Argumenta – Journal of Analytic Philosophy

Hegel on the Naturalness of Logic: An Account Based on the Preface to the second edition of the Science of Logic [Special Issue]

Topics: History of Analytic Philosophy, Philosophical logic
Keywords: Dialectics, Hegel’s logic, Logical forms, Natural language, Natural logic

 

The preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic is crucial for understanding the idea of Hegel’s logic. It is an important text because what Hegel writes is not an idiosyncratic view about logic, but rather something universally true about the object, scope, and nature of logic. Something that can genuinely dialogue with more recent, and perhaps more sophisticated, accounts of logic. One central aspect of Hegel’s argumentation in the preface is the idea that logic is natural. In this paper, I focus precisely on this aspect, addressing four Hegelian theses about the naturalness of logic.

 

The preface to the second edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic can with full rights be counted amongst the classic texts of the history of philosophy. It is a classic text because it presents in a stylistically beautiful (almost poetic) way one key philosophical idea—the very idea of Hegel’s logic. It is classic in that what Hegel writes is not his idiosyncratic view about logic, but rather something universally true about the object, scope, and nature of logic. Something that can genuinely dialogue with more recent, and perhaps more sophisticated, accounts of logic.

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