Kant and Hegel on logic and ontology
Philosophizing without judgments and syllogisms. A Hegelian response to the logocentric predicament
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5380/sk.v24i1.99968Keywords:
transcendental logic, formal logic, speculative logic, methodAbstract
In Hegel’s Logic and Metaphysics, McNulty interprets the Science of Logic as an inversion of Kant’s relation between formal logic and ontology, highlighting a fundamental problem: Kant presupposes formal logic to derive transcendental logic. McNulty calls this the logocentric predicament and claims that Hegel proposes a theory of categories that does not presuppose formal logic. After discussing this approach, I offer an alternative thesis. I claim that Hegel’s Logic includes a retroactive-retrospective dimension, meaning subsequent elements are somehow present and operative in earlier stages of this logical development. The Logic does not presuppose formal logic but progressively deduces its methodology through an intellectual experience revealing the movement of object and thought. However, these progressively deduced elements are somehow present and operative in earlier logical stages. McNulty overlooks this, leading to mistaken conclusions about the absence of concepts, judgments, and syllogisms throughout Hegel’s Logic.
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