Deng Xiaomang on Hegel

Author: Deng Xiaomang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
Features: Hegel's philosophy has three main characteristics that distinguish it from other philosophers, including those who followed him. The first feature is his dynamic dialectical thought, which is his most prominent characteristic. Hegel's dialectical thought is primarily a concept of dynamism, as he explains in the preface to Phenomenology of Spirit: the important thing is to understand the substance as a subject. Substance refers to the real thing we usually talk about, while the subject refers to the dynamism of that thing. In Hegel's view, if something is truly a substance, then its subject—substance—is merely an expression of the subject's dynamism. The second feature is radical rationalism and logicism. Many philosophers in the West since ancient times have emphasized dynamism, and many have used fire as a metaphor, but Hegel's dynamism is different from that of other philosophers. He emphasizes incorporating it into the realm of pure rational concepts, making it logical and logicalizing dynamism. The third feature builds upon the first two and is the "unity of logic, epistemology, and ontology," which are reduced to one thing in his philosophy. Logic is reason, usually referring to formal logic, but Hegel's logic is not formal logic; it is epistemology. Epistemology is a method, a cognitive structure, and a thread that guides you to grasp the truth by following this thread.