Deng Xiaomang on Hegel - The Unnamed Lecture Series

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 characteristic is his dynamic dialectical thought, which is his most prominent feature. Hegel's dialectical thought is primarily a concept of dynamism, as he explains in the preface to Phenomenology of Spirit: what is important is to understand the substantial as the subject. The substantial 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 substantial, then its subject, the substantial, is merely an expression of the subject's dynamism. The second characteristic 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 his dynamism is different from that of other philosophers. He emphasizes incorporating it into the concept of pure reason, making it logical, and logically transforming dynamism. The third characteristic builds upon the first two, namely the "unity of logic, epistemology, and ontology," which are reduced to one thing in his philosophy. Logic is reason; it is usually referred to as formal logic, but Hegel's logic is not formal logic—it is epistemology. Epistemology is the method it provides, a cognitive structure, and a thread that guides you to grasp the truth by following this thread.