Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart Batoche Books Kitchener 1999 Second Edition (1922) Cambridge University Press. First edition was published in 1896. This edition printed in 2000 by Batoche Books, 52 Eby Street South, Kitchener, Ontario, N2G 3L1, Canada. email:
[email protected] ISBN: 1-55273-033-6. To Miss Frances Power Cobbe with much gratitude Contents Preface ............................................................................................... 7 Chapter I: The General Nature of The Dialectic ................................ 8 Chapter II: Different Interpretations of the Dialectic ....................... 35 Chapter III: The Validity of The Dialectic ....................................... 72 Chapter IV: The Development of The Method ............................... 109 Chapter V: The Relation of The Dialectic to Time ........................ 142 Chapter VI: The Final Result of The Dialectic .............................. 178 Chapter VII: The Application of The Dialectic .............................. 203 Notes .............................................................................................. 226 Preface The first four chapters of this book are based on a dissertation submitted at the Fellowship Examination of Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1891. The fourth and fifth chapters, nearly in their present form, were published in Mind (New Series, Nos. 1, 2, 8, and 10). A part of the second chapter appeared in the Revue de Métaphysique 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. Chapter I: The General Nature of The Dialectic 1. Hegel’s primary object in his dialectic is to establish the existence of a logical connection between the various categories which are involved in the constitution of experience. He teaches that this connection is of such a kind that any category, if scrutinised with sufficient care and attention, is found to lead on to another, and to involve it, in such a manner that an attempt to use the first of any subject 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 un favourable 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. The examination of a certain category leads us to the conclusion that, if we predicate it 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 contradiction. On examining the two contrary predicates further, they are seen to be capable of reconciliation in a higher category, which combines the contents of both of them, not merely placed side by side; but absorbed into a wider idea, as moments or aspects of which they can exist without contradiction. Th