogether left in the
dark even as regards the analysis of the Absolute Idea. The
dialectic, it is true, never fully reveals the true nature of thought
which forms its secret spring, but it gives us data by which we
can discount the necessary error. For the connection of the
categories resembles the true nature of thought (which is ex-
pressed in the typical transition of the Notion), more and more
closely as it goes on, and at the end of the Logic it differs from
it only infinitesimally. By observing the type to which the
dialectic method approximates throughout its course, we are
thus enabled to tell what element in it is that which is due to
the essential nature of thought. It is that element which alone
is left when, in the typical movement of the Notion, we see how
the dialectic would act if it could act with full self-consciousness.
It is true that in the lower categories we can never see the tran-
sition according to this type, owing to the necessary confusion
of the subject-matter in so low a stage, which hides the true
nature of the process to which the dialectic endeavours to approxi-
mate. But we can regard the movement of all the categories as
compounded, in different proportions according to their positions
in the system, of two forces, the force of opposition and negation,
and the force of advance and completion, and we can say that
the latter is due to the real nature of thought, and the former
to our misconceptions about it. In other words, the element of
imperfection in the dialectic is inevitable, but its amount can
be ascertained, and it need not therefore introduce any doubt
^ "Der Begriff der Idee, dem die Idee als solche der Gegenstand, dam das
Objekt sie ist " — Enc. Section 236. The definition quoted in the text is in Section
237, lecture note.
144 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
or scepticism into the conclusions to which the dialectic may
lead us.
127. What then is this real and essential element in the
advance of thought which is revealed, though never completely,
in the dialectic? In the first place, it is an advance which is
direct. The element of indirectness which is introduced by the
movement from thesis to antithesis, from opposite to opposite,
diminishes as the dialectic proceeds, and, in the ideal type, wholly
dies away. In that type each category is seen to carry in itself
the implication of the next beyond it, to which thought then
proceeds. The lower is only lower because part of its meaning
is still implicit; it is no longer one-sided, requiring to be corrected
by an equal excess on the other side of the truth. And, therefore,
no idea stands in an attitude of opposition to any other; there
is nothing to break down, nothing to fight. All that aspect of
the process belongs to our misapprehension of the relation of the
abstract to the concrete. While looking up from the bottom, we
may imagine the truth is only to be attained by contest, but in
looking down from the top — the only true way of examining a
process of this sort — we see that the contest is only due to our
misunderstanding, and that the growth of thought is really direct
and unopposed.
The movement of the dialectic may perhaps be compared to
that of a ship tacking against the wind. If we suppose that the
wind blows exactly from the point which the ship wishes to reach,
and that, as the voyage continues, the sailing powers of the ship
improve so that it becomes able to sail closer and closer to the
wind, the analogy will be rather exact. It is impossible for the
ship to reach its destination by a direct course, as the wind is
precisely opposite to the line which that course would take, and
in the same way it is impossible for the dialectic to move forward
without the triple relation of its terms, and without some opposi-
tion between thesis and antithesis. But the only object of the
ship is to proceed towards the port, as the only object of the
dialectic process is to attain to the concrete and complete idea,
and the movement of the ship from side to side of the direct line
is labour wasted, so far as the end of the voyage is concerned,
though necessarily wasted, since the forward movement would,
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 145
under the circumstances, be impossible without the combination
with it of a lateral movement. In the same way, the advance in
the dialectic is merely in the gradually increasing completeness
of the ideas. The opposition of one idea to another, and the
consequent negation and contradiction, do not mark any real
step towards attaining the knowledge of the essential nature of
thought, although they are necessary accompaniments of the
process of gaining that knowledge. Again, the change in the
ship's sailing powers which allows it to go nearer to the wind,
and so reduces the distance which it is necessary to travel in
order to accomplish the journey, will correspond to the gradual
subordination of the elements of negation and opposition, which
we have seen to take place as we approach the end of the dialectic.
128. Not the whole, then, of each category represents the
objective nature of the dialectic, but only a certain element in
it. And this is the element of unity and continuity. The element
which keeps the categories apart, and gives them the appearance
of distinction and stability, is just the element which we are
now led to believe is due to our incapacity to grasp the nature
of thought until we arrive at the end of the dialectic.
This would seem to render it probable that the dialectic may
be looked on primarily as continuous and not discrete. The
categories, if this view is right, should not be taken as ultimate
units, which are combined in groups of three, and these again
in larger groups of three, till at last the whole dialectic is in this
manner built up. On the contrary the whole dialectic should be
looked on as primarily a unity, which can be analysed into three
members, each of which can again be analysed into three mem-
bers, and so on, as long as our interest and insight are sufficient
to induce us to pursue the division.
This theory is confirmed by two other characteristics of the
dialectic. The first of these is the great difference in the lengths
to which the sub-division of the categories is carried in different
parts of the system. If, for example, in the Smaller Logic, we
take the first division of Essence, which is named Essence as
Ground, we find that its first two sub-divisions are called, re-
spectively, Primary Characteristics of Reflection, and Existence.
In the latter there is no trace of further sub-division, while the
146 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
former is divided again into Identity, Difference, and Ground,
and in Difference, once more, we find distinguished Diversity,
Likeness and Unlikeness, and Positive and Negative. Similar
differences are to be found at other points of the system, and
also in the Greater Logic. If the individual categories were
ultimate units, such discrepancies in their size and importance
would be strange and inexplicable. But if we regard the whole
of the dialectic as logically prior to its parts, and the parts as
produced by analysis, we have an easy and natural explanation
of the inequality — namely, that it is due to some circumstance
which rendered Hegel, or which perhaps renders all men, more
interested or more acute when dealing with one part of the process
than when dealing with another.
129. There is also a second characteristic of the dialectic
which supports this theory. It is not necessary to descend to
the lowest sub-divisions which Hegel gives, in order to observe
the dialectic process. The larger divisions, also, lead on to one
another by the same necessity as the smaller ones do. Reasons
could be given, without going into greater detail, why Quality
should involve Quantity, and both of them Measure; or, again,
why Notion must lead us on to Judgment, and Judgment to
Syllogism. An argument which confined itself to so few steps
would be far more obscure, and consequently more dangerous
and doubtful, than the argument which we actually have in the
Logic. But still such a chain of demonstrations could be formed,
and in many places Hegel gives us part of it.
Now this is incompatible with the view of the dialectic as
ultimately discrete. For then every larger division would be
nothing but an aggregate of smaller ones. No such division could
then be used as a transition from the one below it to the one
above it, without descending into the lowest sub-divisions. Being
an aggregate of separate units, it could not be treated as a
coherent whole until all its separate parts had been demonstrated
to be hnked together. And the fact that the dialectic process
can go from one to another of the larger divisions, ignoring their
sub-divisions, will confirm us in supposing that the dialectic is
not a chain of links, but rather a continuous flow of thought,
which can be analysed into divisions and sub-divisions.
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 147
130. The belief that the dialectic is continuous may have
an important influence on our position if we are led, on closer
examination, to the conclusion that any of Hegel's transitions
are erroneous and cannot be justified. On the hyjDothesis that
the steps of the dialectic are discrete, one such error would
destroy the validity of the whole process, beyond the point where
it occurs, as completely as the two ends of a chain would be
separated by the breaking of a single link, even if all the rest
held fast. Our only reason for not considering the whole value
of the process, beyond the faulty link, as absolutely destroyed,
would rest on a rough argument from analogy. It might be said
that, if there was a valid dialectic process up to a certain point,
and again from that point onwards, it was not probable that
there would, at that one point, be an absolute gulf, and we might
therefore hope that a fresh transition might be discovered at this
point, instead of the one which we had been compelled to reject.
But such an analogy would not be very strong.
On the other hand, the theory of the continuity of the dialectic
will make such a discovery much less serious. For if the larger
division, in a sub-division of which the fault occurs, forms itself
a vahd transition from the division before it to the one which
follows it, we shall be sure that to do this it must be a coherent
whole, and capable, therefore, of being analysed into a coherent
chain of sub-divisions. And therefore, though we cannot be
satisfied with the dialectic until we have replaced the defective
member with one that will stand criticism, we shall have good
grounds for supposing that such a change can be effected.
131. The gradual change in the method of the dialectic can
be well exempUfied by examining the supreme and all-including
triad, of which all the others are moments. This triad is given
by Hegel as Logic, Nature, and Spirit.
If we enquire as to the form which the dialectic process is
likely to assume here, we find ourselves in a difficulty. For the
form of transition in any particular triad was determined by its
place in the series. If it was among the earher categories, it
approximated to the character given as typical of Being; if it
did not come till near the end, it showed more or less resemblance
to the type of the Notion. And we were able to see that this was
148 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
natural, because the later method, being more direct, and less
encumbered with irrelevant material, was only to be attained
when the work previously done had given us sufficient insight
into the real nature of the subject-matter. This principle, how-
ever, will not help us here. For the transition which we are here
considering is both the first and the last of its series, and it is
impossible, therefore, to determine its characteristic features by
its place in the order. The less direct method is necessary when
we are dealing with the abstract and imperfect categories with
which our investigations must begin, the more direct method
comes with the more adequate categories. But this triad covers
the whole range, from the barest category of the Logic— that
of pure Being — to the culmination of human thought in Absolute
Spirit.
Since it covers the whole range, in which all the types of the
dialectic method are displayed, the natural conclusion would
seem to be that one of them is as appropriate to it as another,
that whichever form may be used will be more or less helpful
and significant, because the process does cover the ground in
which that form can appropriately be used; while, on the other
hand, every form will be more or less inadequate, because the
process covers ground on which it cannot appropriately be used.
If we cast it in the form of the Notion, we shall ignore the fact
that it starts at a point too early for a method so direct; if, on
the other hand, we try the form of the categories of Being, the
process contains material for which such a method is in-
adequate.
132. And if we look at the facts we shall find that they confirm
this view, and that it is possible to state the relation of Logic,
Nature, and Spirit to one another, in two different ways. Hegel
himself states it in the manner characteristic of the Notion. It
is not so much positive, negative, and synthesis, as universal,
particular, and individual that he points out. In the Logic
thought is to be found in pure abstraction from all particulars,
(we cannot, of course, think it as abstracted from particulars,
but in the Logic we attend only to the thought, and ignore the
data it connects). In Nature we find thought again, for Nature
is part of experience, and more or less rational, and this implies
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 149
that it has thought in it. In Nature, however, thought is rather
buried under the mass of data which appear contingent and
empirical; we see the reason is there, but we do not see that
everything is completely rational. It is described by Hegel as
the idea in a state of alienation from itself. Nature is thus far
from being the mere contrary and correlative of thought. It is
thought and something more, thought incarnate in the particulars
of sense. At the same time, while the transition indicates an
advance, it does not indicate a pure advance. For the thought
is represented as more or less overpowered by the new element
which has been added, and not altogether reconciled to and
interpenetrating it. In going forward it has also gone to one
side, and this requires, therefore, the correction which is given
to it in the synthesis, when thought, in Spirit, completely masters
the mass of particulars which for a time had seemed to master
it, and when we perceive that the truth of the universe lies in
the existence of thought as fact, the incarnation of the Absolute
Idea — in short, in Spirit.
Here we meet all the characteristics of the Notion- type. The
second term, to which we advance from the first, is to some
extent its opposite, since the particulars of sense, entirely wanting
in the first, are in undue prominence in the second. But it is
to a much greater extent the completion of the first, since the
idea, which was taken in the Logic in unreal abstraction, is now
taken as embodied in facts, which is the way it really exists.
The only defect is that the embodiment is not yet quite complete
and evident. And the synthesis which removes this defect does
not, as in earlier types of the dialectic, stand impartially between
thesis and antithesis, each as defective as the other, but only
completes the process already begun in the antithesis. It is not
necessary to compare the two lower terms. Logic and Nature,
to be able to proceed to Spirit. The consideration of Nature alone
would be sufficient to show that it postulated the existence of
Spirit. For we have already in Nature both the sides required
for the synthesis, though their connection is so far imperfect,
and there is consequently no need to refer back to the thesis,
whose meaning has been incorporated and preserved in the anti-
thesis. The existence of the two sides, not completely reconciled,
150 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
in the antithesis, in itself postulates a synthesis, in which the
reconciliation shall be completed.
133. But it would also be possible to state the transition in
the form which is used in the Logic for the lower part of the
dialectic. In this case we should proceed from pure thought to
its simple contrary, and from the two together to a synthesis.
This simple contrary will be the element which, together with
thought, forms the basis for the synthesis which is given in
Spirit. And as Nature, as we have seen, contains the same
elements as Spirit, though less perfectly developed, we shall find
this contrary of thought to be the element in experience, whether
of Nature or Spirit, which cannot be reduced to thought. Now
of this element we know that it is immediate and that it is
particular — not in the sense in which Nature is particular, in
the sense of incompletely developed individuality, but of abstract
particularity. It is possible to conceive that in the long run all
other characteristics of experience except these might be reduced
to a consequence of thought. But however far the process of
rationalisation might be carried, and however fully we might be
able to answer the question of why things are as they are and
not otherwise, it is impossible to get rid of a datum which is
immediate and therefore unaccounted for. For thought is only
mediation, and therefore, taken apart from immediacy, is a mere
abstraction. If nothing existed but thought itself, still the fact
of its existence must be in the long run immediately given, and
something for which thought itself could not account. This im-
mediacy is the mark of the element which is essential to experience
and irreducible to thought. •
If then we wished to display the process from Logic to Spirit
according to the Being-type of transition we should, starting
from pure thought as our thesis, put as its antithesis the element
of immediacy and "givenness" in experience. This element can
never be properly or adequately described, since all description
consists in predicating categories of the subject, and is therefore
mediation; but by abstracting the element of mediation in ex-
perience, as in Logic we abstract the element of immediacy, we
can form some idea of what it is like. Here we should have
thought and immediacy as exactly opposite and counterbalancing
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 151
elements. They are each essential to the truth, but present them-
selves as opposed to one another. Neither of them has the other
as a part of itself, though they can be seen to be closely and
intimately connected. But each of them negates the other as
much as it implies it, and the relation, without the synthesis,
is one of opposition and contradiction. We cannot see, as we
can when a transition assumes the Notion-form, that the whole
meaning of the one category lies in its transition to the other.
The synthesis of our triad would be the notion of experience or
reality, in which we have the given immediate mediated. This
would contain both Nature and Spirit, the former as the more
imperfect stage, the latter as the more perfect, culminating in
the completely satisfactory conception of Absolute Spirit. Nature
stands in this case in the same relation to Absolute Spirit as do
the lower forms of Spirit, — as less perfectly developed forms of
the concrete reality.
This triad could be proved as cogently as the other. It could
be shown, in the first place, that mere mediation is unmeaning,
except in relation to the merely immediate, since, without some-
thing to mediate, it could not act. In the same way it could be
shown that the merely given, without any action of thought on
it, could not exist, since any attempt to describe it, or even to
assert its existence, involves the use of some category, and there-
fore of thought. And these two extremes, each of which negates
the other, and at the same time demands it, are reconciled in
the synthesis of actual experience, whether Nature or Spirit, in
which the immediate is mediated, and both extremes in this way
gain for the first time reality and consistency.
134. The possibility of this alternative arrangement affords,
as I mentioned above, an additional argument in favour of the
view that the change of method is essential to the dialectic, and
that it is due to the progressively increasing insight into the
subject which we gain as we pass to the higher categories and
approximate to the completely adequate result. For, in this
instance, when the whole ground from beginning to end of the
dialectic process is covered in a single triad, we find that either
method may be used, — a fact which suggests of itself that the
two methods are appropriate to the two ends of the series, which
152 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
are here, and here only, united by a single step. Independently
of this, however, it is also worth while to consider the possibility
of the double transition attentively, because it may help us to
explain the origin of some of the misapprehensions of Hegel's
meaning which are by no means uncommon.
135. We saw above that the dialectic represented the real
nature of thought more closely in the later categories, when it
appeared comparatively direct and spontaneous, than in the
earlier stages, when it was still encumbered with negations and
contradictions. It would appear probable, therefore, beforehand,
that of the two possible methods of treating this particular triad,
the one which Hegel has in fact adopted would be the more
expressive and significant. On examination we shall find that
this is actually the case. For there is no real separation between
thought and immediacy; neither can exist without the other.
Now, in the method adopted by Hegel, the element of immediacy
comes in first in Nature, and comes in, not as an element opposed
to, though necessarily connected with, pure thought, but as
already bound up mth it in a unity. This expresses the truth
better than a method which starts by considering the two aspects
as two self-centred and independent realities, which have to be
connected by reasoning external to themselves. For by this
second method, even when the two terms are finally reconciled
in a synthesis, it is done, so to speak, against their will, since
their claims to independence are only overcome by the reductio
ad absurdum to which they are brought, when they are seen, as
independent, to be at once mutually contradictory and mutually
implied in each other. In this method the transitory nature of
the incomplete categories and the way in which their movement
forward depends on their own essential nature, are not sujB&ciently
emphasised.
And we shall find that the subject-matter of the transition
is too advanced to bear stating according to the Being-type
without showing that that type is not fully appropriate to it.
Logic and Immediacy are indeed as much on a level as Being
an^ Not-Being. There is no trace whatever in the former case,
any more than in the latter, of a rudimentary synthesis in the
antithesis. But the other characteristic of the lower type — that
IV] THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD 153
the thesis and the antithesis should claim to be mutually ex-
clusive and independent — cannot be fully realised. Being and
Nothing, although they may be shown by reasoning to be mutually
implicated, are at any rate frima facie distinct and independent.
But mediation and immediacy, although opposed, are neverthe-
less connected, even prwia facie. It is impossible even to define
the two terms without suggesting that each of them is, by itself,
unstable, and that their only real existence is as aspects of the
concrete whole in which they are united. The method is thus
not sufficiently advanced for the matter it deals with.
136. It is, however, as I endeavoured to show above, probable
d priori that neither method would completely suit this particular
case. And not only the method which we have just discussed,
but the one which Hegel preferred to it, will be found to some
extent inadequate to its task here. Hegel's is, no doubt, the
more correct and convenient of the two ; yet its use alone, with-
out the knowledge that it does not in this case exclude the
concurrent use of the other as equally legitimate, may lead to
grave miscomprehensions of the system.
For the use of that method which Hegel does not adopt — the
one in which the terms are Logic, Immediacy, and Nature and
Spirit taken together — has at any rate this advantage, that it
brings out the fact that Immediacy is as important and ultimate
a factor in reality as Logic is, and one which cannot be reduced
to Logic. The two terms are exactly on a level. We begin with
the Logic and go from that to Immediacy, because it is to the
completed idea of the Logic that we come if we start from the
idea of pure Being, and we naturally start from the idea of pure
Being, because it alone, of all our ideas, is the one whose denial
carries with it, at once and clearly, self-contradiction. But the
transition from Immediacy to Logic is exactly the same as that
from Logic to Immediacy. And as the two terms are correlative
in this way, it would be comparatively easy to see, by observing
them, that neither of them derived its validity from the other,
but both from the synthesis.
137. This is not so clear when the argument takes the other
form. The element of Immediacy here never appears as a
separate and independent term at all. It appears in Nature for
154 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch.
the first time, and here it is already in combination with thought.
And Nature and Logic are not correlative terms, from either of
which we can proceed to the other. The transition runs from Logic
to Nature — from thought by itself, to thought in union with
immediacy. It is not unnatural, therefore, to suppose that im-
mediacy is dependent on pure thought, and can be deduced from
it, while the reverse process is not possible. The pure reason is
supposed to make for itself the material in which it is embodied.
"The logical bias of the Hegelian philosophy," says Professor
Seth, "tends... to reduce things to mere types or 'concretions'
of abstract formulae^." It might, I think, be shown that other
considerations conclusively prove this view to be incorrect. In
the first place, throughout the Logic there are continual references
which show that pure thought requires some material, other than
itself, in which to work. And, secondly, the spring of all move-
ment in the dialectic comes from the synthesis towards which
the process is working, and not from the thesis from which the
start is made. Consequently, progress from Logic to Nature
could, in any case, prove, not that the additional element in
nature was derived from thought, but that it co-existed with
thought in the synthesis which is their goal. But although the
mistake might have been avoided, even under the actual cir-
cumstances, it could scarcely have been made if the possibility
of the alternative method of deduction had been recognised.
Immediacy would, in that case, have been treated as a separate
element in the process, and as one which was correlative with
pure thought, so that it could scarcely have been supposed to
have been dependent on it.
138. The more developed method, again, tends rather to
obscure the full meaning and importance of the synthesis, unless
we realise that, in this method, part of the work of the synthesis
is already done in the second term. This is of great importance,
because we have seen that it is in their synthesis alone that the
terms gain full reality and validity, which they did not possess
when considered in abstraction. In the earlier method we see
clearly that pure thought is one of these abstractions, as mere
immediacy is the other. It is, therefore, clear that each of these
^ Hegelianism and Personality, p. 126.
IV] THE DEVELOPJIENT OF THE METHOD 155
terms, taken by itself, is a mere aspect, and could not possibly,
out of its own nature, produce the other aspect, and the reality
from which they both come. From this standpoint it would be
impossible to suppose that out of pure thought were produced
Nature and Spirit.
Now, in the type characteristic of the Notion, the same element
appears both in thesis and antithesis, although in the latter it
is in combination with a fresh element. There is, therefore, a
possibility of misunderstanding the process. For an element
which was both in thesis and antithesis might appear not to be
merely a one-sided abstraction, but to have the concreteness
which is to be found in the synthesis, since it appears in both
the extremes into which the synthesis may be separated. When,
for example, we have Logic, Nature, and Spirit, we might be
tempted to argue that pure thought could not be only one side
of the truth, since it was found in each of the lower terms — by
itself in Logic and combined with immediacy in Nature— and
hence to attribute to it a greater self-sufficiency and importance
than it really possesses.
This mistake will disappear when we realise that the only
reason that pure thought appears again in the second term of
the triad is that the synthesis, in transitions of this type, has
already begun in the second term. It is only in the synthesis
that thought appears in union with its opposite, and, apart
from the synthesis, it is as incomplete and unsubstantial as
immediacy is.
But the change in the type of the process is not sufficiently
emphasised in Hegel, and there is a tendency on the part of
observers to take the type presented by the earliest categories
as that which prevails all through the dialectic. And as, in the
earUer type, one of the extremes could not have been found both
in the first and second terms of a triad, it is supposed that pure
thought cannot be such an extreme, cannot stand in the same
relation to Spirit, as Being does to Becoming, and is rather to be
looked on as the cause of what follows it, than as an abstraction
from it.
139. I have endeavoured to show that the view of the dialectic
given in this chapter, while we cannot suppose it to have been
156 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE METHOD [ch. iv
held by Hegel, is nevertheless not unconnected with his system.
The germs of it are to be found in his exposition of the changes
of method in the three great divisions of the process, and the
observation of the details of the system confirm this. But it was
not sufficiently emphasised, nor did Hegel draw from it the con-
sequences, particularly as regards the subjective element in the
dialectic, which I have tried to show are logically involved in it.
But there is, nevertheless, justification for our regarding this
theory as a development and not a contradiction of the Hegelian
system, since it is only by the aid of some such theory that we
can regard that system as valid at all. And we have seen that
such a modification will not affect either of the great objects
which Absolute Idealism claims to have accomplished — the
demonstration, namely, that the real is rational and the rational
is real, and the classification, according to their necessary rela-
tions and intrinsic value, of the various categories which we use
in ordinary and finite thought.
CHAPTER V
THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME
140. One of the most interesting and important questions
wkich can arise in connection with Hegel's philosophy is the
question of the relation between the succession of the categories
in the dialectic and the succession of events in time. Are we
to regard the complex and concrete Absolute Idea, in which
alone true reality is to be found, as gradually growing up in
time by the evolution of one category after another? Or are
we to regard the Absolute Idea as existing eternally in its full
completeness, and the succession of events in time as something
which has no part as such in any ultimate system of the universe?
The succession of categories in Hegel's Logic is, of course, not
primarily a temporal succession. We pass from one to another
because the admission of the first as valid requires logically the
admission of the second as valid. At the same time there are
various reasons for accepting the view that one category succeeds
another in time. One of the facts of the universe which requires
explanation is the existence of time, and it seems at first sight
a simple and satisfactory explanation to account for it by the
gradual development of the Notion from Pure Being to the
Absolute Idea. And Hegel certainly explains the past to some
extent by bringing the successive events under successive cate-
gories.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that such a view is incompatible
with the system. There are doubtless difficulties in either inter-
pretation of Hegel's meaning, but there seems no doubt that
we must reject the development of the process in time. In the
first place, the theory that time is an ultimate reality would lead
to insoluble difficulties as to the commencement of the process.
Secondly, the Absolute Idea must be held to be the presupposition
and the logical prius of the lower categories. It follows that a
theory which makes the appearance of the lower category the
158 THE RELATION OP THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
presupposition of the appearance of the higher one. cannot fully
represent the ultimate reality of the process. And, finally, Hegel's
language seems to be decisively on the side of the interpretation
that the Absolute Idea exists eternally in its full perfection, and
the movement from the lower to the higher is reconstruction and
not construction.
141. Let us consider the first of these points. Hegel, of course,
maintains that the universe is fully rational. Can we regard as
fully rational a universe in which a process in time is fundamen-
tally real? The theory before us maintains that the universe
starts with a minimum of reality, corresponding only to the
category of Pure Being. From this point it develops by the force
of the dialectic. Gradually each of the higher categories becomes
real, and this gradual evolution of logical completeness makes
the process which constitutes the life of the universe. All the
facts around us are to be attributed to the gradually developing
idea, and when the development is complete, and reality has
become an incarnation of the Absolute Idea, then the process
will end in perfection. The spiritual character of the universe,
up till then explicit and partial, will have become complete and
explicit. The real will be completely rational, and the rational
will be completely real.
On this we must remark, in the first place, that the process
in time by which the dialectic develops itself must be regarded
as finite and not as infinite. Neither in experience nor in a priori
criticism can we find any reason to believe that infinite time
really exists, or is anything more than an illegitimate inference
from the infinite extensibility of time. Nor, if it did exist, could
it form part of an ultimate rational explanation of the universe.
An unending regress, whether it is true or not, is certainly not
a solution which meets the demands of reason. More especially
is it impossible that it should be accepted as part of an Hegelian
theory. For infinite time would be the strongest possible example
of the "false infinite" of endless aggregation, which Hegel in-
variably condemns as a mere mockery of explanation.
And, independently of this, it is clear that an infinite series
in time would not be an embodiment of the dialectic. For the
dialectic is most emphatically a process with a beginning and
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 159
an end, and any series which embodies it must have a beginning
and an end also. If the dialectic has any truth, there can Be
no steps before Pure Being, nor any steps after the Absolute
Idea. As the number of steps is finite, either the time taken
by each of them is infinite, — and in that case there would be
no process at all — or the time taken by the whole series must
be finite.
We may consider, then, that any theory which imagines the
dialectic to develop itself in time at all, will regard it as doing
so in a limited time. What follows from this hypothesis?
142. The first difficulty which arises is that every event in
time requires a previous event as its cause. How then shall we
be able to explain the first event of the complete series? The
first event, like all the others, is an event in time, that is, it had
a beginning, before which it did not exist. What determined the
change which brought it into existence? Whatever determined
it must be itself an event in time, for if the cause had not a
definite place in the time series it could not account for its effect
having one. But in this case it will itself need a determining
cause, which will also be an event, and we have thus lost our
finite series with a definite beginning, and embarked on an in-
finite series, which cannot, as we have seen, be of any assistance
to us in our present purpose.
On the other hand, to deny that the first term of such a series
requires a determining cause is impossible. It is perhaps not
impossible that our minds should form the conception of some-
thing on which other things depend, while it depends itself on
nothing. But an event in time could never hold such a place.
For an event in time has always before it a time when it was not,
and this coming into existence deprives it of the possibility of
being self-subsistent. Time, as Hegel says, is still outside itself i.
It has no principle of unity or coherence. It can only be limited
by something external to it. Our finite series in time can only
have the definite beginning which it requires by means of further
time beyond it. To fix any point in time is to imply the existence
of time upon both sides of it. And thus no event in time could
be accepted as an ultimate beginning. On the other hand, some
^ Enc. Section 257.
160 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
such event would have to be accepted as the ultimate beginning,
if a finite series were to be accepted as an ultimate explanation.
If we apply this to the particular problem before us, we shall
find that the theory that the Absolute Idea develops in time
lands us in a hopeless diSiculty. Let us suppose that all the
phenomena of the universe have been accounted for as the mani-
festations of the gradually developing Idea, and let us suppose
that each of these manifestations of the Idea has been shown
to be the logical consequence of the existence of the previous
manifestation. Then the final and ultimate fact upon which our
explanation will depend will be that, at the beginning of time,
the first of the categories — the category of Pure Being — mani-
fested itself in reality. And for this fact itself an external
explanation is required. No such explanation, indeed, would
be required for the deduction of the universe from the idea of
Pure Being. If the system is correct, the categories are so in-
separably connected that the existence of one stage in the
dialectic process implies the existence of all, and the existence
of any reality, again, implies the existence of the categories.
The category of Pure Being can thus be deduced from the fact
that the universe exists, and the fact that the universe exists
does not require, as it does not admit, any outside cause. But
here, to account for the existence of the universe in time, we
have taken as our ultimate fact the realisation of the first category
at a particular time. Time is in itself quite empty and indifferent
to its content. No possible reason could be given why the process
should not have begun a hundred years later than it did, so that
we should be at the present moment in the reign of George III.
The only way of fixing an event to a particular time is by con-
necting it with some other event which happened in a particular
time. This would lead here to an infinite regress, and, indepen-
dently of this, would be impracticable. For, by the hypothesis,
the dialectic development was to account for the entire universe,
and there can, therefore, be no event outside it to which it can
be referred in order that it can be accounted for itself. And yet
the question — why it happened now and not at another time —
is one which we cannot refrain from asking, since time must be
regarded as infinitely extensible.
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 161
143. Various attempts have been made to evade this difficulty.
It has been suggested that the temporal process has its root in
a timeless state. If we ask what determined the hrst event, we
are referred to the timeless state. If we ask what caused the
latter, we are answered that it had no beginning, and consequently
required no cause.
But how could a timeless reality be the cause of a succession
in time? It could, no doubt, be the cause of everything else in
a series of successive events, except of the fact that they did
take place in time. But how are we to account for that? No
reconciliation and no mediation is possible upon the hypothesis
with which we are here dealing. According to some views of
the question, time might be regarded as nothing but a form
assumed by eternity, or time and the timeless might be regarded
as forms of a higher reality. But such a view is impossible here.
The theory which we are here considering had to explain the
fact of a succession in the universe, and did so by making the
central principle of the universe to be the realisation of the
dialectic in time. The realisation in time, according to this theory^
is as much part of the ultimate explanation of the universe as
the dialectic itself. By making time ultimate we certainly get
rid of the necessity for explaining it. But, on the other hand,
we lose the possibility of treating time as a distinction which
can be bridged over, or explained away, when we wish to make
a connection between time and the timeless. If time is an ultimate
fact, then the distinction between that which does, and that
which does not, happen in time must be an ultimate distinction ;
and how are we to make, if this is so, a transition from the one
to the other?
So far as a thing is timeless, it cannot change, for with change
time comes necessarily. But how can a thing which does not
change produce an effect in time? That the effect was produced
in time implies that it had a beginning. And if the effect begins,
while no beginning can be assigned to the cause, we are left to
choose between two alternatives. Either there is something in
the effect — namely, the quality of coming about as a change —
which is altogether uncaused. Or the timeless reality is only a
partial cause, and is determined to act by something which is
162 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
not timeless. In either case, the timeless reality fails to explain
the succession in time, and we are no better off than we were
before. It would be equally available as an explanation if the
process had begun at any point besides the one at which it
actually did begin, and a cause which can remain the same while
the effect varies is obviously unsatisfactory.
144. It may be objected to this that, if the dialectic process
is the ultimate truth of all change, the point in time at which
it is to begin is determined by the nature of the case. For time
only exists when change exists. The changeless would be the
timeless. Therefore the beginning of the change must come at
the beginning of time, and there can be no question why it should
come at one moment rather than another.
This, however, will not remove one difficulty. Actual time,
no doubt, only began with actual change. But possible time
stretches back indefinitely beyond this. It is part of the essential
nature of time that, beyond any given part of it, we can imagine
a fresh part — that, indeed, we must do so. We cannot conceive
time as coming to an end. And with this indefinite stretch of
possible time the question again arises — what determined the
timeless to first produce change at the point it did, and not in
the previous time, which we now regard as possible only, but
which would have become actual by the production of change
in it? And again there is no reason why the series of actual time
should not have been placed later in the series of possible time
than it actually was. Actual time begins whenever change begins,
and so cannot be regarded as a fixed point, by which the begin-
ning of change can be determined. A certain amount of the
dialectic process has now been realised in time. Can we give
any reason why the amount should not have been greater or
less? Yet, if no such reason can be given, the present state of
the universe is left unaccounted for by our system.
The difficulty lies in the fact that we are compelled by the
nature of time to regard the time series as indefinitely extended,
and to regard each member of it as, in itself, exactly Hke each
other member. We may call that part of the series which is not
occupied by actual change, possible time, but the very name
imphes that there is no reason why it should not have been
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 163
occupied by events, as much as the actual time which really is
occupied by them. And, as possible time is indefinite, it is in-
definitely larger than any finite time. The question we have been
discussing will then take the form — why is this particular part
of the time series filled with reality rather than any other part?
And since, apart from its contents, one moment of time is exactly
like another, it would seem that the question is insoluble.
145. It has sometimes been attempted to ignore on general
grounds all endeavours to show that development throughout a
finite period in time cannot be accepted. Time, it has been said,
must be either finite or infinite. If we accept the objections to
taking finite time as part of our ultimate explanation, it can only
be because we are bound to an infinite regress. An infinite regress
involves infinite time. But infinite time is impossible — an unreal
abstraction, based on the impossibility of limiting the regress
in thought. Any argument which involves its real existence is
thereby reduced to an absurdity. And, since the objections to
finite time as part of our ultimate explanation do involve the
real existence of infinite time, we may, it is asserted, safely ignore
the objections and accept the principle.
The answer which we must make to this, in the first place, is
that the argument might as well be reversed. If the difficulties
in the way of infinite time are to be taken as a reason for ignoring
all difficulties in the way of finite time, why should we not make
the difficulties in the way of finite time a ground for accepting
with equally implicit faith the existence of infinite time?
Nor can we escape by saying that we do know finite time to
exist, and that therefore we are entitled to ignore the objections
to it, while we must accept the objections to infinite time. For
we have no more experience of finite time, in the sense in which
the phrase is used in this argument, than we have of infinite
time. What we meet in experience is a time series, extending
indefinitely both before and after our immediate contact with
it, out of which we can cut finite portions. But for a theory
which makes the development of the Notion in time part of its
ultimate formula, we require a time which is not merely limited
in the sense of being cut off from other time, but in the sense of
having none before it and none after it. Of this we have no more
164 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
experience than we have of infinite time, and if there are diffi-
culties in the way of both, we have no right to prefer the one
to the other.
146. Since either hypothesis as to the extension of time leads
us into equal difficulties, our course should surely be, not to
accept either, but to reject both. Time must, we are told, be
either finite or infinite. But there is a third alternative. There
may be something wrong in our conception of time, or rather,
to speak more precisely, there may be something which renders
it unfit, in metaphysics, for the ultimate explanation of the
universe, however suited it may be to the finite thought of every-
day life. If we ask whether time, as a fact, is finite or infinite,
we find hopeless difficulties in the way of either answer. Yet,
if we take time as an ultimate reality, there seems no other
alternative. Our only resource is to conclude that time is not
an ultimate reality.
This is the same principle which is at work in the dialectic
itself. When we find that any category, if we analyse it suffi-
ciently, lands us, in its application to reality, in contradictions,
we do not accept one contradictory proposition and reject the
other. We conclude the category in question to be an inadequate
way of looking at reality, and we try to find a higher conception,
which will embrace all the truth of the lower one, while it will
avoid the contradictions. This is what we ought, it would seem,
to do with the idea of time. If it only presents us with a choice
between impossibilities, we must regard it as an inadequate way
of looking at the universe. And in this case we cannot accept
the process in time as part of our ultimate solution.
147, We now come to the second objection to the develop-
ment of the dialectic in time. That which we have just been
discussing would equally perplex any other idealistic system
which should adopt a time process as an original element. The
new difficulty belongs specially to the dialectic. It appears, as
we have seen^, to be essential to the possibility of a dialectic
process that the highest term, in which the process ends, should
be taken as the presupposition of all the lower terms. The
passage from category to category must not be taken as an actual
1 Chap. I. Section 6.
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 165
advance, producing that which did not previously exist, but as
an advance from an abstraction to the concrete whole from whi ch
the abstraction was made — demonstrating and rendering explicit
what was before only implicit and immediately given, but still
only reconstructing, and not constructing anything fresh.
This view of Hegel's system becomes inevitable when we
consider, on the one hand, that his conclusion is that all that is
real is rational, and, on the other hand, that his method consists
in proving that each of the lower steps of the dialectic, taken
by itself, is not rational. We cannot then ascribe reality to any
of these steps, except in so far as they lose their independence
and become moments of the Absolute Idea.
We are compelled, according to Hegel, to pass from each thesis
and antithesis to their synthesis, by discovering that the thesis
and antithesis, while incompatible with one another, neverthe-
less involve one another. This produces a contradiction, and this
contradiction can only be removed by finding a term which
reconciles and transcends them.
Now if we suppose that the dialectic process came into ex-
istence gradually in time, we must suppose that all the contra-
dictions existed at one time or another independently, and before
reconciliation, i.e., as contradictions. Indeed, as the time process
is still going on, all the reality round us at the present day must
consist of unreconciled contradictions.
Such an assertion, however, would, it is clear, be absolutely
untenable. To say that the world consists of reconciled contra-
dictions would produce no difficulty, for it means nothing more
than that it consists of things which only appear contrary when
not thoroughly understood. But to say that a contradiction can
exist as such would plunge us in utter confusion. All reasoning,
and Hegel's as much as anybody else's, involves that two contrary
propositions cannot both be true. It would be useless to reason,
if, when you had demonstrated your conclusion, it was as true
to assert the opposite of that conclusion.
And, again, if contrary propositions could both be true, the
special line of argument which Hegel follows would have lost
all its force. We are enabled to pass on from the thesis and anti-
thesis to the synthesis just because a contradiction cannot be true,
166 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
and the synthesis is the only way out of it. But if contradictions
are true, there is no necessity to find a way out of it, and the
advance of the dialectic is no longer valid. If the contradictions
exist at all, there seems no reason that they should not continue
to do so. We should not be able to avoid this by saying that they
are real, but that their imperfection made them transitory. For
the dialectic process, even if we suppose it to take place in time,
is not a mere succession in time, but essentially a logical process.
Each step has to be proved to follow from those before it by the
nature of the latter. It is clear that it would be impossible, by
consideration of the nature of a logical category, to deduce the
conclusion that for some time it could exist independently, but
that, after that, its imperfection would drive it on to another
stage.
148. It is, too, only on the supposition that reahty always
corresponds to the Absolute Idea, and is not merely approxi-
mating to it, that we can meet another difl&culty which is pro-
pounded by Trendelenburg. Either, he says, the conclusion of
the whole process can be obtained by analysis of the original
premise, or it cannot. The original premise of the whole process
is nothing but the validity of the idea of Pure Being. If the
whole conclusion can be got out of this, we learn nothing new,
and the whole dialectic process is futile. If, on the other hand,
we introduce anything not obtained from our original premise,
we fail in our object — which was to prove that the whole system
followed, when that premise was admitted.
We considered this difficulty above^, and came to the con-
clusion that the answer was contained in Mr Bradley's statement
of the true nature of dialectic. The passage in which he dealt
with the matter was, it will be remembered, as follows, "An
idea prevails that the Dialectic Method is a sort of experiment
with conceptions in vacuo. We are supposed to have nothing but
one single isolated abstract idea, and this solitary monad then
proceeds to multiply by gemmation from or by fission of its
private substance, or by fetching matter from the impalpable
void. But this is a mere caricature, and it comes from confusion
between that which the mind has got before it and that which
^ Chap. II. Section 32.
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 167
it has within itself. Before the mind there is a single conception,
but the whole mind itself, which does not appear, engages in
the process, operates on the datum, and produces the result. The
opposition between the real, in that fragmentary character in
which the mind possesses it, and the true reality felt within the
mind, is the moving cause of that unrest which sets up the
dialectical process." And again: "The whole, which is both
sides of this process, rejects the claim of a one-sided datum, and
supplements it by that other and opposite side which really is
implied — so begetting by negation a balanced unity. This path
once entered on, the process starts afresh with the whole just
reached. But this also is seen to be the one-sided expression of
a higher synthesis; and it gives birth to an opposite which co-
unites with it into a second whole, a whole which in its turn is
degraded into a fragment of truth. So the process goes on till
the mind, therein implicit, finds a product which answers its
unconscious idea; and here, having become in its own entirety
a datum to itself, it rests in the activity which is self-conscious
in its object^."
If we hold, according to this view, that the dialectic process
depends on the relation between the concrete whole and the
part of it which has so far become explicit, it is clear that we
cannot regard the concrete whole as produced out of the in-
complete and lower category by means of the dialectic process,
since the process cannot possibly produce its own presuppo-
sition.
149. And finally Hegel's own language appears to be clearly
incompatible with the theory that the dialectic is gradually
evolved in time. It is true that, in the Philosophy of Religion,
the Philosophy of History, and the History of Philosophy, he
explains various successions of events in time as manifestations
of the dialectic. But this proves nothing as to the fundamental
nature of the connection of time with the universe. The dialectic
is the key to all reality, and, therefore, whenever we do view
reality under the aspect of time, the different categories, will
appear as manifesting themselves as a process in time. But this
has no bearing on the question before us — -whether they first
^ Logic; Book in. Part i. Chap. ii. Sections 20 and 21.
168 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
came into being in time, or whether they have a timeless and
eternally complete existence.
Even in this part of his work, too, Hegel's adherence to the
eternal nature of the dialectic becomes evident in a manner all
the more significant, because it is logically unjustifiable. In
several places he seems on the point of saying that all dissatis-
faction with the existing state of the universe, and all efforts to
reform it, are futile and vain, since reason is already and always
the sole reality. This conclusion cannot be fairly drawn from
the eternity of the dialectic process. For if we are entitled to
hold the universe perfect, the same arguments lead us to con-
sider it also timeless and changeless. Imperfection and progress,
then, may claim to share whatever reality is to be allowed to
time and change, and no conclusion can be drawn, such as Hegel
appears at times to suggest, against attempting to make the
future an improvement on the past. Neither future and past,
nor better and worse, can be really adequate judgments of a
timeless and perfect universe, but in the sense in which there
is a future it may be an improvement on the past. But the very
fact that Hegel has gone too far in his application of the idea
that reality is timeless, makes it more clear that he did hold
that idea.
There are not, I believe, any expressions in the Logic
which can be fairly taken as suggesting the development of
the dialectic in time. It is true that two successive categories
are named Life and Cognition, and that science informs us
that life existed in this world before cognition. But the
names of the categories must be taken as those of the facts
in which the idea in question shows itself most clearly, and
not as indicating the only form in which the idea can show
itself at all. Otherwise we should be led to the impossible
result that Notions, Judgments, and Syllogisms existed before
Cognition.
A strong assertion of the eternal nature of the process is to
be found in the Doctrine of the Notion. "Die Vollfiihrung des
unendlichen Zwecks ist so nur die Tauschung aufzuheben, als
ob er noch nicht vollfiihrt sey. Das Gute, das absolute Gute,
vollbringt sich ewig in der Welt und das Resultat ist, dass es
V] THE RELATION OP THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 169
schon an und flir sich vollbracht ist und nicht erst auf uns zu
warten braucht^."
Another important piece of evidence is his treatment of his
own maxim: "All that is real is rational." To the objections to
this he replies by saying that reality does not mean the surface
of things, but something deeper behind them. Besides this he
admits occasionally, though apparently not always, that con-
tingency has rights within a sphere of its own, where reason
cannot demand that everything should be explained. But he
never tries to meet the attacks made on his principle by drawing
a distinction between the irrational reality of the present and
the rational reality of the future. Such a distinction would be
so natural and obvious, and would, for those who could con-
sistently make use of it, so completely remove the charge of a
false optimism about the present, that we can scarcely doubt
that Hegel's neglect of it was due to the fact that he saw it to
be incompatible with his principles.
Hegel's treatment of time, moreover, confirms this view. For
he considers it merely as a stage in the Philosophy of Nature,
which is only an application of the Logic. Now if the realisation
of the categories of the Logic only took place in time, time would
be an element in the universe correlative with those categories, \^
and of equal importance with them. Both would be primary \
elements in a concrete whole. Neither could be looked on as
an application of, or deduction from, the other. But the treat-
ment of time as merely one of the phenomena which result from
the realisation of the Logic, is incompatible with such a theory
as this, and we may fairly conclude that time had not for Hegel
this ultimate importance.
150. We have thus arrived at the conclusion that the dialectic
is not for Hegel a process in time, but that the Absolute Idea
must be looked on as eternally realised. We are very far, however,
from having got rid of our difficulties. It looks, indeed, as if
we were brought, at this point, to a reductio ad. ahsurdum. For
if the other theory was incompatible with Hegel, this seems to
be incompatible with the facts.
The dialectic process is one from incomplete to complete
^ Enc. Section 212, lecture note.
^^ Ij Ml''' 170 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
rationality. If it is eternally fulfilled, then the universe must
be completely rational. Now, in the first place, it is certain that
the universe is not completely rational for us. We are not able
to see everything round us as a manifestation of the Absolute
Idea. Even those students of philosophy who believe on general
grounds that the Absolute Idea must be manifested in everything
are as unable as the rest of us to see how it is manifested in a
table or a thunder-storm. We can only explain these things —
at present, at any rate — by much lower categories, and we cannot,
therefore, explain them completely. Nor are we by any means
able, at present, to eliminate completely the contingency of the
data of sense, which are an essential element in reality, and a
universe which contains an ultimately contingent element cannot
be held to be completely rational. It would seem, too, that if
we are perfectly rational in a perfectly rational universe, there
must always be a complete harmony between our desires and
our environment. And this is not invariably the case.
But if the universe appears to us not to be perfect, can it be
so in reality? Does not the very failure to perceive the perfection
destroy it? In the first place, the Absolute Idea, as defined by
HegeP, is one of self-conscious rationality — the Idea to which
the Idea itself is "Gegenstand" and "Objekt." If any part of
reality sees anything, except the Absolute Idea, anywhere in
reality, this ideal can scarcely be said to have been fulfilled.
And, more generally, if the universe appears to us to be only
imperfectly rational, we must be either right or wrong. If we
are right, the world is not perfectly rational. But if we are wrong,
then it is difficult to see how we can be perfectly rational. And
we are part of the world. Thus it would seem that the very
opinion that the world is imperfect must, in one way or another,
prove its own truth.
151. If this is correct, we seem to be confronted with a
difficulty as hopeless as those which encountered us when we
supposed the dialectic to develop itself in time. These, we saw,
were due to our hypothesis being found incompatible with the
system, while our present view appears untenable because,
though a logical development from the system, it is incompatible
1 Enc. Section 236.
is*"
5 ^*\'] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 171
W, ^ '^ with the facts. The result with regard to the first is that we come
Hj ^Tto the conclusion that the development in time cannot be part
^ V* of Hegel's philosophy. The result of the second would at first
** ^^ sight seem to be that Hegel's philosophy must be abandoned,
A " i*. since it leads to such untenable conclusions.
^.^^
We rejected the hypothesis of the development of the Absolute
•4^5* ^^^^ ^^ time upon two grounds. The first was that we had to '^^^y-
^ k.^ choose between a false infinite and an uncaused beginning. Each ^^ -^^
3C '^ of these hypotheses left something unexplained and contingent, *'^ "T^y "3l
U^ V* and was consequently incompatible with a system which de- "^ * if—
j|^^ VL manded above all things that the universe should be completely ^ ^ "^^
^ \^ rationalised, and which believed itself to have accomplished its <^ ^ "^ '
* ^ ^ aim. Our second objection was due to the fact that the develop- » ^-*^ ^
C ^ ^ ment of the dialectic at all, upon Hegel's principles, presupposed \^ "^^•^^
^v^ the existence of its goal, which could not therefore be supposed — ^ '^
U» ^ to be reached for the first time by the process. But our difiiculty-, ^'^ ^
^ ^** ^ now is not at all incompatible with the system. It is one which ^ ^ f| ^ 3
* ^ must arise from it, and which must, in some form or another, 2 «< -J > -^
^ ^ ^ arise in any system of complete idealism. Every such system 3^"^ ^ ^ '^
*<S must declare that the world is fundamentally rational and "I^ --^ rtyHft ^
^ ^ righteous throughout, and every such system will be met by ^5 r
»» h- ^ the same difficulty. How, if all reality is rational and righteous, J} < „-. m 5
1^ ^ Ui
" tne same aimcuity. ±iow, ii an reanty is rational ana rignteous, ^-^ -•v '^ ^
— ^ are we to explain the irrationahty and unrighteousness which ^ X ryv ^ ^
'"(^^ are notoriously part of our every-day life? We must now con- ^ ^-'^ v
^ ^ sider the various attempts which have been made to answer this ^LT ^ 3 "> •■
*^ > * question. O '^ •• ^
^ ^ 152. Hegel's answer has been indicated in the passage quoted ^^ ^ ■
.'^ above^. The infinite end is really accomplished eternally. It is "^ "^ * 3b 5
t ^ tt only a delusion on our part which makes us suppose otherwise. \ '^v t^ ^
H "*• 11 And the only real progress is the removal of the delusion. The ^ ^ S '^ ^
universe is eternally the same, and eternally perfect. The move- ^ ^ X -^ qj
ment is only in our minds. They trace one after another in ^ "^ ^ ^ ^
\ uif) succession the difierent categories of the Logic, which in reality 3^^
^ ^"Cihave no time order, but continually coexist as elements of the^ ^ ^ ^ )2
t "^ ^Absolute Idea which transcends and unites them. "** ^ -^ H ^
\^^ \ This solution can, however, scarcely be accepted, for the ^ I^ f> ^
\ reasons given above. How can we account for the delusion that^ f^ JT ** "^
^j- ^ Enc, Section 212, lecture note. ^C ^\ ft / ^ ^ W\ ^ ^
5HX Jo ^CNJ H10^ IVWI ^^^ s>^\n^!i>40^ ^ '
J.N3i.y9 Ml 3i,iNy ^\ Uy\^^ JloV s^^, -\^ /,;
172 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
the world is partially irrational, if, as a matter of fact, it is
completely rational? How, in particular, can we regard such a
delusion as compatible with our own complete rationality?
To this it may be possibly objected that our argument is based
on a confusion. That a thought is a delusion need not imply that
it, or the being who thinks it, is irrational. Everything which,
like a thought, is used as a symbol, can be viewed in two aspects
— firstly as a fact, and secondly as representing, as a symbol,
some other fact. In the first aspect we say that it is real or unreal ;
in the second that it is true or false. These two pairs of predicates
have no intrinsic connection. A false judgment is just as really
a fact as a true one.
Now the conclusion from the Hegelian dialectic was that what-
ever was real was rational. We are, therefore, compelled to assert
that every thought, and every thinking being, is completely
rational — can be explained in a way which gives entire rest and
satisfaction to reason. But, it may be said, this is not in the
least interfered with by the fact that many real thoughts are
defective symbols of the other reality which they profess to
represent. The false can be, and, indeed, must be, real, for a
thought cannot misrepresent reality unless it is itself real. Till
it is real it can do nothing. And if the false can be real, why can
it not be rational? Indeed we often, in every-day life, and in
science, do find the false to be more or less rational. It is as
possible to account, psychologically, for the course of thought
which brings out an erroneous conclusion as for the course of
thought which brings out a correct one. We can explain our
failures to arrive at the truth as well as our successes. It would
seem then that there is nothing to prevent ourselves and our
thoughts being part of a completely rational universe, although
our thoughts are in some respects incorrect symbols.
153. But it must be remembered that the rationality which
Hegel requires of the universe is much more than complete deter-
mination under the category of cause and effect — a category which
the dialectic maintains to be quite insufficient, unless transcended
by a higher one. He requires, among other things, the validity
of the idea of final cause. And if this is brought in, it is difficult
to see how delusions can exist in a rational world. For a delusion
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 173
involves a thwarted purpose. If a man makes a mistake, it means
that he wishes to know the truth, and that he does not know it.
Whether this is the case or not, with regard to simple perception
of the facts before us, it cannot be denied that wherever there
is a long chain of argument, to which the mind is voluntarily
kept attentive, there must be a desire to know the truth. And
if this desire is unsuccessful, the universe could not be, in Hegel's
sense, completely rational.
This becomes more evident if we look at Hegel's definition
of complete rationality, as we find it in the Absolute Idea. The
essence of it is that reality is only completely rational in so far
as it is conscious of its own rationality. The idea is to be " Gegen-
stand" and " Objekt" to itself. If this is the case, it follows that
the rationality of Spirit, as an existent object, depends upon its
being a faithful symbol of the rationality expressed in other
manifestations of Spirit. The delusion by which Hegel explains
all imperfection will of course prevent its being a faithful symbol
of that rationality, and will therefore destroy the rationality
itself. In so far as we do not see the perfection of the universe,
we are not perfect ourselves. And as we are part of the universe,
that too cannot be perfect. And yet its perfection appears to
be a necessary consequence of Hegel's position.
. 154. HegeFs attempt to make the imperfection which is
evident round us compatible with the perfection of the universe
must, then, be rejected. Can we find any other solution which
would be more successful? One such solution suggests itself. It
was the denial of the ultimate reality of time which caused our
difficulty, since it forced us to assert that the perfect rationality,
which idealism claims for the universe, cannot be postponed to
the future, but must be timelessly and eternally present. Can
the denial of the reality of time be made to cure the wound,
which it has itself made? Would it not be possible, it might be
said, to escape from our dilemma as follows? The dialectic itself
teaches us that it is only the concrete whole which is completely
rational, and that any abstraction from it, by the very fact that
it is an abstraction, must be to some extent false and contra-
dictory. An attempt to take reality moment by moment, ele-
ment by element, must make reahty appear imperfect. The
174 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
complete rationality is only in the whole which transcends all
these elements, and any one of them, considered as more or less
independent, must be false. Now, if we look at the universe as
in time, it will appear to be a succession of separate events, so
that only part of it is existing at any given instant, the rest being
either past or future. Each of these events will be represented
as real in itself, and not merely a moment in a real whole. And
in so far as events in time are taken to be, as such, real, it must
follow that reality does not appear rational. If an organic whole
is perfect, then any one of its parts, taken separately from the
whole, cannot possibly be perfect. For in such a whole all the
parts presuppose one another, and any one, taken by itself, must
bear the traces of its isolation and incompleteness. Now the
connection of the different parts of the universe, viewed in their
ultimate reality, is, according to the dialectic, even closer than
the connection of the parts of an organism. And thus not only
each event, but the whole universe taken as a series of separate
events, would appear imperfect. Even if such a series could ever
be complete, it could not fully represent the reality, since the
parts would still, by their existence in time, be isolated from one
another, and claim some amount of independence. Thus the
apparent imperfection of the universe would be due to the fact
that we are regarding it sub specie temforis — an aspect which
we have seen reason to conclude that Hegel himself did not
regard as adequate to reality. If we could only see it sub specie
aeternitatis, we should see it in its real perfection.
155. It is true, I think, that in this way we get a step nearer
to the goal required than we do by Hegel's own theory, which
we previously considered. Our task is to find, for the apparent
imperfection, some cause whose existence will not interfere with
the real perfection. We shall clearly be more likely to succeed
in this, in proportion as the cause we assign is a purely negative
one. The appearance of imperfection was accounted for by Hegel
as a delusion of our own minds. Now a delusion is as much a
positive fact as a true judgment is, and requires just as much
a positive cause. And, as we have seen, we are unable to con-
ceive this positive cause, except as something which will prevent
the appearance from being a delusion at all, since it will make
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 175
the universe really imperfect. On the theory just propounded,
however, the cause of the imperfection is nothing but the fact
that we do not see everything at once. Seen as we see things
now, reality must be imperfect. But if we can attain to the
point of looking at the whole universe sub specie aeternifatis, we
shall see just the same subject-matter as in time; but it will
appear perfect, because seen as a single concrete whole, and not
as a succession of separated abstractions. The only cause of the
apparent imperfection will be the negative consideration that
we do not now see the whole at once.
156. This theory would be free from some of the objections
which are fatal to a rather similar apology for the universe which
is often found in systems of optimism. It is admitted in such
apologies that, from the point of \'iew of individuals, the world
is imperfect and irrational. But, it is asserted, these blemishes
would disappear if we could look at the world as a whole. The
part which, taken by itself, is defective, may, we are told, be an
element in a perfect harmony. Such a theory, since it declares
that the universe can be really perfect, although imperfect for
individuals, implies that some individuals, at any rate, can be
treated merely as means, and not as ends in themselves. Without
enquiring whether such a view is at all tenable, it is at any rate
clear that it is incompatible with what is usually called optimism,
since it would permit of many— indeed of all — individuals being
doomed to eternal and infinite misery. We might be led to the
formula in which Mr Bradley sums up optimism: — "The world
is the best of all possible worlds, and everything in it is a necessary
evil^." For if the universal harmony can make any evil to indi-
viduals compatible with its own purposes, there is no principle
upon which we can limit the amount which it can tolerate. It is
more to our present purpose to remark that such a view could not
possibly be accepted as in any way consistent with Hegel's system.
It would be in direct opposition to its whole tendency, which is
to regard the universal as only gaining reality and validity
when, by its union with the particular, it becomes the individual.
For Hegel the ideal must lie, not in ignoring the claims of indi-
viduals, but in seeing in them the embodiment of the universal.
^ Appearance and Reality, Preface, p. xiv.
176 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
Mr Bradley's own treatment of the problem is, as far as I can
see, of a rather similar type. He has to reconcile the harmony
which he attributes to the Absolute, with the disharmony which
undoubtedly prevails, to some extent, in experience. This he
does by taking the finite individual to be, as such, only appearance
and not reality, from which it follows that it must distort the
harmony of the Absolute, and cannot adequately manifest it.
It may be doubted whether we do not fall into more difficulties
than we avoid by this low estimate of the conscious individual.
But, at any rate, such a solution would be impracticable for
anyone who accepted HegeFs version of the Absolute Idea, to
which the individual is the highest form that the universal can
take.
Some of the objections which apply to such attempts to save
the perfection of the Absolute by ignoring the claims of indi-
viduals will not hold against our endeavour to escape from our
difficulty by ignoring, so to speak, the claims of particular
moments of time. None of those considerations which make us
consider each separate person as an ultimate reality, whose claims
to self-realisation must be satisfied and cannot be transcended,
lead us to attribute the same importance to separate periods of
time. Indeed the whole drift of Hegel's system is as much
against the ultimate reality of a succession of phenomena, as
such, as it is in favour of the ultimate reality of individual persons,
as such. To deny any reality in what now presents itself to us
as a time-series would indeed be suicidal. For we have no data
given us for our thought, except in the form of a time-series,
and to destroy our data would be to destroy the super-structure.
But while philosophy could not start if it did not accept its data,
it could not proceed if it did not alter them. There is then nothing
obviously impossible in the supposition that the whole appearance
of succession in our experience is, as such, unreal, and that reality
is one timeless whole, in which all that appears successive is
really co-existent, as the houses are co-existent which we see
successively from the windows of a train.
157. It cannot, however, be said that this view is held by
Hegel himself. In the Philosophy of Nature he treats time as
a stage in the development of nature, and not as a cause why
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 177
there is any appearance of successive development at all. Indeed
he says there that things are not finite because they are in time,
but are in time because they are finite^. It would be thus im-
possible, without departing from Hegel, to make time the cause
of the apparent imperfection of the universe.
Everything else in the HegeHan philosophy may indeed be
considered as of subordinate importance to the Dialectic, and
to its goal, the Absolute Idea. If it were necessary, we might,
to save the validity of the Dialectic, reject Hegel's views even
on a subject so important as time, and yet call ourselves Hegehans.
But we should not gain much by this reconstruction of the
system. For it leaves the problem no more solved than it was
before. The difficulty which proved fatal to Hegel's own attempt
to explain the imperfection comes back as surely as before,
though it may not be quite so obvious. However much we may
treat time as mere appearance, it must, hke all other appearance,
have reality behind it. The reality, it may be answered, is in this
case the timeless Absolute. But this reality will have to account,
not merely for the facts which appear to us in time, but for the
appearance of succession which they do undoubtedly assume.
How can this be done? What reason can be given why the eternal
reality should manifest itself in a time process at all? If we tried
to find the reason outside the nature of the eternal reality, we
should be admitting that time had some independent validity,
and we should fall back into all the difficulties mentioned in the
earlier part of this chapter. But if we try to find the reason
inside the nature of the eternal reality, we shall find it to be
incompatible with the complete rationality which, according to
Hegel's theory, that reality must possess. For the process in
time is, by the hypothesis, the root of all irrationality, and how
can it spring from anything which is quite free of irrationality?
Why should a concrete and perfect whole proceed to make itself
imperfect, for the sake of gradually getting rid of the imper-
fection again? If it gained nothing by the change, could it be
completely rational to undergo it? But if it had anything to
gain by the change, how could it previously have been perfect?
158. We have thus failed again to solve the difficulty. How-
^ Enc. Section 258, lecture note.
178 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
ever much we may endeavour to make the imperfection of the
universe merely negative, it is impossible to escape from the
fact that, as an element in presentation, it requires a positive
ground. If we denied this, we should be forced into the position
that not only was our experience of imperfection a delusion, but
that it was actually non-existent. And this, as was mentioned
above, is an impossibility. All reasoning depends on the fact
that every appearance has a reality of which it is the appearance.
Without this we could have no possible basis upon which to rest
any conclusion.
Yet, on the other hand, so long as we admit a positive ground
for the imperfection, we find ourselves to be inconsistent with
the original position from which we started. For that position
asserted that the sole reality was absolutely perfect. On this
hangs the appearance of imperfection, and to this real perfection
as cause we have to ascribe apparent imperfection as effect. Now
it is not impossible, under certain circumstances, to imagine a
cause as driven on, by a dialectic necessity, to produce an effect
different from itself. But in this case it does seem impossible.
For any self-determination of a cause to produce its effect must
be due to some incompleteness in the former without the latter.
But if the cause, by itself, was incomplete, it could not, by itself,
be perfect. If, on the other hand it was perfect, it is impossible
to see how it could produce anything else as an effect. Its per-
fection makes it in complete harmony with itself. And, since
it is all reality, there is nothing outside it with which it could
be out of harmony. What could determine it to production?
Thus we oscillate between two extremes, each equally fatal.
If we endeavour to treat evil as absolutely unreal, we have to
reject the one basis of all knowledge — experience. But in so far
as we accept evil as a manifestation of reality, we find it im-
possible to avoid qualifying the cause by the nature of the effect
which it produces, and so contradicting the main result of the
dialectic — the harmony and perfection of the Absolute.
159. We need not, after all, be surprised at the apparently
insoluble problem which confronts us. For the question has
developed into the old difficulty of the origin of evil, which has
always baffled both theologians and philosophers. An idealism
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 179
which declares that the universe is in reality perfect, can find,
as most forms of popular idealism do, an escape from the diffi-
culties of the existence of evil, by declaring that the world is
as yet only growing towards its ideal perfection. But this refuge
disappears with the reality of time, and we are left with an
awkward difference between what our philosophy tells us must
be, and what our life tells us actually is.
The aim of the dialectic was to prove that all reality was
completely rational. And Hegel's arguments led him to the
conclusion that the universe as a whole could not be rational,
except in so far as each of its parts found its own self-realisation.
It followed that the universe, if harmonious on the theoretical
side, would be harmonious also in a practical aspect — that is,
would be in every respect perfect. This produces a dilemma.
Either the evil round us is real, or it is not. If it is real, then
reality is not perfectly rational. But if it is absolutely unreal,
then all our finite experience — and we know of no other — must
have an element in it which is absolutely irrational, and which,
however much we may pronounce it to be unreal, has a dis-
agreeably powerful influence in moulding the events of our
present life. Nor can we even hope that this element is transitory,
and comfort ourselves, in orthodox fashion, with the hope of a
heaven in which the evil shall have died away, while the good
remains. For we cannot assure ourselves of such a result by any
empirical arguments from particular data, which would be hope-
lessly inadequate to support such a conclusion. The only chance
would be an a 'priori argument founded on the essential rationality
of the universe, which might be held to render the imperfection
transitory. But we should have no right to use such an argument.
To escape the difficulties involved in the present coexistence of
rationality and irrationality, we have reduced the latter to such
complete unreality that it is not incompatible with the former.
But this cuts both ways. If the irrationality cannot interfere
with the rationality so as to render their present coexistence
impossible, there can be no reason why their future coexistence
should ever become impossible. If the irrational is absolutely
unreal now, it can never become less real in the future. Thus our
ascription of complete rationality to the universe leads us to a
180 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
belief that one factor in experience, as it presents itself to us,
is fundamentally and permanently irrational — a somewhat sin-
gular conclusion from such a premise.
To put the difficulty from a more practical point of view,
either the imperfection in experience leaves a stain on the per-
fection of the Absolute, or it does not. If it does, there is no
absolute perfection, and we have no right to expect that the
imperfection around us is a delusion or a transitory phase. But
if it does not, then there is no reason why the perfection should
ever feel intolerant of it, and again we have no right to hope for
its disappearance. The whole practical interest of philosophy is
thus completely overthrown. It asserts an abstract perfection
beyond experience, but that is all. Such a perfection might
almost as well be a Thing-in-itself, since it is unable to explain
any single fact of experience without the aid of another factor,
which it may call unreal, but which it finds indispensable. It
entirely fails to rationalise reality or to reconcile it with our
aspirations.
160. The conclusion we have reached is one which it certainly
seems difficult enough to reconcile with continued adherence to
Hegelianism. Of the two possible theories as to the relation of
time to the dialectic process, we have found that one, besides
involving grave difficulties in itself, is quite inconsistent with
the spirit of Hegel's system. The other, again, while consistent
with that system, and, indeed, appearing to be its logical con-
sequence, has landed us in what seems to be a glaring contradic-
tion to the facts. Is it not inevitable that we must reject a system
which leads us to such a result?
Before deciding on such a course, however, it might be wise
to see if we can really escape from the difficulty in such a way.
If the same problem, or one of like nature, proves equally in-
soluble in any possible system, we may be forced to admit the
existence of an incompleteness in our philosophy, but we shall
no longer have any reason to reject one system in favour of
another. Now, besides the theory which has brought us into
this trouble — the theory that reality is fundamentally rational
— there are, it would seem, three other possibilities. Reality may
be fundamentally irrational. (I shall use "irrational" here to
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 181
signify anything whose nature and operation are not merely
devoid of reason, but opposed to it, so that its influence is always
in the opposite direction to that exercised by reason.) Or reality
may be the product of two independent principles of rationality
and irrationality. Or it may be the work of some principle to
which rationality and irrationality are equally indifferent — some
blind fate, or mechanical chance.
These possibilities may be taken as exhaustive. It is true
that, on Hegelian principles, a fifth alternative has to be added,
when we are considering the different combinations in which
two predicates may be asserted or denied of a subject. We may
say that it is also possible that the two predicates should be
combined in a higher unity. This would leave it scarcely correct
to say, without quahfication, that either is asserted or either
denied of the sub j ect. But synthesis is itself a process of reasoning,
and unites its two terms by a category in which we recognise
the nature of each extreme as a subordinate moment, which is
harmonised with the other. The harmony involves that, wherever
a synthesis is possible, reason is supreme. And so, if the truth
were to be found in a synthesis of the rational and irrational,
that synthesis would itself be rational — resolving, as it would,
the whole universe into a unity expressible by thought. Thus
we should have come round again to Hegel's position that the
world is fundamentally rational.
161. We need not spend much time over the supposition that
the world is fundamentally irrational — not only regardless of
reason, but contrary to reason. To begin with, such a hypothesis
refutes itself. The completely irrational cannot be real, for even
to say that a thing is real implies its determination by at least
one predicate, and therefore its comparative rationality. And
our hypothesis would meet with a difficulty precisely analogous
to that which conflicts with Hegel's theory. In that case the
stumbling-block lay in the existence of some irrationality, here
it lies in the existence of some rationality. We can no more deny
that there are signs of rationality in the universe, than we can
deny that there are signs of irrationality. Yet it is at least as
impossible to conceive how the fundamentally irrational should
manifest itseK as rationality, as it is to conceive the converse
182 THE RELATION OP THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
process. We shall gain nothing, then, by deserting Hegel for such
a theory as this.
162. It might seem as if a dualistic theory would be well
adapted to the chequered condition of the actual world. But
as soon as we try to construct such a theory, difficulties arise.
The two principles, of rationality and irrationality, to which
the universe is referred, will have to be absolutely separate and
independent. For if there were any common unity to which
they should be referred, it would be that unity, and not its two
manifestations, which would be the ultimate explanation of the
universe, and the theory, having become monistic, resolves itself
into one of the others, according to the attitude of this single
principle towards reason, whether favourable, hostile, or in-
different.
We must then refer the universe to two independent and
opposed forces. Nor will it make any important difference if
we make the second force to be, not irrationality, but some blind
force not in itself hostile to reason. For, in order to account for
the thwarted rationahty which meets us so often in the universe,
we shall have to suppose that the result of the force is, as a fact,
opposed to reason, even if opposition to reason is not its essential
nature.
In the first place can there be really two independent powers
in the universe? Surely there cannot. As Mr Bradley points out :
"Plurality must contradict independence. If the beings are not
in relation, they cannot be many; but if they are in relation,
they cease forthwith to be absolute. For, on the one hand,
plurality has no meaning, unless the units are somehow taken
together. If you abolish and remove all relations, there seems
no sense left in which you can speak of pluraUty. But, on the
other hand, relations destroy the real's self-dependence. For it
is impossible to treat relations as adjectives, falling simply inside
the many beings. And it is impossible to take them as falhng
outside somewhere in a sort of unreal void, which makes no
difference to anything. Hence... the essence of the related terms
is carried beyond their proper selves by means of their relations.
And, again, the relations themselves must belong to a larger
reality. To stand in a relation and not to be relative, to support
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 183
it and yet not to be infected and undermined by it, seem out
of the question. Diversity in the real cannot be the plurality
of independent beings. And the oneness of the Absolute must
hence be more than a mere diffused adjective. It possesses unity,
as a whole, and is a single system^."
The argument has additional strength in this case. For the
two forces which we are asked to take as absolutely opposed
are, by the hypothesis which assumed them, indissolubly united.
Both forces are regarded as all-pervading. Neither can exist by
itself anywhere. Every fact in the universe is due to the inter-
action of the two. And, further, they can only be described and
defined in relation to one another. If the dualism is between the
rational and the irrational as such, it is obvious that the latter,
at any rate, has only meaning in relation to its opposite. And
if we assume that the second principle is not directly opposed
to rationality, but simply indifferent to it, we shall get no further
in our task of explaining the imperfect rationality which appears
in our data, unless we go on to assume that its action is contrary
to that of a rational principle. Thus a reference to reason would
be necessary, if not to define our second principle, at any rate
to allow us to understand how we could make it available for
our purpose.
We cannot, besides, describe anything as irrational, or as in-
different to reason, without ascribing to it certain predicates —
Being, Substance, Limitation, for example. Nor can we refer to
a principle as an explanation of the universe without attributing
to it Causality. These determinations may be transcended by
higher ones, but they must be there, at least as moments. Yet
anything to which all these predicates can be ascribed cannot
be said to be entirely hostile or indifferent to reason, for it has
some determinations common to it and to reason, and must be,
therefore, in more or less harmony with the latter. But if this
is so, our complete dualism has been surrendered.
The two principles then can scarcely be taken as absolutely
independent. But if they cannot our dualism fails to help us,
and indeed vanishes. We were tempted to resort to it because
the two elements in experience — the rationality and the want
^ Appearance and Reality, Chap. 13, p. 141.
184 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
of rationality — were so heterogeneous as to defy reduction to a
single principle. And if we cannot keep our two principles distinct,
but are compelled to regard them as joined in a higher unity,
we might as well return expHcitly to monism.
163. But, even if we could keep the two principles indepen-
dent, it seems doubtful if we should be able to reach, by means
of this theory, a solution of our difficulty. The forces working
for and against the rationaUty of the universe must either be
in equilibrium or not. If they are not in equilibrium, then one
must be gaining on the other. The universe is thus fundamentally
a process. In this case we shall gain nothing by adopting dualism.
For the difficulties attendant on conceiving the world as a process
were just the reason which compelled us to adopt the theory
that the universe was at present perfectly rational, and so pro-
duced the further difficulties which are now driving us to look
round for a substitute for idealism. If we could have taken
development in time as ultimately real, we should have found
no hindrance in our way when we endeavoured to conceive the
universe as the product of a single rational principle. But we
could not do so then, and we shall find it as impossible now. The
process must be finite in length, since we can attach no meaning
to an actual infinite process. And, since it is still continuing, we
shall have to suppose that the two principles came into operation
at a given moment, and not before. And since these principles
are, on the hypothesis, ultimate, there can be nothing to deter-
mine them to begin to act at that point, rather than any other.
In this way we shall be reduced, as before, to suppose an event
to happen in time without antecedents and without cause — a
solution which cannot be accepted as satisfactory.
164. Shall we succeed any better on the supposition that the
forces which work for and against rationaUty are exactly balanced?
In the first place we should have to admit that the odds against
this occurring were infinity to one. For the two forces are, by
the hypothesis, absolutely independent of one another. And,
therefore, we cannot suppose any common influence acting on
both of them, which should tend to make their forces equal, nor
any relationship between them, which should bring about this
result. The equilibrium could only be the result of mere chance,
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 185
and the probability of this producing infinitely exact equilibrium
would be infinitely small. And the absence of any a friori reason
for believing in such an equilibrium could not, of course, be
supplied by empirical observation. For the equilibrium would
have to extend over the whole universe, and we cannot carry
our observations so far.
Nor can we support the theory by the consideration that it,
and no other, will explain the undoubted co-existence of the
rational and irrational in our present world. For it fails to
account for the facts. It fails to explain the existence of change
— at any rate of that change which leaves anything more or less
rational, more or less perfect, than it was before. It is a fact
which cannot be denied that sometimes that which was good
becomes evil, and sometimes that which was evil becomes good.
Now, if the two principles are exactly balanced, how could such
a change take place? Of course we cannot prove that the balance
between the two forces does not remain the same, if we consider
the whole universe. Every movement in the one direction, in
one part of the whole, may be balanced by a corresponding move
in the other direction somewhere else. As we do not know the
entire universe in detail it is impossible for us to refute this
supposition. But even this supposition will not remove the
diflficulty. We have two principles whose relations to one another
are constant. Yet the facts around us, which are manifestations
of these two principles, and of these two principles only, manifest
them in proportions which constantly change. How is this change
to be accounted for? If we are to take time and change as
ultimate facts, such a contradiction seems insuperable. On the
other hand, to deny the ultimate validity of time and change,
commits us to the series of arguments, the failure of which first
led us to doubt Hegel's position. If time could be viewed as
a manifestation of the timeless, we need not have abandoned
monism, for the difficulty of imperfection could then have been
solved. If, however, time cannot be viewed in this way, the
contradiction between the unchanging relation of the principles
and the constant change of their effects appears hopeless.
165. There remains the theory that the world is exclusively
the product of a principle which regards neither rationality nor
186 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch,
irrationality, but is directed to some aim outside them, or to na
aim at all. Such a theory might account, no doubt, for the fact
that the world is not a complete and perfect manifestation either
of rationality or irrationality. But it is hardly exaggerated ta
say that this is the only fact about the world which it would
account for. The idea of such a principle is contradictory. We
can have no conception of its operation, of its nature, or even
of its existence, without bringing it under some predicates of
the reason. And if this is valid, the principle is, to some extent
at least, rational.
166. So far indeed, the rationahty would be but slight. And
it might be suggested that the solution of the difl&culty would
be found in the idea that reality was, if we might so express it,
moderately rational. Up to this point we have supposed that
our only choice was between a principle manifesting the com-
plete and perfect rationahty, which is embodied in Hegel's
Absolute Idea, and a principle entirely hostile or indifferent to
reason. But what if the ultimate principle of the universe was
one of which, for example, the categories of Being and Essence
were valid, while those of the Notion remained unjustified ideals?
This would account, it might be said, at once for the fact that
the universe was sufficiently in accord viath our reason for us
to perceive it and attempt to comprehend it, and also for the
fact that we fail to comprehend it completely. It would explain
the judgment that the world, as we see it, might be better and
might also be worse, which common sense pronounces, and which
philosophy, whether it accepts it or not, is bound to explain
somehow.
The supporters of such a theory, however, would have a
difficult task before them. They might claim to reject Hegel's
general theory of the universe on the ground that, on this ques-
tion of imperfection, it was hopelessly in conflict with the facts.
But when they, in their turn, set up a positive system, and
asserted the earher categories to be vahd of reality, while the
later ones were delusions, they would have to meet in detail
Hegel's arguments that the earlier categories, unless synthesised
by the later ones, plunge us in contradictions. The dialectic,
being now merely negative and critical of another system, could
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 187
not be disposed of on the ground that its own system broke down
as a whole. Its arguments against the independent validity of
the earlier categories would have to be met directly. What the
issue of the conflict would be cannot be considered here, as
considerations of space have prevented me from including in
this book any discussion of the steps of the dialectic in detail.
It may be remarked in passing, however, that several of the
commentators, who unhesitatingly reject the system as a whole,
admit the cogency of the argument from step to step in the Logic
— which is all that is wanted here.
This, at any rate, is certain, that the possibility of explaining
the existence of imperfection by such a theory as we have been
considering, can give us no grounds for rejecting Hegel's system
which we did not possess before. For if the deduction of the
categories is defective, Hegelianism must be rejected as unproved,
independently of its success or failure in interpreting the facts.
And if the deduction of the categories is correct, then the theory
of the partial rationality of reality must be given up. For, in
that case, to assert the validity of the lower categories without
the higher would be to assert a contradiction, and to do this is
to destroy all possibihty of coherent thought.
167. It would seem then that any other system offers as many
obstacles to a satisfactory explanation of our difficulty as were
presented by Hegel's theory. Is the inquirer then bound to take
refuge in complete scepticism, and reject all systems of philosophy,
since none can avoid inconsistencies or absurdities on this point?
This might perhaps be the proper course to pursue, if it were
possible. But it is not possible. For every word and every action
implies some theory of metaphysics. Every assertion or denial
of fact — including the denial that anything is certain — implies
that something is certain ; and a doubt, also, implies our certainty
that we doubt. Now to admit this, and yet to reject all ultimate
explanations of the universe, is a contradiction at least as serious
as any of those into which we were led by our attempt to explain
away imperfection in obedience to the demands of Hegel's system.
We find then as many, and as grave, difficulties in our way
when we take up any other system, or when we attempt to take
up no system at all, as met us when we considered Hegel's theory,
188 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
and our position towards the latter must be to some degree
modified. We can no longer reject it, because it appears to lead
to an absurdity, if every possible form in which it can be rejected
involves a similar absurdity. At the same time we cannot possibly
acquiesce in an unreconciled contradiction. Is there any other
course open to us?
168. We must remark, in the first place, that the position
in which the system finds itself, though difficult enough, is not
a reductio ad absurdum. When an argument ends in such a
reduction, there can never be any hesitation or doubt about
rejecting the hypothesis with which it started. It is desired to
know if a certain proposition is true. The assumption is made
that the proposition is true, and it is found that the assumption
leads to a contradiction. Thus there is no conflict of arguments.
The hypothesis was made, not because it had been proved true,
but to see what results would follow. Hence there is nothing to
contradict the inference that the hypothesis must be false, which
we draw from the absurdity of its consequences. On the one side
is only a supposition, on the other ascertained facts.
This, however, is not the case here. The conclusion, that the
universe is timelessly perfect, which appears to be in conflict
with certain facts, is not a mere hypothesis, but asserts itself
to be a correct deduction from other facts as certain as those
which oppose it. Hence there is no reason why one should yield
to the other. The inference that the universe is completely
rational, and the inference that it is not, are both deduced by
reasoning from the facts of experience. Unless we find a flaw
in one or the other of the chains of deduction, we have no more
right to say that Hegel's dialectic is wrong because the world
is imperfect, than to deny that the world is imperfect, because
Hegel's dialectic proves that it cannot be so.
It might appear at first sight as if the imperfection of the world
was an immediate certainty. But in reality only the data of sense,
upon which, in the last resort, all propositions must depend for
their connection with reality, are here immediate. All judgments
require mediation. And, even if the existence of imperfection
in experience was an immediate certainty, yet the conclusion
that its existence was incompatible with the perfection of the
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 189
universe as a whole, could clearly only be reached mediately,
by the refutation of the various arguments by means of which
a reconciliation has been attempted.
It is, no doubt, our first duty, when two chains of reasoning
appear to lead to directly opposite results, to go over them with
the greatest care, that we may ascertain whether the apparent
discrepancy is not due to some mistake of our own. It is also
true that the chain of arguments, by which we arrive at the
conclusion that the world is perfect, is both longer and less
generally accepted than the other chain by which we reach the
conclusion that there is imperfection in the world, and that this
prevents the world from being perfect. We may, therefore, possibly
be right in expecting beforehand to find a flaw in the first chain
of reasoning, rather than in the second.
This, however, will not entitle us to adopt the one view as
against the other. We may expect beforehand to find an error
in an argument, but if in point of fact we do not succeed in
finding one, we are bound to continue to accept the conclusion.
For we are compelled to yield our assent to each step in the
argument, so long as we do not see any mistake in it, and we
shall in this way be conducted as inevitably to the end of the
long chain as of the short one.
169. We may, I think, assume, for the purposes of our
enquiry, that no discovery of error will occur to relieve us from
our perplexity, since we are endeavouring to discuss here, not the
truth of the Hegelian dialectic, but the consequences which will
follow from it if it is true. And we have now to consider what
we must do in the presence of two equally authoritative judg-
ments which contradict one another.
The only course which it is possible to take appears to me
that described by Mr Balfour. The thinker must "accept both
contradictories, thinking thereby to obtain, under however un-
satisfactory a form, the fullest measure of truth which he is at
present able to grasp^."' Of course we cannot adopt the same
mental attitude which we should have a right to take in case
our conclusions harmonised with one another. W^e must never
lose sight of the fact that the two results do not harmonise, and
^ Defence of Philosophic Doubt, p. 313.
190 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
that there must be something wrong somewhere. But we do not
know where. And to take any step except this, would imply
that we did know where the error lay. If we rejected the one
conclusion in favour of the other, or if we rejected both in favour
of scepticism, we should thereby assert, in the first case, that
there was an error on the one side and not on the other, in the
second case that there were errors on both sides. Now, if the
case is as it has been stated above, we have no right to make
such assertions, for we have been unable to detect errors on
either side. All that we can do is to hold to both sides, and to
recognise that, till one is refuted, or both are reconciled, our
knowledge is in a very unsatisfactory state.
At the same time we shall have to be very careful not to let
our dissatisfaction with the conflict, from which we cannot escape,
carry us into either an exphcit avowal or a tacit acceptance of
any form of scepticism. For this would mean more than the
mere equipoise of the two lines of argument. It would mean,
at least, the entire rejection of the one which asserts that the
universe is completely rational. And, as has been said, we have
no right to reject either side of the contradiction, for no flaw
has been found in either.
170. The position in which we are left appears to be this:
If we cannot reject Hegel's dialectic, our system of knowledge
will contain an unsolved contradiction. But that contradiction
gives us no more reason for rejecting the Hegelian dialectic than
for doing anything else, since a similar contradiction appears
wherever we turn. We are merely left with the conviction that
something is fundamentally wrong in knowledge which all looks
equally trustworthy. Where to find the error we cannot tell.
Such a result is sufficiently unsatisfactory. Is it possible to find
a conclusion not quite so negative?
We cannot, as it seems to us at present, deny that both the
propositions are true, nor deny that they are contradictory. Yet
we know that one must be false, or else that they cannot be
contradictory. Is there any reason to hope that the solution lies
in the last alternative? This result would be less sceptical and
destructive than any other. It would not involve any positive
mistake in our previous reasonings, as far as they went, such as
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 191
would be involved if harmony was restored by the discovery that
one of the two conclusions was fallacious. It would only mean
that we had not gone on far enough. The two contradictory pro-
positions — that the world was fundamentally perfect, and that
imperfection did exist — would be harmonised and reconciled by
a synthesis, in the same way that the contradictions within the
dialectic itself are overcome. The two sides of the opposition
would not so much be both false as both true. They would be
taken up into a higher sphere where the truth of both is preserved.
Moreover, the solution in this case would be exactly what
might be expected if the Hegelian dialectic were true. For, as
has been said, the dialectic always advances by combining on
a higher plane two things which were contradictory on a lower
one. And so, if, in some way now inconceivable to us, the eternal
realisation of the Absolute Idea were so synthesised with the
-existence of imperfection as to be reconciled with it, we should
harmonise the two sides by a principle already exemplified in
one of them.
171. It must be noticed also that the contradiction before us
satisfies at any rate one of the conditions which are necessary
if a synthesis is to be effected. It is a case of contrary and not
merely of contradictory opposition. The opposition would be
<jontradictory if the one side merely denied the validity of the
data, or the correctness of the inferences, of the other. For it
would not then assert a different and incompatible conclusion,
but simply deny the right of the other side to come to its own
•conclusion at all. But it is a contrary opposition, because neither
side denies that the other is, in itself, coherent and valid, but
sets up against it another line of argument, also coherent and
valid, which leads to an opposite and incompatible conclusion.
We have not reasons for and against a particular position, but
reasons for two positions which deny one another.
If the opposition had been contradictory, there could have
been no hope of a synthesis. We should have ended with two
propositions, one of which was a mere denial of the other — the
one, that the universe is eternally rational, the other, that this
is not the case. And between two merely contradictory pro-
positions, as Trendelenburg points out, there can be no possible
192 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
synthesis^. One only affirms, and the other only denies. And,
between simple affirmation and simple negation, we can find
nothing which will succeed in reconciling them. For their whole
meaning is summed up in their denial of one another, and if,
with their reconciliation, the reciprocal denial vanished, the whole
meaning would vanish also, leaving nothing but a blank. Instead
of having equally strong grounds to believe two different things,
we should have no grounds to believe either. Any real opposition
may conceivably be synthesised. But it is as impossible to get
a harmony out of an absolute blank, as it is to get anything else.
Here, however, when we have two positive conclusions, which
appear indeed to be incompatible, but have more in them than
simple incompatibility, it is not impossible that a higher notion
could be found, by which each should be recognised as true, and
by which it should be seen that they were really not mutually
exclusive.
The thesis and antithesis in Hegel's logic always stand to one
another in a relation of contrary opposition. In the higher stages,
no doubt, the antithesis is more than a mere opposite of the
thesis, and already contains an element of synthesis. But the
element of opposition, which is always there, is always an opposi-
tion of contraries. Hence it does not seem impossible that this
further case of contrary opposition should be dealt with on Hegel's
principle. Incompatible as the two terms seem at present, they
can hardly seem more hopelessly opposed than many pairs of
contraries in the dialectic seem, before their syntheses are found.
172. It is possible, also, to see some reasons why such a
solution, if possible at all, should not be possible yet, and why
it would be delayed till the last abstraction should be removed,
as the dialectic process rebuilds concrete realities. Our aim is
to reconcile the fact that the Absolute Idea exists eternally in
its full perfection, with the fact that it manifests itself as some-
thing incomplete and imperfect. Now the Absolute Idea only
becomes known to us through a process and consequently as
something incomplete and imperfect. We have to grasp its
moments successively, and to be led on from the lower to the
higher. And, in like manner, all our knowledge of its manifesta-
^ Logische Untersuchungen, Vol. i. p. 56.
v] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 193
tions must come to us in the form of a process, since it
must come gradually. We cannot expect to see how all process
should only be an element in a timeless reality, so long as we
can only think of the timeless reality by means of a process.
But, sub specie aeternitatis, it might be that the difficulty would
vanish,
I am not, of course, trying to argue that there is such a recon-
ciliation of these two extremes, or that there is the slightest
positive evidence that a reconciliation can exist. As we have seen
above, the eternal realisation of the Absolute Idea, and the
existence of change and evil, are, for us as we are, absolutely
incompatible, nor can we even imagine a way in which they
should cease to be so. If we could imagine such a way we should
have solved the problem, for, as it would be the only chance of
rescuing our knowledge from hopeless confusion, we should be
justified in taking it.
All I wish to suggest is that it is conceivable that there should
be such a synthesis, although we cannot at present conceive what
it could be like, and that, although there is no positive evidence
for it, there is no evidence against it. And as either the incom-
patibiUty of the two propositions, or the evidence for one of them,
must be a mistake, we may have at any rate a hope that some
solution may lie in this direction.
173. If indeed we were absolutely certain that neither the
arguments for the eternal perfection of the Absolute Idea, nor
the arguments for the existence of process and change, were
erroneous, we should be able to go beyond this negative position,
and assert positively the existence of the synthesis, although we
should be as unable as before to comprehend of what nature
it could be. We could then avail ourselves of Mr Bradley's maxim,
"what may be and must be, certainly is." That the synthesis
must exist would, on the hypothesis we are considering, be
beyond doubt. For if both the lines of argument which lead
respectively to the eternal reality of the Absolute Idea, and to
the existence of change, could be known, not merely to be at
present unrefuted, but to be true, then they must somehow be
compatible. That all truth is harmonious is the postulate of
reasoning, the denial of which would abolish all tests of truth
M. H. 13
194 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
and falsehood, and so make all judgment unmeaning. And since
the two propositions are, as we have seen throughout this chapter,
incompatible as they stand in their immediacy, the only way
in which they can possibly be made compatible is by a synthesis
which transcends them and so unites them.
Can we then say of such a synthesis that it may be? Of course
it is only possible to do so negatively. A positive assertion that
there was no reason whatever why a thing should not exist could
only be obtained by a complete knowledge of it, and, if we had
a complete knowledge of it, it would not be necessary to resort
to indirect proof to discover whether it existed or not. But we
have, it would seem, a right to say that no reason appears why
it should not exist. If the Hegelian dialectic is true (and, except
on this hypothesis, our difficulty would not have arisen), we
know that predicates which seem to be contrary can be united
and harmonised by a synthesis. And the fact that such a syn-
thesis is not conceivable by us need not make us consider it
impossible. Till such a synthesis is found, it must always appear
inconceivable, and that it has not yet been found implies nothing
more than that the world, considered as a process, has not yet
worked out its full meaning.
174. But we must admit that the actual result is rather
damaging to the prospects of Hegelianism. We may, as I have
tried to show, be sure, that, if Hegel's dialectic is true, then such
a synthesis must be possible, because it is the only way of har-
monising all the facts. At the same time, the fact that the
dialectic cannot be true, unless some synthesis which we do not
know, and whose nature we cannot even conceive, relieves it
from an obstacle which would otherwise be fatal, certainly lessens
the chance that it is true, even if no error in it has yet been dis-
covered. For our only right to accept such an extreme hypothesis
lies in the impossibility of finding any other way out of the
dilemma. And the more violent the consequences to which an
argument leads us, the greater is the antecedent probability that
some flaw has been left undetected.
Not only does such a theory lose the strength which comes
from the successful solution of all problems presented to it, but
it is compelled to rely, with regard to this particular proposition.
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 195
on a possibility which we cannot at present fully grasp,
even in imagination, and the realisation of which would
perhaps involve the transcending of all discursive thought.
Under these circumstances it is clear that our confidence in
Hegel's system must be considerably less than that which was
possessed by its author, who had not realised the tentative and
incomplete condition to which this difficulty inevitably reduced
his position.
The result of these considerations, however, is perhaps on
the whole more positive than negative. They can scarcely urge
us to more careful scrutiny of all the details of the dialectic than
would be required in any case by the complexity of the subjects
with which it deals. And, on the other hand, they do supply us,
as it seems to me, with a ground for believing that neither time
nor imperfection forms an insuperable objection to the dialectic.
If the dialectic is not valid in itself, we shall any way have no
right to believe it. And if it is valid in itself, we shall not only
be entitled, but we shall be bound, to believe that one more
synthesis remains, as yet unknown to us, which shall overcome
the last and most persistent of the contradictions inherent in
appearance.
175. Note. — After this chapter, in a slightly different form,
had appeared in Mind, it was criticised by Mr F. C. S. Schiller,
in an article entitled "The Metaphysics of the Time Process."
{Mind, N. S. Vol. iv. No. 13.) I have endeavoured to consider
his acute and courteous objections to my view with that care
which they merit, but I have not succeeded in finding in them
any reason for changing the position indicated in the preceding
sections. I have already discussed one of Mr Schiller's objections^,
and there are some others on which I will now venture to make
a few remarks.
Mr Schiller complains that I overlook "the curious incon-
sistency of denying the metaphysical value of Time, and yet
expecting from the Future the discovery of the ultimate syn-
thesis on which one's whole metaphysics depends^." It was not,
of course, from the advance of time as such, but from the more
complete manifestation through time of the timeless reality that
1 Chap. in. Section 96. ^ Qp^ cit. p. 37.
13—2
196 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
I ventured to expect a solution. But it is, no doubt, true that
I did express a hope of the discovery of a synthesis which has
not yet been discovered, so that its discovery must be an event
in time. I fail, however, to see the inconsistency. Time is
certainly, on the theory which I have put forward, only an
appearance and an illusion. But then, on the same theory, the
inconsistency which requires a synthesis is also an illusion. And
so is the necessity of discovering a synthesis for two aspects of
reality which are really eternally moments in a harmonious
whole.
Sub sfecie aeternitatis, the temporal process is not, as such,
real, and can produce nothing new. But then, sub specie aeterni-
tatis, if there is an ultimate synthesis, it does not require to be
produced, for it exists eternally. Nor does the contradiction
require to be removed, for, if there is a synthesis, the contra-
diction never, sub specie aeternitatis, existed at all. Sub specie
temporis, on the other hand, the contradiction has to be removed,
and the synthesis discovered. But, sub specie teynporis, the time
process exists, and can produce something new.
The inconsistency of which Mr Schiller accuses me comes
only from combining the assertions that a change is required,
and that no change is possible, as if they were made from
the same standpoint. But, on the theory in question, the j&rst
is only true when we look at things from the standpoint of
time, and the second when we look at them from the stand-
point of the timeless idea. That the possible solution is incom-
prehensible, I have fully admitted. But I cannot see that it is
inconsistent.
176. Mr Schiller further says, if I understand him rightly,
that it is obviously impossible that Hegel could have accounted
for time, since he started with an abstraction which did not
include it. Without altogether adopting Mr Schiller's explana-
tions of the motives of idealist philosophers we may agree with
him when he says that their conceptions "were necessarily
abstract, and among the things they abstracted from ivas the time-
aspect of Reality'^" He then continues, "Once abstracted from,
the reference to Time, could not, of course, be recovered.'' And,
^ Op. cit. p. 38.
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 197
a little later on, " You must pay the price for a formula that will
enable you to make assertions that hold good far beyond the
hmits of your experience. And part of the price is that you will
in the end be unable to give a rational explanation of those very
characteristics, which had been dismissed at the outset as irre-
levant to a rational explanation."
I have admitted that Hegel has failed, not indeed to give a
deduction of time, but to give one which would be consistent
^vith the rest of his system. But this is a result which, as it
seems to me, can only be arrived at by examining in detail the
deduction he does give, and cannot be settled beforehand by
the consideration that the abstraction he starts from excludes
time. Such an objection would destroy the whole dialectic. For
Hegel starts with pure Being, precisely because it is the most
complete abstraction possible, with the minimum of meaning
that any term can have. And if nothing which was abstracted
from could ever be restored, the dialectic process, which consists
of nothing else than the performance of this operation, would
be completely invalid.
I have endeavoured to show in the earlier chapters that there
is nothing unjustified in such an advance from abstract to con-
crete. Of course, if we make an abstraction, as we do in geometry,
with the express intention of adhering to it uncritically through-
out our treatment of the subject, and ignoring any inaccuracy
as irrelevant for our present purposes, — then, no doubt, our final
conclusions must have the same abstractness as our original
premises. But this is very unlike the position of the dialectic.
Here we begin with the most complete abstraction we can find,
for the express purpose of seeing how far we can, by criticism
of it, be forced to consider it inadequate, and so to substitute
for it more concrete notions which remedy its incompleteness.
Eight or wrong, this can scarcely be disposed of as obviously
impossible.
Nor does it seem quite correct to say that Hegel's philosophy
was "constructed to give an account of the world irrespective
of Time and Change^," if, as appears to be the case, "constructed
to give" implies a purpose. Hegel's purpose was not to give
1 Op. cit. p. 38.
198 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch.
any particular account of the universe, but to give one which
should be self-consistent, and he declared time and change to
be only appearances, because he found it impossible to give a
consistent account of the universe if he treated time and
change as ultimate realities. He may have been wrong, but
his decision was the result of argument, and not a preconceived
purpose.
177. Mr Schiller suggests that the whole device of using
abstract laws and generalisations at all in knowledge is one which
is justified by its success, and which may be discarded, in whole
or in part, for another, if another should promise better. "Why
should we want to calculate the facts by such universal formulas ?
The answer to this question brings us to the roots of the matter.
We make the fundamental assumption of science, that there are
universal and eternal laws, i.e. that the individuality of things
together with their spatial and temporal context may be neglected,
not because we are convinced of its theoretic validity, but because
we are constrained by its practical convenience. We want to be
able to make predictions about the future behaviour of things for the
purpose of shaping our own conduct accordingly. Hence attempts
to forecast the future have been the source of half the super-
stitions of mankind. But no method of divination ever invented
could compete in ingenuity and gorgeous simplicity with the
assumption of universal laws which hold good without reference
to time; and so in the long run it alone could meet the want or
practical necessity in question.
"In other words that assumption is a methodological device
and ultimately reposes on the practical necessity of discovering
formulas for calculating events in the rough, without awaiting
or observing their occurrence. To assert this methodological
character of eternal truths is not, of course, to deny their validity,
— for it is evident that unless the nature of the world had lent
itself to a very considerable extent to such interpretation, the
assumption of 'eternal' laws would have served our purposes
as little as those of astrology, chiromancy, necromancy, and
catoptromancy. What however must be asserted is that this
assumption is not an ultimate term in the explanation of the
world.
V] THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME 199
"That does not, of course, matter to Science, which is not
concerned with such ultimate explanation, and for which the
assumption is at all events ultimate enough. But it does matter
to philosophy that the idtimate theoretic assumption should
have a methodological character^."
178. But, I reply, our habit of abstracting and generahsing
(and all universal laws are nothing more than this) is not a tool
that we can take up or lay down at pleasure, as a carpenter takes
up or lays down a particular chisel, which he finds suited or
unsuited to the work immediately before him. It is rather the
essential condition of all thought — perhaps it would be better
to say an essential moment in all thought. All thought consists
in processes which may be described as abstractions and generali-
sations. It is true, of course, that we could have no thought
unless the complex and the particular were given to us. But it
is no less true that everything which thought does with what
is given to it involves abstraction and generalisation.
If we had merely unrelated particulars before us we should
not be conscious. And even if we were conscious, unrelated par-
ticulars could certainly give us no knowledge. We can have no
knowledge without, at the lowest, comparison. And to compare
— to perceive a similar element in things otherwise dissimilar,
or the reverse — is to abstract and to generalise. Again to find
any relation whatever between two particulars is to abstract and
to generalise. If we say, for example, that a blow causes a bruise,
this is to separate and abstract one quality from the large number
which are connoted by the word blow, and it is also to generalise,
since it is to assert that a blow stands in the same relation to a
bruise, as, let us say, friction to heat.
Without abstraction and generahsation, then, we can have
no knowledge, and so they are not a methodological device but
a necessity of our thought. It is, indeed, not certain beforehand
that the laws which are the result of generalisation and abstrac-
tion will be, as Mr Schiller says, "eternal," that is, will disregard
time. But if the result of the criticism of reality does lead us
to laws which do not accept time as an ultimate reality, and
if these laws do, as I have admitted they do, plunge us into
^ Op. cit. p. 42.
^
200 THE RELATION OF THE DIALECTIC TO TIME [ch. v
considerable difficulties, still we cannot, as Mr Schiller seems to
wish, reject the process of generalisation and abstraction if, or
in as far as, it does not turn out well. For it is our only mode
of thought, and the very act of thought which rejected it would
embody it, and be dependent on it.
There remain other points of high interest in Mr Schiller's
paper — his conception of metaphysics as ultimately ethical, and
his view of what may be hoped for from time, regarded as real
and not as merely appearance. But he is here constructive and
no longer critical, and it would be beyond the purpose of this
note to attempt to follow him.
CHAPTER VI
THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC
179. From a practical point of view the chief interest in Hegel's
system must centre in the last stages of the Philosophy of Spirit.
Even if we hold that the pure thought of the Logic is the logical
frius of the whole dialectic, and that all Nature and Spirit stand
in a purely dependent relation, still our most vital interest must
be in that part of the system which touches and interprets the
concrete life of Spirit which we ourselves share. And this interest
will be yet stronger in those who hold the view, which I have
endeavoured to expound in previous chapters, that the logical
'prius of the system is not pure thought but Spirit. For then, in
the highest forms of Spirit we shall see reaUty in its truest and
deepest meaning, from which all other aspects of reality — whether
in Logic, in Nature, or in the lower forms of Spirit— are but
abstractions, and to which they must return as the only escape
from the contradiction and inadequacy which is manifested in
them. Upon this view the highest form, in which Spirit manifests
itself, will be the ultimate meaning of all things.
Many students must have experienced some disappointment
when, turning to the end of the Philosophy of Spirit, they found
that its final stage was simply Philosophy. It is true that any
thinker, who has the least sympathy with Hegel, must assign
to philosophy a sufliciently important place in the nature of
things. Hegel taught that the secrets of the universe opened
themselves to us, but only on condition of deep and systematic
thought, and the importance of philosophy was undiminished
either by scepticism or by appeals to the healthy instincts of
the plain man. But there is some difference between taking
philosophy as the supreme and completely adequate means, and
admitting it to be the supreme end. There is some difference
between holding that philosophy is the knowledge of the highest
form of reality, and holding that it is itself the highest form of
reality.
202 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
It seems to me that Hegel has been untrue to the tendencies
of his own system in seeking the ultimate reaUty of Spirit in
philosophy alone, and that, on his own premises, he ought to
have looked for a more comprehensive explanation. What that
should have been, I shall not attempt to determine. I only wish
to show that it should have been something more than philosophy.
180. Hegel does not give any very detailed account of philo-
sophy, considered as the highest expression of reality. Most of
the space devoted, in the Philosophy of Spirit, to Philosophy
is occupied in defending it against the charge of pantheism —
in Hegel's use of the word. The following are the passages which
appear most significant for our purpose.
571. "These three syllogisms" (i.e. of religion) "constituting
the one syllogism of the absolute self-mediation of spirit, are
the revelation of that spirit whose life is set out as a cycle of
concrete shapes in pictorial thought. From this its separation
into parts, with a temporal and external sequence, the unfolding
of the mediation contracts itself in the result — where the spirit
closes in unity with itself, — not merely to the simplicity of faith
and devotional feeling, but even to thought. In the immanent
simpHcity of thought the unfolding still has its expansion, yet
is all the while known as an indivisible coherence of the universal,
simple, and eternal spirit in itself. In this form of truth, truth
is the object of philosophy."...
572. Philosophy " is the unity of Art and Religion. Whereas
the vision-method of Art, external in point of form, is but sub-
jective production and shivers the substantial content into many
separate shapes, and whereas Religion, with its separation into
parts, opens it out in mental picture, and mediates what is thus
opened out; Philosophy not merely keeps them together to make
a total, but even unifies them into the simple spiritual vision,
and then in that raises them to self-conscious thought. Such
consciousness is thus the intelligible unity (cognised by thought)
of art and religion, in which the diverse elements in the content
are cognised as necessary, and this necessary as free,"
573. "Philosophy thus characterises itself as a cognition of
the necessity in the content of the absolute picture-idea, as also
of the necessity in the two forms — on the one hand, immediate
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 203
vision and its poetry, and the objective and external revelation
presupposed by representation, — on the other hand, first the
subjective retreat inwards, then the subjective movement of
faith and its final identification with the presupposed object.
This cognition is thus the recognition of this content and its form ;
it is the liberation from the one-sidedness of the forms, elevation
of them into the absolute form, which determines itself to con-
tent, remains identical with it, and is in that the cognition of
that essential and actual necessity. This movement, which philo-
sophy is, finds itself already accomplished, when at the close it
seizes its own notion, — i.e. only looks back on its knowledge."...
574. "This notion of philosophy is the self-thinking Idea, the
truth aware of itself (Section 236), — the logical system, but with
the signification that it is universality approved and certified
in concrete content as in its actuality. In this way the science
has gone back to its beginning: its result is the logical system
but as a spiritual principle: out of the presupposing judgment,
in which the notion was only implicit, and the beginning an
immediate, — and thus out of the appearance which it had there
— it has risen into its pure principle, and thus also into its proper
medium,"
181. The word Philosophy, in its ordinary signification,
denotes a purely intellectual activity. No doubt, whenever we
philosophise we are acting, and we are also feeling either pleasure
or pain. But philosophy itself is knowledge, it is neither action
nor feehng. And there seems nothing in Hegel's account of it
to induce us to change the meaning of the word in this respect.
It is true that he speaks of philosophy as the union of art and
rehgion. Both art and religion are more than mere knowledge,
since they both present aspects of volition and of feeling. But,
if we look back on his treatment of art and religion as separate
stages, we shall see that he confines himself almost entirely to
the truth which lies in them, ignoring the other elements. And
when, in Section 572, he points out how philosophy is the unity
of these two, it is merely as expressing the truth more completely
than they do, that he gives it this position. There is nothing said
of a higher or deeper ideal of good, nothing of any increased
harmony between our ideal and our surroundings, nothing of
204 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
any greater or deeper pleasure. Philosophy is "the intelligible
unity (cognised by thought) of art and religion, in which the
diverse elements in the content are cognised as necessary, and
this necessary as free."
We are thus, it would seem, bound down to the view that
Hegel considered the supreme nature of Spirit to be expressed
as knowledge, and as knowledge only. There are two senses in
which we might take this exaltation of philosophy. We might
suppose it to apply to philosophy as it exists at present, not
covering the whole field of human knowledge, but standing side
by side with the sciences and with the mass of unsystematised
knowledge, claiming indeed a supremacy over all other sources
of knowledge, but by no means able to dispense with their
assistance. Or we might suppose that this high position was
reserved for philosophy, when, as might conceivably happen, it
shall have absorbed all knowledge into itself, so that every fact
shall be seen as completely conditioned, and as united to all the
others by the nature of the Absolute Idea. Which of these
meanings Hegel intended to adopt does not seem to be very
clear, but neither appears, on closer examination, to be accept-
able as a complete and satisfactory account of the deepest nature
of Spirit.
182. Let us consider first philosophy as we have it at present.
In this form it can scarcely claim to be worthy of this supreme
place. It may, no doubt, reasonably consider itself as the highest
activity of Spirit — at any rate in the department of cognition.
But in order to stand at the end of the development of Spirit
it must be more than this. It must not only be the highest
activity of Spirit, but one in which all the others are swallowed
up and transcended. It must have overcome and removed all
the contradictions, all the inadequacies, which belong to the
lower forms in which Spirit manifests itself.
Now all the knowledge which philosophy gives us is, from
one point of view, abstract, and so imperfect. It teaches us
what the fundamental nature of reality is, and what, therefore,
everything must be. But it does not pretend to show us how
everything partakes of that nature — to trace out in every detail
of the universe that rationality which, on general grounds, it
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 205
asserts to be in it. It could not, indeed, do this, for, in order to
trace the Notion in every detail, it would have first to discover
what every detail was. And this it cannot do. For what the
facts are in which the Notion manifests itself, we must learn
not from philosophy but from experience.
183. But, it may be said, Hegel did not accept this view. He
held that it was possible, from the nature of the pure Idea, to
deduce the nature of the facts in which it manifested itself, and
on this theory philosophy would cover the whole field of know-
ledge, and our criticism would fall to the ground.
My object here, however, is to show that Hegel's view of the
ultimate nature of Spirit is inconsistent with the general prin-
ciples established in his Logic, and not that it is inconsistent
with the rest of his attempts to apply the Logic. Even, there-
fore, if Hegel had attempted to deduce particular facts from
the Logic, it would be sufficient for my present purpose to
point out, as I have endeavoured to do above, that, on his
own premises, he had no right to make the attempt. But,
as I have also tried to show, he never does attempt to deduce
facts from the Logic, but only to interpret and explain them
by iti.
Moreover, whether we are to consider the applications of the
Logic as deductions or as explanations, it is perfectly clear that
they are limited in their scope. Hegel says, more than once,
that certain details are too insignificant and contingent to permit
us to trace their speculative meaning. Even in the cases which
he works out most fully, there is always a residuum left un-
explained. He may have pushed his desire to find speculative
meanings in biological details beyond the limits of prudence,
but he never attempted to find any significance in the precise
number of zoological species. He may have held that the
perfection of the Prussian constitution was philosophically
demonstrable, but he made no endeavour to explain, from the
nature of the Idea, the exact number of civil servants in the
employment of the Crown. And yet these are facts, which can
be learned by experience, which are links in chains of causes
and effects, and which, hke everything else in the universe, the
^ Chap. II. Sections 55-57.
206 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
dialectic declares on general grounds must rest on something,
which is rational because it is real.
Philosophy then must be contented with an abstract demon-
stration that things must be rational, without being able in all
cases to show how they are rational. Part of our knowledge will
thus remain on an empirical basis, and the sphere of philosophy
will be doubly limited. Not only will it be limited to knowledge,
but to certain departments of knowledge. An activity which
leaves so much of the workings of Spirit untouched cannot be
accepted as adequately expressing by itself the ultimate nature
of Spirit. Indeed, taken by itself, philosophy proclaims its own
inadequacy. For it must assert things to be completely rational,
and therefore completely explicable, which, all the same, it
cannot succeed in completely explaining.
184. It has been asserted that it is natural and right that
Hegel's system should end simply with philosophy, since it is
simply with philosophy that it begins. Thus Erdmann says: "It
is with intelligible sarcasm that Hegel was accustomed to mention
those who, when the exposition had reached this point, supposed
that now for the first time (as if in a philosophy of philosophy)
that which was peculiar and distinctive had been reached. Rather
has everything already been treated, and it only remains to
complete by a survey of it the circle of the system, so that its
presence becomes an Encyclopaedia. If, that is to say, religion
fallen into discord with thought (as, for that matter, the Pheno-
menology of Spirit had already shown) leads to speculative, free
thought, while logic had begun with the determination to realise
such thought, then the end of the Philosophy of Religion coin-
cides with the beginning of the Logic, and the requirement laid
down by Fichte that the system be a circle is fulfilled^."
This, however, scarcely disposes of the difficulty. The object
of philosophy is not simply to account for the existence of philo-
sophy. It aims at discovering the ultimate nature of all reality.
To start with philosophising, and to end by explaining why we
must philosophise, is indeed a circle, but a very limited one,
which leaves out of account most of our knowledge and most of
our action, unless we are prepared to prove independently that
^ History of Philosophy, Section 329, 9.
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 207
all reality is synthesised in the conscious spirit, and all the reality
of the conscious spirit is synthesised in philosophising. Without
this proof philosophy would leave vast provinces of experience
completely outside its influence — a position which may be modest,
but is certainly not Hegelian.
It is true that, on the way to Philosophy as it occurs at the
end of the Philosophy of Spirit, Hegel goes through many other
branches of human activity and experience. But since the process
is a dialectic, the whole meaning of the process must be taken
as summed up in the last term. Either then we must make
philosophy include all knowledge— to say nothing, for the present,
of anything besides knowledge — or else we must admit at once
that Hegel is wrong in making philosophy the highest point of
Spirit, since at that point we have to find something which
adequately expresses all reality, and philosophy, in the ordinary
sense of the word, does not even include all cognition of reality.
185. Let us take then the second meaning of philosophy —
that in which we conceive it developed till all knowledge forms
one harmonious whole, so that no single fact remains contingent
and irrational.
This ideal may be conceived in two ways. Philosophy would,
in the first place, become equivalent to the whole of knowledge,
if pure thought could ever reach the goal, at which it has been
sometimes asserted that Hegel's dialectic was aiming, and deduce
all reality from its own nature, without the assistance of any
immediately given data. If this could ever happen, then, no
doubt, philosophy and knowledge would be coincident. The only
reality would be pure thought. The nature of that thought would
be given us by the dialectic, and so philosophy would be able
to explain completely the whole of reality.
But, as we have seen above^, such a goal is impossible and
contradictory. For thought is only a mediating activity, and
requires something to mediate. This need not, indeed, be any-
thing alien to it. The whole content of the reality, which thought
mediates, may itself be nothing but thought. But whatever the
nature of that reality, it must be given to thought in each case
from outside, as a datum. Supposing nothing but thought existed,
^ Chap. II. Sections 55-57.
208 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
still in the fact that it existed, that it was there, we should have
an immediate certainty, which could no more be deduced from
the nature of thought, than the reality of a hundred thalers could
be deduced from the idea of them.
It is thus impossible that any acquaintance with the nature
of thought could ever dispense us with the necessity of having
some immediate datum, which could not be deduced, but must
be accepted, and we have seen that there are reasons for believing
that Hegel never proposed to philosophy such an impossible and
suicidal end. There is, however, another sense in which it is
possible to suppose that philosophy may become coincident with
the whole of knowledge, and thereby make knowledge one single,
symmetrical, and perfectly rational system. And it may be said
that when philosophy has thus broadened itself to include all
knowledge, it may be taken as expressing adequately the whole
nature of spirit, and therefore, on Hegel's system, of all reality.
Let us examine more closely what would be the nature of such
a perfected knowledge.
186. All knowledge must have immediate data, which are not
deduced but given. But it does not follow that knowledge must
consequently be left imperfect, and with ragged edges. That
which indicates the defect of knowledge is not immediacy, but
contingency, in the Hegelian sense of the word, that is, the
necessity of explanation from outside. Now all data of knowledge
as originally given us, by the outer senses or through introspection,
are not only immediate but contingent. But the two qualities
do not necessarily go together, and we can conceive a state of
things, in which knowledge should rest on data — or, rather, on
a datum — which should be immediate, without being contingent.
Supposing that the theory of the nature of reality, which
Hegel lays down in his Logic, is true, then, if knowledge were
perfect, the abstract certainty (Gewissheit) of what must be
would be transformed into complete knowledge (Erkennen) of
what is. We should then perceive all reality under the only form
which, according to Hegel, can be really adequate to it — that
is, as a unity of spirits, existing only in their connection with
one another. We should see that the whole nature of each indi-
vidual was expressed in these relations with others. And we
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 209
should see that that nature, which was what marked him out
as an individual, was not to be conceived as something merely-
particular and exclusive, so that reality consisted of a crowd or
aggregate of separate individuals. On the contrary the nature
of each individual is to be taken as determined by his place in
a whole, which we must conceive on the analogy of an organism,
— a unity manifesting itself in multipUcity. The individual has
his entire nature in the manifestation of this whole, as the whole,
in turn, is nothing else but its manifestation in individuals.
Through this unity the parts will mutually determine one another,
so that from any one all the rest could, with sufl&cient insight,
be deduced, and so that no change could be made in any without
affecting all. This complete interdependence is only approxi-
mately realised in the unity which is found in a picture or a
living being, but in the Absolute the unity must be conceived
as far closer than aesthetic or organic unity, though we can only
imagine it by aid of the analogies which these afford us. And
in this complete interdependence and mutual determination
each individual would find his fullest self-development. For his
relations with others express his place in the whole, and it is
this place in the whole which expresses his deepest individuality.
If knowledge ever did fill out the sketch that the Hegelian
logic gives, it must be in some such form as this that it would
do so. For it is, I think, clear, from the category of the Absolute
Idea, that reality can only be found in selves, which have their
whole existence in finding themselves in harmony with other
selves. And this plurality of selves, again, must be conceived,
not as a mere aggregate, but as a unity whose intimacy and
strength is only inadequately represented by the idea of Organism.
For, if not, then the relations would be merely external and
secondary, as compared with the reality of the individuals
between whom the relations existed. And this would be incom-
patible with Hegel's declaration that the individuals have their
existence for self only in their relation to others.
187. Of course such an ideal of knowledge is indefinitely
remote as compared with our present condition. It would
require, in the first place, a knowledge of all the facts in the uni-
verse — from which we are now separated by no inconsiderable
M. H. 14
210 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
interval. And, at the same time, it would require a great
increase in the depth and keenness of view which we can bring
to bear in knowledge, if all that part of reality which we only
perceive at present under the lower categories of Being and
Essence, is to be brought under the Absolute Idea, and, in place
of the inorganic, the merely animal, and the imperfectly spiritual,
which now presents itself to us, we are to see the universe as a
whole of self-conscious selves, in perfect unity with one another.
But that the ideal should be remote from our present state
need not surprise us. For it is the point at which the world-
process culminates, and whatever view we may hold as to the
ultimate reality of the conception of process, it is clear enough
that, from any point of view which admits of the conception
of process at all, we must have a long way still to go before
we reach a consummation which leaves the universe perfectly
rational and perfectly righteous. It would be more suspicious
if any ideal not greatly removed from our present state should
be held out to us as a complete and adequate satisfaction. It
is enough that this ideal is one which, if Hegel's logic be true,
must be attainable sub specie temporis, because, sub specie aeter-
nitatis, it is the only reahty. And it is an ideal which is not self-
contradictory, for the immediacy of the data is retained, although
their contingency has vanished.
The immediacy is retained, because we should have, as a given
fact, to which reason mounts in the process of discovery, and
on which it bases its demonstrations in the process of explana-
tion, that there are such and such selves, and that they are
connected in such and such a way. On the other hand, the
contingency has vanished. For while everything is determined,
nothing is determined merely from outside. The universe presents,
indeed, an aspect of multiplicity, but then it is not a mere
multiplicity. The universe is a super-organic unity^, and there-
fore, when one part of it is determined by another, it is deter-
^ This expression is, I believe, new. I fear that it is very barbarous. But there
seems a necessity for some such phrase to denote that supreme unity, which,
just because it is perfect unity, is compatible with, and indeed requires, the
complete differentiation and individuality of its parts. To call such unity merely
organic is dangerous. For in an organism the unity is not complete, nor the parts
fully individual (cp. Hegel's treatment of the subject under the category of Life).
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 211
mined by the idea of the whole, which is also in itself, and the
determination is not dependent on something alien, but on the
essential nature of that which is determined. Hence determina-
tion appears as self-development, and necessity, as Hegel points
out at the beginning of the Doctrine of the Notion, reveals itself
as in reality freedom.
188. Neither this, nor any other possible system of knowledge,
could give us any ground of determination for the universe as
a whole, since there is nothing outside it, by which it could be
determined. This, however, would not render our knowledge
defective. If we reached this point the only question which
would remain unanswered would be: — Why is the universe as
a whole what it is, and not something else? And this question
could not be answered. But we must not infer from this the
incomplete rationality of the universe. For the truth is that the
question ought never to have been asked. It is unmeaning, since
it applies a category, which has significance only inside the
universe, to the universe as a whole. Of any part we are entitled
and bound to ask Why, for by the very fact that it is a part, it
cannot be directly self-determined, and must depend on other
things^. But, when we speak of an all-embracing totality, then,
with the possibility of finding a cause, disappears also the
necessity for finding one. Independent and uncaused existence
is not in itself a contradictory or impossible idea. It is con-
tradictory when it is applied to anything in the universe, for
whatever is in the universe must be in connection with other
things. But this can of course be no reason for suspecting a
fallacy when we find ourselves obliged to use the idea in reference
to the universe as a whole, which has nothing outside it with
which it could stand in connection.
Indeed the suggestion, that it is possible that the universe
should have been different from what it is, would, in such a
state of knowledge, possess no meaning. For, from the complete
interdependence of all the parts, it would follow that if it was
different at all, it must be different completely. And a possibility
^ The parts of a super-organic whole are, indeed, self-determined, but not
directly. Their self-determination comes through their determination by the
other parts.
14—2
212 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
which has no common element with actuality, which would be
the case here, is a mere abstraction which is devoid of all value.
This, then, is the highest point to which knowledge, as know-
ledge, can attain, upon Hegel's principles. Everything is known,
and everything is known to be completely rational. And, although
our minds cannot help throwing a shadow of contingency and
irrationality over the symmetrical structure, by asking, as it is
always possible to ask, what determined the whole to be what
it is, and why it is not otherwise, yet reflection convinces us
that the question is unjustifiable, and indeed unmeaning, and
that the inability to answer it can be no reason for doubting
the completely satisfactory nature of the result at which we have
arrived.
189. But even when knowledge has reached this point, is it
an adequate expression of the complete nature of reality? This
question, I think, must be answered in the negative. We have,
it is true, come to the conclusion, — if we have gone so far with
Hegel — that Spirit is the only and the all-sufficient reality. But
knowledge does not exhaust the nature of Spirit. The simplest
introspection will show us that, besides knowledge, we have also
volition, and the feehng of pleasure and pain. These are frima
facie different from knowledge, and it does not seem possible
that they should ever be reduced to it. Knowledge, volition,
and feeling remain, in spite of all such attempts, distinct and
independent. They are not, indeed, independent, in the sense
that any of them can exist without the others. Nor is it im-
possible that they might be found to be aspects of a unity which
embraces and transcends them all. But they are independent
in so far that neither of the others can be reduced to, or tran-
scended by, knowledge.
Let us first consider volition. Volition and knowledge have
this common element, that they are activities which strive to
bring about a harmony between the conscious self and its sur-
roundings. But in the manner in which they do this they are
the direct antitheses of one another. In knowledge the self
endeavours to conform itself to its surroundings. In volition, on
the other hand, it demands that its surroundings shall conform
to itself. Of course the knowing mind is far from being inactive
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 213
in knowledge — it is only by means of its own activity that it
arrives at the objective truth which is its aim. Nor is the self
by any means purely active in volition. For it has sometimes
only to recognise and approve a harmony already existing, and
not to produce one by its action. And sometimes the surroundings
react on the self, and develop it or crush it into acquiescence in
facts against which it would previously have protested.
But it remains true that in knowledge the aim of the self is
to render its own state a correct mirror of the objective reality,
and that, in so far as it fails to do this, it condemns its own state
as false and mistaken. In volition, on the contrary, its aim is
that objective reality shall carry out the demands made by the
inner nature of the self. In so far as reality fails to do this,
the self condemns it as wrong. Now this is surely a fundamental
difference. Starting with the aim, which is common to both,
that a harmony is to be established, what greater difference can
exist between two ways of carrying out this aim, than that one
way demands that the subject shall conform to the object, while
the other way demands that the object shall conform to the
subject?
190. We may put this in another way. The aim of knowledge
is the true. The aim of volition is the good (in the widest sense
of the word, in which it includes all that we desire, since all that
is desired at all, is desired sub specie honi). Now one of these
aims cannot be reduced to the other. There is no direct transition
from truth to goodness, nor from goodness to truth. We may
of course come to the conclusion, which Hegel has attempted
to demonstrate, that the content of the two ideas is the same,
that the deepest truth is the highest good, and the highest good
is the deepest truth, that whatever is real is righteous, and what-
ever is righteous is real. But we can only do this by finding out
independently what is true and what is good, and by proving
that they coincide.
If we have come to this conclusion, and established it to our
own satisfaction as a general principle, we are entitled, no doubt,
to apply it in particular cases where the identity is not evident.
To those, for example, who have satisfied themselves of the
existence of a benevolent God, it is perfectly open to argue that
214 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
we must be immortal, because the absence of immortality would
make life a ghastly farce, or, by a converse process, that tooth-
ache must be good because God sends it. But if the harmony
of the two sides has not been established by the demonstration
of the existence of a benevolent and omnipotent power, or of
some other ground for the same conclusion, such an argument
depends on an unjustifiable assumption.
There is nothing in the mere fact of a thing's existence to
make it desired or desirable by us. There is nothing in the mere
fact that a thing is desired or desirable by us to make it exist.
Two mental activities for which the test of vahdity is respectively
existence and desirability must surely, therefore, be coordinate,
without any possibility of reducing the one to a case or applica-
tion of the other. If indeed we considered volition as merely
that which leads to action, it might be considered less fimdamental
than knowledge, since it would inevitably disappear in a state
of perfect harmony. But voHtion must be taken to include all
affirmations of an ideal in relation to existence, including those
which lead to no action because they do not find reaUty to be
discrepant with them. And in this case we shall have to consider
it as fundamental an activity of Spirit as knowledge is, and one,
therefore, which cannot be ignored in favour of knowledge when
we are investigating the completely adequate form of Spirit.
191. No doubt the fact that knowledge and volition have the
same aim before them — a harmony between the self and its
surroundings — and that they effect it in ways which are directly
contrary to one another, suggests a possible union of the two.
The dialectic method will lead us to enquire whether, besides
being species of a wider genus, they are not also abstractions
from a deeper unity, which unity would reveal itseK as the really
adequate form of Spirit. But although this may be a Hegelian
solution, it is not Hegel's. Whatever he may have hinted in the
Logic — a point to which we shall presently return — in the Philo-
sophy of Spirit he attempts to take knowledge by itself as the
ultimate form of Spirit. And such a result must, if volition is
really coordinate with knowledge, be erroneous.
192. There is yet a third element in the life of Spirit, besides
knowledge and volition. This is feeling proper — pleasure and
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 215
pain. And this too must rank as a separate element of spiritual
activity, independent of knowledge. This does not involve the
assertion that we could ever experience a state of mind that was
purely pleasure or pain. So far as our experience reaches, on
the contrary, we never do feel pleasure or pain, without at the
same time recognising the existence of some fact, and finding
ourselves to be or not to be in harmony with it. Thus feeling
is only found in company with knowledge and volition. But
although it is thus inseparable from knowledge, it is independent
of it in the sense that it cannot be reduced to it. Knowledge is
essentially and inevitably a judgment — an assertion about matter
of fact. Now in the feeling of pleasure and pain there is no
judgment and no assertion, but there is something else to which
no judgment can ever be equivalent.
Hegel's views as to feeling proper are rather obscure. He
says much indeed about Gef iihl, but this does not mean pleasure
and pain. It appears rather to denote all immediate or intuitive
belief in a fact, as opposed to a reasoned demonstration of it.
The contents of Gefiihl and of Philosophy, he says, may be the
same, but they differ in form. It is thus clear that he is speaking
of a form of knowledge, and not only of pleasure and pain. But
whatever he thinks about the latter, it seems certain that they
cannot, any more than volition, find a place in philosophy. And
in that case Hegel's highest form of Spirit is defective on a second
ground,
193. To this line of criticism an objection may possibly be
taken. It is true, it may be said, that philosophy includes neither
volition nor feeling. But it implies them both. You cannot have
knowledge without finding yourself, from the point of view of
volition, in or out of harmony with the objects of pure knowledge,
and without feeling pleasure or pain accordingly. This is no
doubt true. And we may go further, and say that, on Hegel's
principles, we should be entitled to conclude that perfect know-
ledge must bring perfect acquiescence in the universe, and also
perfect happiness. For when our knowledge becomes perfect,
we should, as the Logic tells us, find that in all our relations with
that which was outside us, we had gained the perfect realisation
of our own natures. Determination by another would have
216 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
become, in the fullest and deepest sense, determination by self.
Since, therefore, in all our relations with others, the demands
of our own nature found complete fulfilment, we should be in
a state of perfect acquiescence with the nature of all things round
us. And from this perfect harmony, complete happiness must
result.
Hegel would, no doubt, have been justified in saying that in
reaching complete knowledge we should, at the same time, have
reached to the completeness of all activities of Spirit. But he
did say more than this. He said that complete knowledge would
be by itself the complete activity of Spirit. He tried, it would
seem, to ignore volition, and to ignore pleasure and pain. And
a view of Spirit which does this will be fatally one-sided.
194. But we must go further. We have seen that knowledge
cannot, by itself, be the full expression of the complete nature
of Spirit. But can it, we must now ask, be, as knowledge, even
part of that full expression? Can it attain its own goal? Or does
it carry about the strongest mark of its own imperfection by
postulating an ideal which it can never itself reach?
195. The ideal of knowledge may be said to be the combina-
tion of complete unity of the subject and object with complete
differentiation between them. In so far as we have knowledge
there must be unity of the subject and object. Of the elements
into which knowledge can be analysed, one class — the data of
sensation — come to us from outside, and consequently involve
the unity of the subject and the object, without which it is
impossible that anything outside us could produce a sensation
inside us. On the other hand the categories are notions of our
own minds which are yet essential to objective experience. And
these, therefore, involve no less the unity of the subject and the
object, since otherwise we should not be justified in ascribing
to them, as we do ascribe, objective validity.
Differentiation of the subject and object is no less necessary
to knowledge than is their unity. For it is of the essence of
knowledge that it shall refer to something not itself, something
which is independent of the subjective fancies of the subject,
something which exists whether he likes it or not, which exists
not only for him, but for others, something in fact which is
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 217
objective. Without this, knowledge changes into dreams or delu-
sions, and these, however interesting as objects of knowledge,
are totally different from knowledge itself. In so far as knowledge
becomes perfect, it has to apprehend the object as it really is,
and so in its full differentiation from the subject.
All knowledge, in so far as it is complete, requires unity and
differentiation. Perfect knowledge will require perfect unity and
differentiation. And since the dialectic has taught us that all
knowledge, except that highest and most complete knowledge
which grasps reality under the Absolute Idea, is contradictory
and cannot stand except as a moment in some higher form —
we may conclude that all knowledge implies complete unity and
differentiation. For the lower knowledge implies the higher, and
the complete unity and differentiation are implied by the higher
knowledge.
This is confirmed by the final results of the Logic. There we
find that the only ultimately satisfactory category is one in
which the self finds itself in relation with other selves and in
harmony with their nature. To be in harmony with other selves
implies that we are in unity with them, while to recognise them
as selves implies differentiation.
Knowledge requires, then, this combination of antithetical
qualities. Is it possible that this requirement can ever be realised
by knowledge itself?
196. The action of knowledge consists in ascribing predicates
to an object. All our knowledge of the object we owe to the
predicates which we ascribe to it. But our object is not a mere
assemblage of predicates. There is also the unity in which they
cohere, which may be called epistemologically the abstract object,
and logically the abstract subject.
Here, — as in most other places in the universe — we are met
by a paradox. The withdrawal of the abstract object leaves
nothing but a collection of predicates, and a collection of predi-
cates taken by itself is a mere unreality. Predicates cannot exist
without a central unity in which they can cohere. But when
we enquire what is this central unity which gives reality to the
object, we find that its unreahty is as certain as the unreality
of the predicates, and perhaps even more obvious. For if we
218 THE riNAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
attempt to make a single statement about this abstract object
— even to say that it exists — we find ourselves merely adding
to the number of predicates. This cannot help us to attain our
purpose, which was to know what the substratum is in which
all the predicates inhere. We get no nearer to this by learning
that another predicate inheres in it.
Thus the abstract object is an unreality, and yet, if it is with-
drawn, the residuum of the concrete object becomes an unreality
too. Such a relation is not uncommon in metaphysics. All reality
is concrete. All concrete ideas can be split up into abstract
elements. If we spHt up the concrete idea, which corresponds
to some real thing, into its constituent abstractions, we shall
have a group of ideas which in their unity correspond to a reality,
but when separated are self-contradictory and unreal. The
position of the abstract object is thus similar to that of another
..^ abstraction which has received more attention in metaphysics —
•^ ^^ the abstract subject.
^ *» Mr Bradley has given this abstract object the name of the
\ r— This, in opposition to the What, which consists of the predicates
?\ "^ .^^ which we have found to be applicable to the This. While know-
ledge remains imperfect, the This has in it the possibility of an
indefinite number of other qualities, besides the definite number
f^ ^ which have been ascertained and embodied in predicates. When
^ knowledge becomes perfect — as perfect as it is capable of be-
coming — this possibility would disappear, as it seems to me,
though Mr Bradley does not mention this point. In perfect
1^ ^' knowledge all qualities of the object would be known, and the
^ "^ > coherence of our knowledge as a systematic whole would be the
'^ Q~ warrant for the completeness of the enumeration. But even
^ ^_j v-', here the abstract This would still remain, and prove itself irre-
•^ dugible to anything else. To attempt to know it is like attempting
,^ .. ^ to jump on the shadow of one's own head. For all propositions
^ are the assertion of a partial unity between the subject and the
I "^ predicate. The This on the other hand is just what distinguishes
I ->^ the subject from its predicates.
^ -osf 197. It is the existence of the This which renders it impossible
>. "^ to regard knowledge as a self-subsistent whole, and makes it
™ necessary to consider it merely as an approximation to the
/«*
' -J
!?r- n,/A-- roHef<<^
-^1
5 HOT U-He^t
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 219
complete activity of spirit for which we search. In the This we
have something which is at once within and without knowledge,
which it dares not neglect, and yet cannot deal with.
For when we say that the This cannot be known, we do not
mean, of course, that we cannot know of its existence. We know
of its existence, because we can perceive, by analysis, that it
is an essential element of the concrete object. But the very
definition which this analysis gives us shows that we can know
nothing about it but this — that there is indeed nothing more
about it to know, and that even so much cannot be put into
words without involving a contradiction. Now to know merely
that something exists is to present a problem to knowledge which
it must seek to answer. To know that a thing exists, is to know
it as immediate and contingent. Knowledge demands that such
a thing should be mediated and rationalised. This, as we have
seen, cannot be done here. This impossibility is no reproach to
the rationality of the universe, for reality is no more mere
mediation than it is mere immediacy, and the immediacy of the
This combines with the mediation of the What to make up the
concrete whole of Spirit. But it is a reproach to the adequacy
of knowledge as an activity of Spirit that it should persist in
demanding what cannot and should not be obtained. Without
immediacy, without the central unity of the object, the media-
tion and the predicates which make up knowledge would vanish
as unmeaning. Yet knowledge is compelled by its own nature
to try and remove them, and to feel itself baffled and thwarted
when it cannot succeed. Surely an activity with such a con-
tradiction inherent in it can never be a complete expression of
the Absolute.
198. In the first place the existence of the This is incom-
patible with the attainment of the ideal of unity in knowledge.
For here we have an element, whose existence in reality we are
forced to admit, but which is characterised by the presence of
that which is essentially alien to the nature of the knowing
consciousness in its activity. In so far as reality contains a This,
it cannot be brought into complete unison with the knowing
mind, which, as an object, has of course its aspect of immediacy
like any other object, but which, as the knowing subject, finds
220 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
all unresolvable immediacy to be fundamentally opposed to its
work of rationalisation. The real cannot be completely expressed
in the mind, and the unity of knowledge is therefore defective.
And this brings with it a defective differentiation. For while
the This cannot be brought into the unity of knowledge, it is
unquestionably a part of reality. And so the failure of knowledge
to bring it into unity with itself involves that the part of the
object which is brought into unity with the subject is only an
abstraction from the full object. The individuality of the object
thus fails to be represented, and so its full differentiation from
the subject fails to be represented also. The result is that we
know objects, so to speak, from the outside, whereas, to know
them in their full truth, we ought to know them from inside.
That every object^ has a real centre of its own appears from the
dialectic. For we have seen that the conclusion from the dialectic
is that all reality consists of spirits, which are individuals. And,
apart from this, the fact that the object is more or less indepen-
dent as against us — and without some independence knowledge
would be impossible, as has already been pointed out — renders
it certain that every object has an individual unity to some
extent. Now knowledge fails to give this unity its rights. The
meaning of the object is found in its This, and its This is, to
knowledge, something alien. Knowledge sees it to be, in a sense,
the centre of the object, but only a dead centre, a mere residuum
produced by abstracting all possible predicates, not a living and
unifying centre, such as we know that the synthetic unity of
apperception is to our own lives, which we have the advantage
of seeing from inside. And since it thus views it from a stand-
point which is merely external, knowledge can never represent
the object so faithfully as to attain its own ideal.
199. And here we see the reason why knowledge can never
represent quite accurately that harmony of the universe which
^ In saying "every object" I do not necessarily mean every chair, every
crystal, or even every amoeba. Behind all appearance there is reality. This
reality we believe, on the authority of the dialectic, to consist of individuals.
But how many such centres there may be behind a given mass of appearance we
do not know. Every self-conscious spirit is, no doubt, one object and no more.
It is with regard to the reality behind what is called inorganic matter and the
lower forms of life that the uncertainty arises.
<
-e
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 221 J-
knowledge itself proves. We saw above that when knowledge ^
should have reached the greatest perfection of which it is capable ^
there would still remain one question unanswered — Why is the ^
universe what it is and not something else? We may prove the ^^
question unmeaning and absurd, but we cannot help asking it. ^
And the possibility of asking it depends on the existence of the ""
This, which knowledge is unable to bring into unity with the ^^
knowing subject. The This is essential to the reality of the object, "^i
and is that part of the object to which it owes its independence
of the subject. And the question naturally arises, Why should
UJ
2^
not this core of objectivity have been clothed with other qualities ;;^
than those which it has, and with which the subject finds itself
in harmony?
The question arises because the existence of this harmony is 'j ZL I —
dependent on the This. The This alone gives reality to the object.
If it vanished, the harmony would not change into a disharmony,
but disappear altogether. And the This, as we have seen, must
always be for knowledge a something alien and irrational, I
because it must always be an unresolved immediate. Now a
harmony which depends on something alien and irrational must
always appear contingent and defective. Why is there a This at
all? Why is it just those qualities which give a harmony for us
that the favour of the This has raised into reality? To answer
these questions would be to mediate the This, and that w^ould
destroy it.
200. It may be urged, as against this argument, that we do
not stand in such a position of opposition and alienation towards
the This in knowledge. For we ourselves are objects of know-
ledge as well as knowing subjects, and our abstract personaUty,
which is the centre of our knowledge is also the This of an object.
Now it might be maintained that the inter-connection of the
qualities of all different objects, which would be perfect in perfect
knowledge, would enable us to show why all reahty existed, and
why it is what it is, if we could only show it of a single fragment
of reahty. The difficulty, it might be said, hes in reaching the
abstract realness of the real by means of knowledge at all. And
if, by means of our own existence as objects we were able to
establish a single connection with the objective world, in which
222 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
the immediate would not mean the alien, it is possible that no
other connection would be required. The last remaining opposition
of the subject to the object would disappear.
The difficulty, however, cannot be escaped in this way. For
the self as the object of knowledge is as much opposed to the
self as the subject as any other object could be. We learn its
qualities by arguments from data based on the "internal sense,"
as we learn the qualities of other objects by arguments from data
given by the external senses. We are immediately certain of the
first, but we are immediately certain of the second. And the
central unity of our own nature can no more be known directly
in itself, apart from its qualities, than can the central unities
of other objects^. ¥/e become aware of its existence by analysing
what is implied in having ourselves for objects, and we become
aware of the central unities of other things by analysing what
is implied in having them for objects. We have no more direct
knowledge of the one than of the other. Of course nothing in
our own selves is really alien to us, — not even the element of
immediacy which makes their This. But then the existence of
knowledge implies, as we have seen, that the reality of other
things is not really alien to us, although we know it immediately.
It is the defect of knowledge that it fails to represent the im-
mediate except as alien. "
201. Here, then, we seem to have the reason why our minds
could never, in the most perfect state of knowledge possible,
get rid of the abstract idea of the contingency of the whole
system. We saw, in the first part of this chapter, that such an
idea was unmeaning, since it would be impossible for any reality
to be destroyed or altered, unless the same happened to all reality,
and the possibility of this, which has no common ground with
actuality, is an unmeaning phrase. And we have now seen
another reason why the possibility is unmeaning. For we have
traced it to the persistence of thought in considering its essential
condition as its essential enemy. The existence of such a mis-
called possibility, therefore, tells nothing against the rationality
of the universe. But it does tell against the adequacy of know-
^ Note to Second Edition. I now think that a self can directly perceive itself
Cp. my article on Personality in the Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics.
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 223
ledge as an expression of the universe. By finding a flLaw in
perfection, where no flaw exists, it pronounces its own condemna-
tion. If the possibility is unmeaning, knowledge is imperfect in
being compelled to regard it as a possibiUty.
It may seem at first sight absurd to talk of knowledge as in-
adequate. If it were imperfect, how could we know it? What
right have we to condemn it as imperfect when the judge is of
necessity the same person as the culprit? This is, of course, so
far true, that if knowledge did not show us its own ideal, we
could never know that it did not realise it. But there is a great
dijEEerence between realising an ideal and indicatiixg it. It is
possible, and I have endeavoured to show that it is actually the
case, that knowledge can do the one, and not the other. When
we ask about the abstract conditions of reality, it is able to
demonstrate that harmony must exist, and that immediacy is
compatible with it, and essential to it. But when it is asked to
show in detail hoiv the harmony exists, which it has shown must
exist, it is unable to do so. There is here no contradiction in our
estimate of knowledge, but there is a contradiction in knowledge,
which prevents us from regarding it as adequate, and which
forces us to look further in search of the ultimate activity of
Spirit.
We saw before that this activity could not consist solely of
knowledge, but we have now reached the further conclusion that
knowledge, as knowledge, could not form even a part of that
activity. For it carries a mark of imperfection about it, in its
inability to completely attain the goal which it cannot cease to
strive for, and in its dependence on that which it must consider
an imperfection. We must therefore look for the ultimate nature
of Spirit in something which transcends and surpasses cognition,
including it indeed as a moment, but transforming it and raising
it into a higher sphere, where its imperfections vanish.
202. In doing this we are compelled, of course, to reject Hegel's
own treatment of the subject, in the Philosophy of Spirit. But
we may, I think, find some support for our position in the Logic.
For there, as it seems to me, we find the sketch of a more com-
plete and adequate representation of Absolute Reality, than the
one which is worked out in the Philosophy of Spirit.
224 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
We have in the Logic, immediately before the Absolute Idea^
a category called Cognition in general. This is again divided into
Cognition proper and Volition. These two categories are treated
by Hegel as a thesis and antithesis, and, according to the method
pursued in every other part of the Logic, the triad should have
been completed by a synthesis, before we pass out of Cognition
in general to the final synthesis — the Absolute Idea. No such
synthesis, however, is given by Hegel as a separate term. Ac-
cording to his exposition, the Absolute Idea itself forms the
synthesis of the opposition of Cognition proper and Volition, as
it does also of the larger opposition of Life and Cognition in
general.
The significance of this part of the Logic for us lies in the
fact that Cognition proper requires to be synthesised with Vohtion
before we can reach the absolute reality. Of course Hegel is not
dealing, in the Logic, with the concrete activities of cognition
and voHtion, any more than he is dealing, rather earlier in the
Logic, with the concrete activities of mechanism and chemistry.
The Logic deals only with the element of pure thought in reality,
and, when its categories bear the names of concrete relations,
all that is meant is that the pure idea, which is the category in
question, is the idea which comes most prominently forward in
that concrete relation, and which therefore can be usefully and
significantly called by its name.
This, however, does not destroy the importance of the Logic
for our present purpose. Although the concrete activities are
not merely their own logical ideas, they must stand in the same
relation inter se as the logical ideas do inter se. For the process
in the Philosophy of Spirit, as in all the applications of the
dialectic, while it does not profess to be logical in the sense that
all its details can be logically deduced, certainly professes to be
logical in the sense that the relation of its stages to one another
can be logically explained^. Indeed, if it did not do this, it could
no longer be called an application of the Logic at all, but would
be a mere empirical collection of facts. If then the idea of
cognition proper — that is, of knowledge as opposed to volition
— is by itself so imperfect and one-sided, that it must be tran-
1 Op. Chap. VII. Sections 207, 210.
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 225
scended, and must be synthesised with the idea of vohtion, before
the adequate and Absolute Idea can be reached, it would seem
to follow that a concrete application of this philosophy is bound
to regard cognition as an inadequate expression of the full nature
of reahty, and to endeavour to find some higher expression which
shall unite cognition and vohtion, preserving that which is true
in each, while escaping from their imperfections and one-sided-
ness.
203. It may be objected that Cognition proper, which is
treated by Hegel as an inadequate category, denotes only that
knowledge which is found in ordinary experience and in science,
and that the place of knowledge in its highest shape — the shape
of philosophy — must be looked for under the Absolute Idea.
This view does not appear tenable on closer examination. At
the end of Cognition proper, Hegel tells us, the content of cog-
nition is seen to be necessary. This would indicate philosophic
knowledge, if "necessary" is taken as referring to the necessity
of freedom, which is its normal use in the Doctrine of the Notion,
There is certainly a good deal of discussion of philosophic method
under the head of the Absolute Idea. But this appears to be
introduced, not because this category is the one under which
our philosophising comes, but because it is the last category of
the philosophy, and it is therefore natural to look back, at this
point, on the method which has been pursued.
The most cogent argument, however, against this view is that
the Absolute Idea is defined as the union of Cognition proper
with Volition. Therefore the Absolute Idea must be an idea richer
and fuller than that of Cognition — richer and fuller by the content
of the idea of Vohtion, Now we can have no reason to suppose
that philosophic knowledge is the union of ordinary knowledge
with volition. For philosophy stands in just the same relation
to vohtion as ordinary knowledge does. We never have know-
ledge without having vohtion, but neither can be reduced to the
other. The Absolute Idea then contains within itself the idea
of Knowledge only as a transcended moment. If there is any
difference between them, indeed, we must consider the idea of
Volition the higher of the two, since it is Volition which forms
the antithesis, and we have seen that, in the Doctrine of the
15
foRe :
m00m CAAL M4KX 'i ,i!;
226 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
Notion, the antithesis may be expected to be more adequate
than the thesis to which it is opposed^.
I am not attempting to argue from this that we ought to take
Hegel as putting anything more concrete than philosophy into
the nature of absolute reality. We are especially bound in the
case of so systematic a writer as Hegel, to look for the authori-
tative exposition of his views on any subject in the part of his
work which professedly deals with that subject. And in the
Philosophy of Spirit it seems clear that Hegel means the highest
stage of Spirit to be nothing but philosophy. But, in giving the
abstract framework of absolute reality in the Logic, he has given,
as we have seen above, a framework for something which, what-
ever it is, is more than any form of mere cognition. And so,
when saying that the conclusion of the Philosophy of Spirit is
inconsistent with the general tenor of Hegel's philosophy, we
can strengthen our position by adding that it is inconsistent with
the final result of the Logic.
204. Let us now turn to the Philosophy of Spirit, and con-
sider the way in which Hegel introduces Philosophy as the
culminating point of reality. The three terms which form the
triad of Absolute Spirit are Art, Revealed Religion, and Philo-
sophy. Of the relation of these three stages he speaks as follows :
"Whereas the vision-method of Art, external in point of form,
is but subjective production and shivers the substantial content
into many separate shapes, and whereas Religion, with its separa-
tion into parts, opens it out in mental picture, and mediates what
is thus opened out ; Philosophy not merely keeps them together
to make a total, but even unifies them into the simple spiritual
vision, and then in that raises them to self-conscious thought.
Such consciousness is thus the intelligible unity (cognised by
thought) of art and religion, in which the diverse elements in
the content are cognised as necessary, and this necessary as free^."
On examining this more closely, doubts present themselves.
Is Philosophy really capable of acting as a synthesis between
Art and Religion? Should it not rather form part of the anti-
thesis, together with Religion? All the stages in this triad of.;^
1 Chap. IV. Sections 109, 110.
2 Enc. Section 572.
vil THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 227
Absolute Spirit are occupied in endeavouring to find a harmony ^
between the individual spirit — now developed into full conscious- • * v^
ness of his own nature — on the one hand, and the rest of the Vi» """
universe on the other hand. Such a harmony is directly and QC ^pt*
immediately presented in beauty. But the immediacy makes \P v^j
the harmony contingent and defective. Where beauty is present, ^ t^
the harmony exists; where it is not present — a case not un- <w t^
frequently occurring — the harmony disappears. It is necessary Nk* l;;;^
to find some ground of harmony which is universal, and which 't \>n
shall enable us to attribute rationality and righteousness to all
things, independently of their immediate and superficial aspect.
This ground, according to Hegel, is afforded us by the doctrines
of Revealed Religion, which declares that all things are depen-
dent on and the manifestation of a reality in which we recognise
the fulfilment of our ideals of. rationality and righteousness. Thus
Revealed Religion assures us that all things must be in harmony,
instead of showing us, as Art does, that some things are in
harmony.
205. Now Philosophy, it seems to me, can do no more than
this. It is true that it does it, in what, from Hegel's point of
view, is a higher and better way. It is true that it substitutes
a completely reasoned process for one which, in the last resort,
rests on authority. It is true that it changes the external har-
mony, which Revealed Religion offers, into a harmony inherent
in the nature of things. It is true that the process, which is
known to Revealed Religion as "a cycle of concrete shapes in
pictorial thought," and as "a separation into parts, with a
temporal and external sequence," is in Philosophy "known as
an indivisible coherence of the universal, simple, and eternal
spirit in itself^." But all this does not avail to bring back the
simplicity and directness of Art, which must be brought back
in the synthesis. Art shows us that something is as we would
have it. Its harmony with our ideals is visible on the surface.
But Philosophy, like Religion, leaving the surface of things un-
touched, points to their inner nature, and proves that, in spite
, of the superficial discord and evil, the true reality is harmonious
and good. To unite these we should require a state of spirit which
1 Enc. Section 57 L
15-
228 THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
should present us with a harmony direct and immediate on the
one hand, and universal and necessary on the other. Art gives
the first and Philosophy the second, but Philosophy can no more
unite the two than Art can.
This is clear of philosophy, as we have it now, and so long
as it has not absorbed into itself all other knowledge. For it
is the knowledge of the general conditions only of reality. As
such, it can lay down general laws for all reality. But it is not
able to show how they are carried out in detail. It may arrive
at the conclusion that all that is real is rational. This will apply,
among other things, to toothache or cowardice. Now we are
shown by the whole history of religion that optimism based on
general grounds may be of great importance to the lives of those
who beheve it, and philosophy, if it can give us this, will have
given us no small gift. But philosophy will not be able to
show us how the rationality or the righteousness come in, either
in toothache or in cowardice. It can only convince us that they
are there, though we cannot see them. It is obvious that we
have as yet no synthesis with the directness and immediacy of
art.
If philosophy should ever, as was suggested in the earlier part
of this chapter, develop so as to include all knowledge in one
complete harmony, then, no doubt, we should not only know
of every fact in the universe that it was rational, but we should
also see how it was so. Even here, however, the required syn-
thesis would not be attained. Our knowledge would still be only
mediate knowledge, and thus could not be the synthesis for two
reasons. Firstly, because, as we have seen, it has to regard the
immediate element in reality as to some extent alien. Secondly,
because the synthesis must contain in itself, as a transcended
moment, the immediate harmony of art, and must therefore be
hfted above the distinction of mediate and immediate.
Besides this, a merely intellectual activity could not be the
ultimate truth of which art and rehgion are lower stages. For
both of these involve not merely knowledge, but vohtion, and
also feeling. And so the highest stage of spirit would have to
include, not only the perception of the rationahty of all things,
which is offered by philosophy, but also the complete acqui-
VI] THE FINAL RESULT OF THE DIALECTIC 229
escence which is the goal of successful volition, and the pleasure
which is the inevitable result of conscious harmony.
206. The result of all this would appear to be, that, in order
to render the highest form of Absolute Spirit capable, as it must
be on Hegel's theory, of transcending and summing up all other
aspects of reality, we shall have to recast the last steps of the
Philosophy of Spirit, so as to bring the result more in accordance
with the general outlines laid down at the end of the Logic.
Philosophy, together with Revealed Religion, will be the anti-
thesis to Art. And a place will be left vacant for a new synthesis.
It forms no part of the object of this work to enquire what
this synthesis may be. My purpose has been only to give some
reasons for thinking that Hegel had not found an adequate
expression for the absolute reality, and I do not venture to
suggest one myself. But we can, within very wide and general
limits, say what the nature of such an expression must be. It
must be some state of conscious spirit in which the opposition
of cognition and vohtion is overcome — in which we neither judge
our ideas by the world, nor the world by our ideas, but are aware
that inner and outer are in such close and necessary harmony
that even the thought of possible discord has become impossible.
In its unity not only cognition and volition, but feeling also,
must be blended and united. In some way or another it must
have overcome the rift in discursive knowledge, and the im-
mediate must for it be no longer the ahen. It must be as direct
as art, as certain and universal as philosophy^.
^ Note to Second Edition. I have discussed this subject further in my Studies
in Hegelian Cosmology, Chap. ix.
CHAPTER VII
THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC
207. We have now to enquire in what manner the results
which we have gained by the dialectic process are applicable to
ly real life. I do not propose to discuss the utility of these results
as a guide to conduct, but there is another question more closely
connected with the dialectic itself. How, if at all, can the pure
theory, which is expounded in the Logic, be so used as to assist
in the explanation of the various facts presented to us in ex-
perience? Hegel divides the world into two parts — Nature and
Spirit. What can his philosophy tell us about them ?
We have seen in our consideration of the dialectic that there
are certain functions, with regard to our knowledge of Nature
and Spirit, which pure thought cannot perform, and which there
is no reason to think, in spite of the assertions of some critics,
that Hegel ever intended it to perform. In the first place, we
saw that the concrete world of reality cannot be held to be a
mere condescension of the Logic to an outward shape, nor a
mere dependent emanation from the self-subsistent perfection
of pure thought. For, so far from pure thought being able to
create immediate reaHty, it cannot itself exist unless something
immediate is given to it, which it may mediate and relate. And
we saw that, so far from Hegel's theory being inconsistent with
this truth, it is entirely dependent on it. The force of his deduc-
tion of Nature and Spirit from Logic lies in the fact that pure
thought is a mere abstraction which, taken by itself, is con-
tradictory. A ^d therefore, since pure thought unquest ionably
exists som ehow, we are led to the conclusion that it cannot exist
ind ependently, but must be a moment in that more concr ete
f orm of reality, which is expressed imperfectly in Nature a nd
a dequate ly in Spi^i^t
And we saw, in the second place, that even this deduction
can only extend to the general nature of the reality, because it
is only that general nature which we can prove to be essential
OH. VII] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 231
for the existence of pure thought. We know, a priori, that the
reality must contain an immediate moment, in order that
thought may mediate it, that something must be given in order
that thought may deal with it. But further than this we cannot
go without the aid of empirical observation. No consideration
of the nature of pure thought can demonstrate to us the necessity
that a particular man should have red hair. To do this we require
immediate data. And here again we found no reason to suppose
that this limitation of pure thought was ignored by Hegel. His
attempts to apply his logical results may have gone too far, but
he never, attempted to deduce the necessity of all the facts he
was attempting to rationalise. His object was to point out that
through every part of reaUty there runs a thread of logical
connection, so that the different parts stand in intelligible rela-
tions to one another, and to Absolute Reality. But he never
tried to deduce the necessity of each detail of reality from the
nature of pure thought, or even to hold out such a deduction
as an ideal. This is evident, both from the number of details
which he mentions without even an attempt to explain them,
and also from his own direct statement^.
208. This then is one way in which we can apply the con-
clusions of the Logic in the solution o| more concrete problems.
We may trace the manifestations of the dialectic process in the
experience round us, and in so far as we do this we shall have
rationalised that experience. But, besides this, we may gain
some information from the dialectic concerning the ultimate
nature of Absolute Being. It will be convenient to consider this
latter point first.
No idea which is self-contradictory can be true until it is so
transformed that the contradictions have vanished. Now no
category in the Logic is free from contradictions except the
Absolute Idea. Reality can therefore be fully apprehended
under no category but this. We shall find it to be true of all
reality, that in it is found "der BegrifE der Idee, dem die Idee
als solche der Gegenstand, dem das Objekt sie ist^." From this
^ Cp. Chap. I. Section 27, and the passage from the Philosophy of Spirit there
quoted. Also Chap. vi. Section ] 83.
2 Enc. Section 236.
232 THE APPLICATION OP THE DIALECTIC [ch.
we can deduce several consequences. All reality must, on this
view, be Spirit, and be differentiated. Moreover, it must be
Spirit for which its differentiations are, in Hegel's phrase, "trans-
parent," that is, it must find in them nothing alien to itself. It
might also be maintained, though the point is too large to be
discussed here, that it must consist of finite self-conscious spirits,
united into a closely connected whole. And it might not be
impossible to determine whether the whole in question was also
a self-conscious being, or whether it is a unity of persons without
being itself a person. The questions discussed in the last chapter
are also examples of the use that may be made, in this con-
nection, of the results of the dialectic.
209, The information thus attained would be enough to
justify us in saying that the results of Hegel's philosophy, apart
from their theoretic interest, were of the greatest practical im-
portance. It is true that such results as these can but rarely
be available as guides to action. We learn by them what is the
nature of that ideal, which, sub specie aeternitatis, is present in
all reality, and which, sm6 specie temporis, is the goal towards
which all reality is moving. But such an ideal is, sub specie
aeternitatis, far too implicit, and, sub specie temporis, far too
distant, to allow us to use it in deciding on any definite course
of action in the present. Nor can it be taken to indicate even
the direction in which our present action should move. For one
of the great lessons of Hegel's philosophy is that, in any progress,
we never move directly forwards, but oscillate from side to side
as we advance. And so a step which seems to be almost directly
away from our ideal may sometimes be the next step on the
only road by which that ideal can be attained.
But those who estimate the practical utility of a theory only
by its power of guiding our action, take too confined a view.
Action, after all, is always directed to some end. And, whatever
view we may take of the supreme end, it cannot be denied that
many of our actions are directed, and rightly directed, to the
production of happiness for ourselves and others. Surely, then,
a philosophical theory which tended to the production of happi-
ness would have as much claim to be called practically important,
as if it had afforded guidance in action.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 233
Now such conclusions as to the ultimate nature of things as
we have seen can be reached by Hegel's philosophy have obviously
a very intimate connection with the problems which may be
classed as religious. Is the universe rational and righteous? Is
spirit or matter the fundamental reaUty? Have our standards
of perfection any objective validity? Is our personaUty an
ultimate fact or a transitory episode? All experience and all
history show that for many men the answers to these questions
are the source of some of the most intense and persistent joys
and sorrows known in human life. Nor is there any reason to
think that the proportion of such people is diminishing. Any
system of philosophy which gives any reasons for deciding such
questions, in one way rather than another, will have a practical
interest, even if it should fail to provide us with counsel as to
the organisation of society, or with explanations in detail of the
phenomena of science.
210. We must now turn to the second way in which Hegel
endeavours to apply the dialectic to experience. It is to this
that he gives the greater prominence. His views on the nature
of absolute reality are to be found in the Philosophy of Spirit,
and also in the Philosophy of Religion, but they are not given
at any length. On many important points we have no further
guide than the development of the Absolute Idea in the Logic,
and we must judge for ourselves what consequences can be
drawn, from that development, as to the concrete whole of which
the Absolute Idea is one moment.
A much larger portion of his writings is occupied in tracing,
in the succession of events in time, the gradual development of
the Absolute Idea. To this purpose are devoted almost the whole
of the Philosophies of Nature, Spirit, Religion, Law and History,
as well as the History of Philosophy. He does not, as has been
already remarked, endeavour to deduce the facts, of which he
treats, from the Absolute Idea. Nor does he ever attempt to
deduce each stage from the one before it. We pass, for example,
from Moralitat to Sittlichkeit, from the Persian religion to the
Syrian, or from the Greek civilisation to the Roman. But there
are, in each case, many details in the second which are not
the consequence of anything in the first, and which must be
234 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
explained empirically by science, or else left unexplained. His
object is to show that the central ideas of each stage are such
that each follows from its predecessor — either as a reaction from
its one-sidedness, or as a reconciliation of its contradictions —
and that these ideas express, more and more adequately as the
process gets nearer to its end, the Absolute Idea which had been
expounded in the Logic.
It is sometimes said that Hegel endeavoured to show that
the stages of development, in the various spheres of activity
which he considered in his different treatises, corresponded to
the various categories of the Logic. This, however, seems an
exaggeration. His theories of Nature, Spirit, Religion, and Law
are each divided into three main sections, which doubtless corre-
spond, and are meant to correspond, to the three primary divisions
of the Logic — Being, Essence, and the Notion. But to trace any
definite correspondence between the secondary divisions of these
works (to say nothing of divisions still more minute) and the
secondary divisions of the Logic, appears impossible. At any
rate no such correspondence is mentioned by Hegel. The con-
nection with the Logic seems rather to lie in the similarity of
development, by thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, and in the
gradually increasing adequacy of the manifestation of the Absolute
Idea, as the process gradually develops itself.
Of the Philosophy of History, indeed, we cannot say even
as much as this. For it is divided, not into three, but into four
main divisions, thus destroying the triadic form and the analogy
to the three divisions of the Logic. And although Hegel would
probably have found no difficulty, on his own principles, in
reducing the second and third divisions to one, it is a fact of
some significance that he did not think it worth while to do so.
It seems to indicate that he attached less importance, than has
sometimes been supposed, to the exact resemblance of the
scheme of the concrete processes to the scheme of pure thought
in the Logic. In the History of Philosophy, again, many of the
subordinate divisions are not triple.
211. The applications of the dialectic to various aspects of
reality have been the part of Hegel's work which has received
of late years the most notice and approbation. This is, no doubt.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 235
largely due to a reaction against Hegel's general position. To
those who reject that position the whole of the dialectic of pure
thought must seem a stupendous blunder — magnificent or
ridiculous according to the taste of the critic. With the dialectic
of pure thought would fall also, of course, all general and demon-
strated validity of its applications. But the brilliance and
suggestiveness of ma ny of the details of these app lications Jia.ve
of ten_b een acknowledged b y those who_reje ct the syste m, in
which they were arranged, and the bas is from which it is sought
t o iu stify them .
Among the followers of Hegel a different cause has led to the
same effect. The attraction of Hegel's philosophy to many of
them appears to lie in the explanations it can give of garticulaL
p arts of experience rather than in its general theory of the natur e
of reality . These explanations — attractive by their aesthetic com-
pleteness, or because of the practical consequences that follow
from them — are adopted and defended by such writers in an
empirical way. It is maintained that we can see that they do
explain the facts, while others do not, and they are believed for
this reason, and not because they follow from the dialectic of
pure thought. Hegelian views of religion, of morals, of history,
of the state are common enough among us. They appear to be
gaining ground in many directions. Nor can it be said that their
advocates are neglectful of the source from which they derive
their theories. They often style themselves Hegelians. But the
dialectic of pure thought tends to fall into the background.
HegeTs^explanations of the^ation ality to be found in par ticular
s pheres of ^existence a re accepted by many who ignore or rej ect
hisjiemonstratio ns that everything w hi ch exists must be rational .
212. I wish to put forward a different view — that the really
valid part of Hegel's system is his Logic, and not his applica-
tions of it. In the preceding chapters I have given some reasons
in support of the view that the general position of the Logic
is justifiable. With regard to its appHcations, on the other hand,
although they doubtless contain much that is most valuable,
their general and systematic vaHdity seems indefensible.
As we have already seen, there is nothing in the nature of
Hegel's object here, which should render his success impossible
236
THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC
[CH.
/
a friori. The difficulties which arise are due rather to the great-
ness of the task, and to the imperfection of our present knowledge.
These difficulties we have now to consider.
213. The movement of the Idea, as we learned in the Logic,
is by thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, the first two being opposed,
and the third reconciling them. If we are able to trace the
progressive manifestations of the Idea in facts, these manifesta-
tions will arrange themselves in triads of this kind. And Hegel
has attempted to show that they do so.
But how are we to determine which stages are theses, which
are antitheses, and which again syntheses? This can, I believe,
onlyT)e done safely, in the case of any one term, by observing
its relation to others, which have already been grasped in the
system. And, as these again will require determination by their
relation to others previously determined, we shall be able to
build up a dialectic system only if we have fixed points at one
or both ends of the chain to start from. We cannot safely begin
in the middle and work backwards and forwards.
TJiere-is -nothing in the nature of any term which can tell us,
if we take it in isolation from others, whether it is a thesis or
an antithesis — that is, whether it will require, as the process
goes forward, the development of another term opposite and
complementary to itself, before a synthesis can be reached, or
whether it is itself opposed and complementary to some term
that came before it, so that a reconciliation will be the next
step to be expected in the process. Theses may be said to be
positive, antitheses negative. But no term is either positive or
negative per se. In a dialectic process we call those terms positive
which reaffirm, on a higher level, the position with which the
process started, the negative terms being the complementary
denials which are necessary as means to gain the higher level.
But to apply this test we should have to know beforehand the
term with which the process started. Or we may say that the
terms are positive which express the reality to which the process
is advancing, though they express it inadequately, while the
negative terms are those which, in recognising the inadequacy,
temporarily sacrifice the resemblance^. But this distinction,
1 Cp. Enc. Section 85.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 237
again, is useless until we know what is the last term of the whole
process,
Korjvould it be possible to recognise any term, taken in isola-
tion, as a^mtheaia, TTvefy^ernT in a dialectic process, except
the first two, contains within itself some synthesis of opposition,
for all that is accomplished is transferred to all succeeding terms.
On the other hand, every synthesis in a process, except the last,
contains within itself a latent one-sidedness, which will break
out in the opposition of the next thesis and antithesis, and require
for its reconciliation another synthesis. We can therefore only
determine that a term is a synthesis if we see that it does reconcile
the two terms immediately in front of it — in other words, if we
see it in relation to other terms. And the impossibility of recog-
nising a synthesis as such, if seen by itself, would be far greater
in the applications of the Logic than in the Logic itself. For
every fact or event has many sides or aspects, in some of which
it may appear to be a reconciliation of two opposites, and in
others to be one of two opposites which need a reconcihation.
(So Hegel, for example, appears to regard Protestantism as the
synthesis of the oppositions of Christianity, and as its highest
point, while Schelling opposes it as the "rehgion of Paul" to
the "religion of Peter," and looks forward to a "religion of
John" which shall unite the two.) Now which of these aspects
is the significant one for our purpose at any time cannot be
known if the term is looked at in isolation. We can only know
that we must take it as a synthesis by seeing that it does unite
and reconcile the opposition of the two terms that go before it.
That is to say, we can only ascertain its place in the series if
we have previously ascertained the places of the adjacent terms.
214. It would seem, then, that we can only hope to arrive
at a knowledge of any dialectic process, when we know, at least,
either the beginning or the end of the process as a fixed point.
For no other points can be fixed, unless those round them have
been fixed previously, and unless we get a starting-point in this
manner, we shall never be able to start at all. Now in the Logic
we do know the beginning and end. We know the beginning
before we start, and, although we do not know the end before
we start, yet, when we have reached it, we know that it must be
238 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
the last category of the Logic. We know that the category of
Being must be the beginning, because it is the simplest of all
the categories. And we should defend this proposition, if it were
doubted, by showing that all attempts to analyse it into simpler
categories fail, while in any other category the idea of Being
can be discovered by analysis. Again, we know that the Absolute
Idea is the last of the categories because it does not develop
any contradiction, which will require a reconciliation in a higher
category.
215. We can determine in this way the highest and lowest
points of the Logic, because all the steps in the Logic are cate-
gories of pure thought, and all those categories are implicit in
every act of thought. All we have to do, in order to construct
the Logic, is to analyse and make explicit what is thus presented.
The subject-matter of the analysis can never be wanting, since
it is presented in every act of thought, (j^ut when we are trying
to discover, in a series of concrete facts, the successive manifesta-
tions of the pure Idea, the case is different J For these facts can
only be known empirically, and the further off they are in time
the more difficult they will be to remember or to predict. We
are situated at neither end of the process. Philosophy, religion,
history — all the activities whose course Hegel strives to demon-
strate — stretch backwards till they are lost in obscurity. Nor
are we yet at the end of any of them. Years go on, and new forms
of reality present themselves. And this is the first difficulty in
the way of our attempts to find the fixed points from which we
may start our dialectic. The beginnings of the series are too far
back to be remembered. The ends, so far as we can tell, are too
far forward to be foreseen.
216. And, even if we did happen to know the stage which
was, as a matter of fact, the first or the last of a dialectic process,
should we be able to recognise it as such on inspection? By the
hypothesis, its relation to the other terms of the process is not
yet known — for we are looking for an independent fixed point
in order that we may begin to relate the terms to one another.
And, since this is so, one term can, so far, only differ from the
others in expressing the Absolute Idea more or less adequately.
This is so far, therefore, only a quantitative difference, and thus,
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 239
below the lowest stage that we know, and above the highest
stage that we know, we can imagine others yet, so that our fixed
points are still not found.
If, indeed, each stage in each of the applications of the dialectic
clearly corresponded to some one category of the Logic, we might
know that the stage which corresponded to the category of Being
was the lowest, and that the stage which corresponded to the
Absolute Idea was the highest. But this is not the case. As has
been mentioned above, the stages in each of Hegel's applications
of the Logic are arranged, in some cases, on the same principle
as the categories of the Logic, but without any suggestion of
such definite correspondence. And so, until the mutual relations
of the stages are determined, they can only be distinguished by
quantitative differences which can never define the beginning
and end of their own series.
We cannot say of any stage, in any one of the applications
of the Logic, that it completely fails to embody the Absolute
Idea. For then, according to Hegel, it would have lost all sem-
blance of reality, and could not be given in experience. And,
if it does embody the Absolute Idea at all, we can always imagine
that something may exist which embodies that Idea still less
completely, still more abstractly. And so we can never be sure
that we have got to the right basis, from which our dialectic
process may start. Of course, such quantitative estimates are
succeeded by far deeper and more significant relations when
once the dialectic process is established. But these will not help
us here, where we are seeking the point on which to establish
the dialectic process.
217. In the Philosophy of Nature, indeed, the risk which we
run in taking space as our starting-point is perhaps not great.
For, since the process of Nature includes all reahty below the
level of Spirit, its lowest stage must be that at which reality
is on the point of vanishing altogether. And we may take space
as representing the absolute minimum of reality without much
danger of finding ourselves deceived. But it will be different in
dealing with religion, history, law, or philosophy, where the
lowest point of the particular process is still relatively concrete,
and leaves room for possible stages below it.
240 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
And, except in the Philosophy of Spirit, the same may be
said of the highest stage in any process. In none of the applica-
tions of the dialectic but this can we hope to meet with a perfect
embodiment of the Absolute Idea. For all the other processes
deal only with an aspect of reality, and their realisation of the
Absolute Idea must be partial, and therefore imperfect. In no
religion, in no national spirit, or form of government, in no system
of metaphysics^, can we find a complete realisation of the Absolute
Idea. And so we are always in uncertainty lest some new stage
should arise in each of these activities, which should embody
the Absolute Idea a little less imperfectly than any yet known.
218. Let us consider this in more detail. In the first place,
although the Philosophy of Spirit has a well-defined end, and
the Philosophy of Nature a fairly certain beginning, yet it is
impossible to find a point at which it is certain that the Philo-
sophy of Nature ends, and the Philosophy of Spirit begins. What
form can we take as the lowest in which Spirit is present? The
series of forms is continuous from those which certainly belong
to Spirit to those which certainly belong to Nature. If we call
everjrthing Spirit, which has the germs of self-consciousness in
it, however latent, then we should have to include the whole
of Nature, since on Hegel's principles, the lower always has the
higher implicit in it. On the other hand, if we reserved the name
of Spirit for the forms in which anything like our own life was
explicit, we should have to begin far higher up than Hegel did,
and we should have the same difficulty as before in finding the
exact place to draw the line.
In the Philosophy of Religion, the points at each end of the
process seem uncertain. Might not something be found, by further
historical investigation, which was lower even than Magic, and
which yet contained the germ of religion, and ought to be treated
as a form of it? And at the other end of the series a similar doubt
^ In the Philosophy of Spirit, Hegel says that Philosophy is the highest stage
of Spirit. But it is clear that Philosophy must here mean more than the existence
of a system of metaphysics held by professed metaphysicians as a theory. It
must be something which is universally accepted, and which modifies all spiritual
life. The highest point which could be reached in such a History of Philosophy
as Hegel's would leave much to be done before Spirit had reached its full develop-
ment.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 241
occurs. It is clear, from the Philosophy of Spirit, that Hegel
regards Christianity, like all other forms of "revealed religion,"
as in some degree an inadequate representation of the Absolute
Idea. How can his system guard against the possibility that a
yet more perfect reUgion may arise, or against the possibility
that Christianity may develop into higher forms? Hegel would
probably have answered that the Philosophy of Religion has
demonstrated Christianity to be the synthesis of all other
religions. But if, as we have seen reason to think, the relations
of the stages cannot be accurately determined, until one end at
least of the series has been independently fixed, we cannot rely
on the relation of the stages to determine what stage is to be
taken as the highest, beyond which no other is possible^.
219. In the History of Philosophy we find the same difficulty.
Hegel begins his systematic exposition with Thales, excluding
all Oriental philosophy. This distinction can scarcely be based
on any qualitative difference. The reason that Hegel assigns for
it is that seLf-consciousness was not free in the earlier systems^.
But in what sense is this to be taken? If implicit freedom is to
be taken into account, Hegel himself points out, in the Philo-
sophy of Religion, that the Oriental religions had the germ of
freedom in them. But if we are only to consider freedom in so
far as it is explicit, then we might find it difficult to justify the
inclusion of the earlier Greek philosophies, in which the idea of
freedom is still very rudimentary.
The end of the History of Philosophy, as expounded by Hegel,
is his own philosophy. Yet since his death several new systems
have already arisen. There is no ground to attribute to Hegel
any excessive degree of self-confidence. The system in which
anyone believes fully and completely will always appear to him
the culminating point of the whole process of philosophy. For
it has solved for him all the contradictions which he has perceived
in former systems, and the fresh contradictions which are latent
in it cannot yet have revealed themselves to him, or he would
1 This criticism does not apply to Hegel's demonstration of the nature of
Absolute Religion, which is really an attempt to determine the ultimate nature
of reality. (Cp. Section 208.) The difficulty arises when he tries to connect his
own idea of Absolute Religion with historical Christianity.
=' History of Philosophy, Vol. i. p. 117. (Vol. i. p. 99 of Haldane's translation.)
M.H. ' i6
242 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
not have complete confidence in it. Thus it naturally seems to
him the one coherent system, and therefore the ultimate system.
But the appearance is deceptive, and we cannot regard with
confidence any theory of the growth of philosophical systems
which leaves no room for fresh systems in the future.
The Philosophy of Law has not quite the same difficulties to
meet, since it is rather an analysis of the functions of a state,
and of the ethical notions which they involve, than an attempt
to describe a historical progression. But it is significant that
it ends by demonstrating that the ideal form of government
was very like the one under which Hegel was living. There seems
no reason to suspect that he was influenced by interested motives.
The more probable supposition is that he had come to the con-
clusion that constitutional monarchy was the best possible form
of government for an European nation in 1820. This is a legitimate
opinion, but what is not legitimate is the attempt to lay down
a priori that it will always be the best possible form. No form
of government can completely embody the Absolute Idea, since
the idea of government, as we learn in the Philosophy of Spirit,
is itself but a subordinate one. And it is very difficult to predict
social changes which are still far distant. So Hegel passed to
the conclusion that the best which had appeared was the best
which could appear. He thus imposed on empirical variety an
d priori hmit, which was not critical but dogmatic, and liable
to be upset at any moment by the course of events.
220. In the Philosophy of History the contingency of the
starting-point is still plainer. He begins with China, it is clear,
only because he did not happen to know anything older. He
had indeed a right, by his own definition of history, to exclude
tribes of mere savages. But he could have no reason to assert
— and he did not assert — that, before the rise of Chinese civilisa-
tion, there was no succession of nation to nation, each with its
distinct character and distinct work, such as he traces in later
times. He did not know that there was such a succession, and
he could not take it into account. But this leaves the beginning
quite empirical.
And he admits in so many words that history will not stop
where his Philosophy of History stops. His scheme does not
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 243
include the Sclavonic races, nor the European inhabitants of
America. But he expressly says that the Sclavonic races may
have hereafter a place in the series of national developments,
and, still more positively, that the United States will have such
a place^. All attempt to fix the final point of history, or to put
limits to the development which takes place in it, is thus given
up.
In view of passages hke these, it would seem that there is not
much truth in Lotze's reproach, that modern Idealism confined
the spiritual development of the Absolute to the shores of the
Mediterranean^. In the first place Hegel speaks only of this
planet, and leaves it quite open to us to suppose that the Absolute
Idea might be realised in other developments elsewhere. It is
scarcely fair, therefore, to charge such a philosophy with ignoring
the discoveries of Copernicus. And, as to what does happen on
the earth, Hegel devotes a large — perhaps disproportionately
large — part of the Philosophies of Religion and History to China
and India, which do not lie very near the Mediterranean. We
have seen also that he reahsed that room must be left for the
development of Russia and the United States.
221. It appears, then, that of all the terminal points of the
different applications of the dialectic, only two can be indepen-
dently recognised, so as to give us the fixed points which we
find to be necessary in constructing the processes. These are
at the beginning of the Philosophy of Nature, and at the end
of the Philosophy of Spirit. Now Nature and Spirit, taken
together, form the chief and all-embracing process reaching
from the most superficial abstraction to the most absolute reahty,
in which the evolution of society, of religion, and of philosophy
are only episodes. And it may at first sight seem improbable
that we should be able to determine, with comparative certainty,
the two points most remote from our present experience — the
one as the barest of abstractions, the other as absolute and almost
unimaginable perfection — while points less remote are far more
obscure. But further reflection shows us that it is just because
these points are the extremes of all reality that they are
1 Philosophy of History, pp. 360, and 83. (pp. 363 and 90 of Sibree's trans-
lation.) 2 Metaphysic. Section 217.
1 6 — 2
244 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
comparatively determinable. Of the first we know that it must
be that aspect of reality which, of all conceivable ways of looking
at reality, is the least true, the least significant, the least adequate
to the Absolute Idea. Of the second we know that it must be
a conception of reality in which the Absolute Idea is expressed
with perfect adequacy. We have thus the power, since the Logic
tells us the nature of the Absolute Idea, to anticipate to some
degree the nature of the first and last terms in the main process
of reality. We may be justified in recognising Space as the one,
and in predicting more or less what is to be expected in the other.
But in the subordinate processes of History, Law, Religion and
Philosophy, the highest and lowest points are not highest and
lowest absolutely, but only the highest and lowest degrees of
reality which can be expressed in a society, a creed, or a meta-
physical system. How low or how high these can be, we can
only know empirically, since this depends on the nature of
societies, of creeds, and of systems, all of which contain empirical
elements^. And if it can only be known empirically, it can never
be known certainly. We can never be sure that the boundaries
we place are not due to casual limitations of our actual know-
ledge, which may be broken down in the immediate future.
And so there is nothing mysterious or suspicious in the fact
that many philosophers would be quite prepared to predict,
within certain limits, the nature of Heaven, while they would
own their philosophy quite incompetent to give any information
about the probable form of local government which will prevail
in London one hundred years hence. For on such a theory as
Hegel's we should know that in Heaven the Absolute Idea was
completely and adequately manifested. But of the government
of London we should only know that, like all earthly things, it
would manifest the Absolute Idea to some extent, but not com-
pletely. And to determine, by the aid of the dialectic, how much
1 The subject-matter of metaphysical systems is, no doubt, pure thought.
But the circumstances which determine that a particular view shall be held at
a particular time and in a particular shape are to a large extent contingent and
only to be known empirically. Nor can we determine by pure thought how large
an element in the complete perfection of Spirit consists in correct views on general
questions of metaphysics — or in other words, what is the relation of the process
given in the History of Philosophy to the main process of Spirit.
vu] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 245
and in what form it would manifest it, we should have to begin
by determining the position of the municipal organisation of
London in 1996 in a chain which stretches from the barest
possible abstraction to the fullest possible reaUty, This we cannot
do. Philosophers are in much the same position as Mr Kipling's
muleteer —
"We know what heaven and hell may bring,
But no man knoweth the mind of the king^."
For they are on firmer ground in theology than in sociology.
And perhaps there is not much to regret in this.
222. We_ must now. passi on to a second defect in Hegel's
appUcation of his Logic to experience. The difficulty of fixing
the first and last points in the dialectic process is not the only
obstacle in our way. Much of Hegel's work, as we have seen,
consisted in applying the dialectic process to various special
fields — to Religion, to History, to Law, and to Philosophy. Now
in doing this, he is in each case dealing with only one aspect of
reality, leaving out of account many others. Can we expect such
a fragment of reality^.taken-hyjitafilf, -tQj3£Lan_example--oi-the
dialectiQ4irQ£esS? T^ si rip nf rpalit y pan be. rp.fl.lly ygo la-tad-ff^^fn
ajl the^others, and, u nless we fall in to q"ite r false aibstraction,
we^iust allow for the interaction of ^ very asp ect of reality: upian
every other aspect TKis is a truth which Hegel fully recognises,
and on which, indeed, he emphatically insists. For example, he
points out that the constitution possible for a country at any
time must depend on its character, and both History and Philo-
sophy are, in his exposition, closely connected with Rehgion.
But these various dialectical processes are not, according to
Hegel, synchronous. Philosophy, for example, begins for him
in Greece, which in historical development is already in the
second stage. History, again, begins for him in China, whose
religion on the other hand represents an advance on primitive
simphcity. If, then, these three processes react on one another,
it follows that the spontaneous development of each according
to the dialectic will be comphcated and obscured by an indefinite
number of side influences introduced from other aspects of reaUty
then in difierent stages. It is true that everything which
^ The Ballad of the King^s Jest.
!^
-^ W 246 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
■^ influences, like that wliich is influenced, is obeying the same law
^ of the dialectic. But still the result will not exhibit that law.
''' ii ^ , Suppose a hundred pianos were to play the same piece of music,
p^ ^. 1^ >:. each beginning a few seconds after its neighbour, while the length
^ ^ I ^ «^ of these intervals was unequal and regulated by no principle.
"T T% T* The effect on the ear, when all the hundred had started, would
^tr s^ \, he one of mere confusion, in spite of the fact that they were all
^ "3^ ^ playing the same piece.
jjf jj!I ^ 223. 'The same difficulty will not occur in the process of
■^ ^ o Nature and Spirit. For this relates, not to one side of reality
^ O SjC only, but to the whole of it, and there are therefore no influences
"*■ *«A^ •«-- '-^ from outside to be considered. But there is an analogous difficulty,
■"^"^ %^ ^ & J '
"^ j^ Q J and an equally serious one.
44^ Si> .^ It is a fact, which may perhaps be explained, but which
^** »L* Ck, cannot be disputed, that, if we consider the world as a dialectic
. ^ ft/ process, we shall find, when we look at it sub specie temforis,
^
that its different parts are, at any moment, very unequally
advanced in that process. One part of the world is explicitly
*<^ ^ O > Spirit, another part is that implicit form of Spirit which we call
^ I^ t~" ^^ Matter. One creature is a jelly-fish, and another is a man. One
<icr ^ man is Shakespeare, and another is Blackmore. Now these
..^ ^ yl. different parts of the world will react on one another, and, since
^ y^ they are engaged in different parts of the process, and we cannot
^ -J ^ tU trace any system in their juxtaposition, the course of the dia-
Uii "^ - - lectic will be altered in each case, as it was in Religion, History,
IS? o d^'' and Philosophy, by the influence of various other forces, them-
j^p. ^ selves obeying the same law of the dialectic, but producing, by
casual and contingent interactions, a result in which it will be
impossible to trace the dialectic scheme.
If, for example, we try to follow the working of the dialectic
process in the lives of individual men, we find that one of the
most prominent facts in the life of each man is his death at a
certain time. Whatever importance death may have for his
spiritual development, it is obviously all-important to our power
of explaining his spiritual development, since with death we
lose sight of him. Now it is but seldom that death comes as
a consequence or even as a symbol of something significant in
a man's spiritual history. It generally comes from some purely
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 247
material cause — an east wind, a falling tile, or a weak heart.
And this is only the most striking of the innumerable cases in
which our spiritual nature is conditioned and constrained by
outside facts, which may be developing along their own paths,
but which, as regards that spiritual nature, must be looked on
as purely arbitrary.
And if the dialectic cannot be observed in the individual,
owing to these external disturbances, we shall not be more
successful in tracing it accurately in the race as a whole. In
the first place, material causes — the Black Death, for example,
— often produce results on the spiritual development of nations,
or of the civihsed world. And, secondly, the development of the
race must manifest itself in individuals, and if it is hampered
in each of them by material conditions, it will not exist at all,
free from those conditions. This could only be denied on the
supposition that, if we took a sufficient number of cases, the
results of the external influences would cancel one another,
leaving the inherent development of spirit unchecked. This would,
however, be a pure assumption, and not likely, as far as we can
judge at present, to be in accordance with the facts. For the
influence which material causes have on the development of
Spirit has a distinctive character, and its effects are more probably
cumulative than mutually destructive.
224. Of course anyone who accepts Hegel's Logic must
believe that the nature of the Absolute, taken as a whole, is
entirely rational, and that, consequently, all the facts of ex-
perience are really manifestations of reason, however irrational
and contingent they may appear. But this takes us back to the
other practical use of Hegel's philosophy, which we admitted
as valid, namely, that it will assure us, on general grounds, that
everything must be rational, without showing us how particular
things are rational. It will not alter the fact that if we are trying
to explain how the various facts of any particular kind are
rational, by tracing their dialectical connection with one another,
we shall fail in so far as they are influenced by the facts which
are not part of that chain, however sure we may be on general
grounds that they, like everything else, must be rational.
The only way in which we could get a dialectic process, deahng
248 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
with actual facts, secure from extraneous influences, would be
to trace the connection of the state of the whole universe, taken
sub specie temforis, at one moment of time, with the state of
the whole universe at some subsequent moment. This, of course,
could not be done, unless we knew what the state of the whole
universe at one particular moment really was, which is obviously
impossible, since, to mention only one point, our knowledge is
almost entirely confined to this planet.
We have found so far, then, that the attempts to trace the
dialectic process, as it manifests itself in Religion, Law, History,
or Philosophy, suffered under two defects. In the first place, we
could not hope to find the fixed points which were necessary
before we could begin to construct the dialectic, and, in the
second place, the course of the dialectic process must be con-
tinually disturbed by external causes. With regard to the main
process of Nature and Spirit, we found that it might be free
from the first fault, but not from the second.
225. I need only touch on a third obstacle which presents
itself. This consists in the extent and intricacy of the subject-
matter which must be known, and unified by science, before we
can hope to interpret it by means of the dialectic. The hindrance
rhich this throws in the way of Hegel's purpose has perhaps
been overestimated by his opponents. For they have represented
him as trying to deduce, and not merely to explain, the facts
of experience. And they have exaggerated the extent to which
he believed himself to have succeeded in making his system
complete^. But after allowing for all this, it must be admitted
that the task which Hegel did undertake was one which often
required more knowledge of facts than he had, or than, perhaps,
can be obtained. This difficulty is least prominent in Religion
and Philosophy, where the facts to be dealt with are com-
paratively few and easy of access. It is most prominent in the
Philosophy of Nature, which, as we saw, was comparatively
fortunate in being able to fix its starting-point with tolerable
certainty. The abuse which has been heaped on this work is
probably excessive. But it cannot be denied that it has a certain
amount of justification.
1 Cp. Section 220.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 249
226. We seem thus reduced to a state of almost complete
scepticism as to the value of Hegel's applications of the dialectic,
taken as systems. We may continue to regard as true the idea
of the evolution, by inherent necessity, of the full meaning of
reality, since that follows from the Logic. But Hegel's magni-
ficent attempt to trace the working of that evolution through
the whole field of human knowledge must be given up.
Must we give up with it all attempts to apply the conclusions,
so hardly won in the Logic, to our present experience, and con-
tent ourselves with the information that they can give us as to
Absolute Reality seen in its full completeness? It seems to me
that we need not do so, and that experience, as we have it now,
may be interpreted by means of the dialectic in a manner possibly
not less useful, though less ambitious, than that which Hegel
himself attempted.
We saw that two of the difficulties in the way of Hegel's
scheme were the multiplicity of the details, which are found in
any subject-matter as given in experience, and the fact that the
different chains of the dialectic process acted irregularly on one
another, so that none of them remained symmetrical examples
of the dialectic development. Now both these difficulties would
be avoided, if, instead of trying to trace the dialectic process
in actual events, which are always many-sided, and influenced
from outside, we tried to trace such a process in some of the
influences at work on these events, taken in abstraction from
other influences.
For example, it would probably be impossible to trace a
dialectic process in the moral history of any man or nation,
except in a few prominent features. For the causes which
determine moral development are indefinitely complex, and
many of them have themselves no moral significance. A man's
moral nature is affected by his own intellectual development,
by his relations with other men, and by his relations with material
things. All these causes, no doubt, also move in dialectic pro-
cesses, but they are not processes in unison with the process of
his moral nature, and so they prevent it exhibiting an example
of the dialectic movement. A man may have committed a sin
of which, by the inner development of his own will, he would
:)^
250 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
soon come to repent. But if, through some disease, he loses his
memory shortly after committing the sin, his repentance may,
to say the least, be indefinitely postponed.
Difiiculties like these arise whenever our subject-matter is
concrete moral acts, which have always other aspects besides
that of their moral quahty, and which are affected by many
circumstances that are not moral acts. Let us now consider what
would be the case if we took comparatively abstract moral
qualities — e.g. Innocence, Sin, Punishment, Repentance, Virtue.
Between these there would be a much greater chance of dis-
covering some dialectic connection. By considering abstract
qualities we save ourselves, in the first place, from the com-
plexity caused by the indefinite multiphcity of particulars which
are to be found in any given piece of experience. For we deal
only with those characteristics which we have ourselves selected
to deal with. And, in the second place, we escape from the
difficulties caused by the intrusion of outside influences. For we
are not considering what does happen in any actual case, but
what would happen if all but a given set of conditions were ex-
cluded, or, to put it in another way, what influence on actual
facts a certain force tends to exert when taken by itself. We
abstract, in the case given above, from all aspects of actions
except their morality, and we abstract from all causes which
influence action, except the deliberate moral choice of the agent.
In the same way, every moving body is under the influence of
• an indefinite number of forces. But it is possible to isolate two
i of them, and to consider how the body would move if only those
two forces acted upon it. The result, in its abstraction, will not
apply exactly to any concrete case, but it may render us im-
portant aid in explaining and influencing concrete cases.
The third difficulty which met us in deahng with Hegel's own
applications of the dialectic was the impossibility of determining
the relation of the various stages to one another, unless we knew
the beginning or the end of the process beforehand, which we
seldom did. This difficulty does not arise in our proposed abstract
appHcations of the dialectic, on account of their comparatively
humble aim. There is no attempt here, as there was before, to
construct even a part of the chain of stages which reaches from
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 251
beginning to end of the whole temporal process. We only assert
that, when a certain number of abstract terms are taken in
connection with one another, they stand in certain relations
which are an example of the dialectic movement. Here we are
sure of our starting-point, because we have made it ourselves.
227. The best example of such an application of the dialectic
method, which is to be found in Hegel's own work, is his theory
of Sin, referred to above. It is rather implied than directly
stated, but, if we compare his treatment of the subject in the
Philosophy of Spirit and in the Philosophy of Religion, it appears
that he regards Innocence (Unschuldigkeit) and Virtue as the
thesis and synthesis of a triad, whose antithesis consists of a
subordinate triad, of which the terms are Sin, Punishment, and
Repentance.
This process gains, of course, its simplicity, its independence
of external influences, and its fixed starting-point, merely by
abstraction — the only way in which definiteness can ever be
gained in our present state of imperfect knowledge. And there-
fore, like every result gained by abstraction, it is more or less
inapplicable to the concrete facts. Its value must depend on its
being applicable sufficiently often, and with sufficient exactitude,
to make it practically useful. This is the case with all abstrac-
tions. No one, for example, ever acted exclusively from purely
economic motives, but most people act from them enough to
make it worth while to work out what would happen if every one
always did so. On the other hand it would not be worth while
to work out what would happen if every one desired to suffer as
much bodily pain as possible, because few people are greatly
influenced by such a desire.
Now the conditions of Hegel's dialectic of virtue do occur in
life sufficiently often and •mth sufficient exactitude to make the
knowledge we have gained by the abstraction practically valuable.
For whenever men are acting so that their acts have a moral
quality — and this is almost always the case — then the moral
aspect of a particular action will be one of the most important
of the factors which determine whether it shall, under given
circumstances, take place or not, and what its results will be,
if it does take place. And so the relation which exists between
252 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
the moral aspects of actions and mental states will afford us,
in many instances, materials for explaining those actions and
states with sufl&cient accuracy, although, resting on abstraction,
it will never succeed in giving a complete explanation of the
facts in any actual case, and in some cases will give us scarcely
any help in explaining them.
228. Another relation of abstract terms which can often throw
great light on experience is that which is sometimes summed
up in the maxim, Die to live. Here the thesis is the possession
or assertion of something good in itself, while the antithesis is
the abandonment or the denial of that good, on account of some
defect or narrowness in the statement of the thesis. The synthesis,
again, is the enjoyment of the original good in a deeper and
better way, when the defect has been purged out by the discipline
of the antithesis. As an abstraction, this relation can never
express the whole nature of any event. That which, from one
point of view, is positive, may from another be negative, and
from a third be a reconciUation of two extremes. But when, as
often happens, we are looking at things from one limited point
of view, and temporarily ignoring others, the arrangement of
our subject-matter upon such a scheme may be very valuable.
229. But, after all, the main practical interest of Hegel's
philosophy does not lie in such interpretations, useful and
suggestive as they are. It is rather to be found in the abstract
certainty which the Logic gives us that all reality is rational
and righteous, even when we cannot in the least see how it is so,
and also in the general determination of the nature of true reality,
which we saw above was a legitimate consequence of the Logic^.
In other words, when we ask of what value philosophy is, apart
from the value of truth for its own sake, we shall find that it
lies more in the domains of religion than in those of science or
practice. Its importance is not that it shows us how the facts
around us are good, not that it shows us how we can make them
better, but that it proves, if it is successful, that they, like all
other reality, are, sub specie aeternitatis, perfectly good, and, sub
specie temforis, destined to become perfectly good.
The practical value of the dialectic, then, lies in the demonstra-
1 Sections 208, 209.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 253
tion of a general principle, which can be carried into particulars
or used as a guide to action, only in a very few cases, and in those
with great uncertainty. In saying this we shall seem at first sight
to deny that the dialectic has really any practical use at all. But
reflection may convince us that the effect of philosophy on re-
ligion is quite as practical, and perhaps even more important, than
the effect which it might have exercised on science and conduct,
if Hegel's applications of the dialectic could have been sustained.
That the effect on religion is one which we are entitled to
consider of practical, and not merely of theoretical interest, was
pointed out above^. For, through religion, philosophy will in-
fluence the happiness of those who accept its theories, and nothing
can have more immediate practical interest than any cause which
increases or diminishes happiness.
230. We may go, I think, even further than this. It is more
important, for our general welfare, to be able to apply philosophy
to religion, than to science and conduct. We must consider that
the general conviction of the rationahty and righteousness of
the universe must be reached by philosophy, or else not reached
at all — at least as a matter of reasoning. Now the application
of the dialectic to the particular facts is not indispensable in
the same way. It is true that it is essential to life, and to all
that makes life worth having, that we should be able to some
extent to understand what goes on round us, and should have
some rules by which we can guide our conduct. And, no doubt,
it would assist us in both these terms if we could succeed in
tracing the manifestations of the dialectic process in the facts
around us, and in anticipating the facts in which it will be mani-
fested in the future. But still, for these aims, the aid of the
dialectic is not essential. The finite sciences can explain the facts
of our life, incompletely, indeed, and imperfectly, but still to a
great extent, and to an extent which is continually increasing.
And we shall find in common sense, and in the general principles
of ethics, the possibility of pursuing a coherent and reasonable
course of action, even if we do not know the precise position at
which we are in the dialectic process towards the perfection which
is the goal of our efforts.
1 Section 209.
254 THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC [ch.
Here, then, philosophy would be, from the practical point of
view, useful, but not necessary. But its importance with regard
to religion is greater. We cannot observe that all reahty is rational
and righteous as a fact of experience, nor can we make it rational
and righteous by any act of ours. If we do believe that it is so,
it must either be by some reasoning which falls within the juris-
diction of philosophy, or by the acceptance of some form of what
Hegel calls Revealed Religion. Now, without considering whether
the acceptance of the latter is justifiable or not, it cannot be
denied that the number of people to whom it does not seem
justifiable is always considerable, and shows no marked signs
of diminishing. And many of those who do accept some form
of Revealed ReUgion, base their belief in large measure on a con-
viction, reached by philosophical methods, that the rationality
and righteousness of the universe are antecedently probable, or,
at all events, not antecedently improbable^.
Our religious views then, if challenged, — and they do not often
pass now-a-days without being challenged — rest to a larger and
larger extent on philosophical arguments. The practical impor-
tance of religious views — one way or the other — to the world's
happiness, is likely to increase rather than to diminish. For, as
increasing wealth and civilisation set a greater proportion of
mankind free from the constant pressure of mere bodily wants,
the pressure of spiritual needs becomes more clearly felt, and is
increased by every advance which is made in intelligence and
culture. The more we succeed in removing such of the evils and
limitations of life as can be removed, the more clearly do those
which cannot be removed reveal themselves, and the more im-
perative becomes the demand for some assurance that these also
are transitory, and that all things work together for good. Nor
does this tendency of our nature deserve to be called, as it often
is called, either selfish or abstract. H we care for virtue, we can
scarcely fail to be interested in the ultimate righteousness or
iniquity of the universe, as judged by our moral ideals. If
we care for the men and women we know, it seems not un-
natural that we should sometimes ask ourselves what — if
^ Cp. Mr Balfour's Foundations of Belief, Part n., Chap. 4, and Part n^,
Chap. 5, Section v.
vn] THE APPLICATION OF THE DIALECTIC 255
anything — will happen to them when their bodies have ceased
to exist.
I maintain, therefore, that we have reached a conclusion which
is not really sceptical, even as to the practical value of Hegel's
philosophy, when we reject his attempts to trace the manifes-
tations of the dialectic process in the particular facts of our
experience. For the more important of the practical effects of
philosophy is left untouched — more important, because here
philosophy is indispensable if the result is to be attained at all.
231. It may be objected that such a view as this is more than
a partial difference from Hegel, and that its abstractness violates
the whole spirit of his system. To say that we know of the
existence of a rationality and righteousness, which we are yet
unable to trace in detail in experience, may appear at first sight
to mean a trust in some other-worldly reality. Such a trust would
doubtless be completely opposed to the most fundamental prin-
ciples of Hegel's philosophy. But this objection misrepresents
the position. It is not asserted that the rational and righteous
reahty is something behind and separate from experience. On
the contrary, it is and must be perfectly manifested in that
experience, which is nothing but its manifestation. But we do
not see in detail how it is such a manifestation. Thus it is not
the reality which is abstract, but only our knowledge of it. And
this is not surprising, since all imperfect knowledge must be
abstract, and it is matter of common notoriety that our knowledge
is as yet imperfect.
Nor need we much regret such a limitation of the province
of philosophy. For if our present knowledge were completely
adequate to reality, reality would be most inadequate to our
ideals. It is surely at least as satisfactory a beHef, if we hold
that the highest object of philosophy is to indicate to us the
general nature of an ultimate harmony, the full content of which
it has not yet entered into our hearts to conceive. All true
philosophy must be mystical, not indeed in its methods, but in
its final conclusions.
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