"Contradiction is the root of all knowledge" (Hegel).
"Everything rational is real; and everything real is rational" (Hegel).
"It is in thought that freedom resides" (Hegel).
Hegel's Philosophy
To understand Hegel, we must first review Kant's philosophy. According to Kant:
We contemplate reality through our categories of understanding. That is, the main thing is the subject, the inner world.
We contemplate the external world through our conceptual "glasses". The mind is an active agent that shapes the objects of its experience.
Our knowledge is limited by sensible experience and by our conceptual structures. We must distinguish between phenomenon (the perceptible external world) and the noomenon, the thing in itself (Ding on sich), the true reality which is unknowable by the human mind.
The categories of the mind can only be applied to the phenomenal world and not to the ultimate reality (the thing in itself), the transcendental reality. We cannot attain scientific knowledge of the noumenal world. Therefore, metaphysics cannot be considered a science.
God is a transcendent idea that does not correspond to any object. It is the product of our pure reason.
It is his theory of transcendental idealism, a revolution that Kant himself called "Copernican," because of its analogy with the heliocentric system, with the subject as the center.
Hegel pursued a vision of totality based on a unitary reality, beyond Kant's conception. Hegel disagreed with Kant's subject-object dualism, where the object is subordinate to the subject.
Hegel tried to free knowledge from any limitation or conditioning, opposing any fragmentary interpretation of reality. He wanted to elaborate a unitary theory of reality in its totality, and to unify through reason the inner world and the outer world, subject and object, phenomenon and nonmomenon.
The absolute is reason. The rational is real, and what is real is rational. Therefore everything is cognizable. All that exists is reason, all else are manifestations or phenomena of reason.
There is no reality that does not have rational justification. Between subject and object there is no impassable barrier. Therefore, metaphysics is part of science.
Reason is not static. It is a dynamic power full of possibilities that develop over time.
Philosophy is a tendency towards a universal and necessary knowledge of the reality of the whole. The truth is the whole.
Hegel's philosophical system is called "absolute idealism", and he used a new method of reasoning which he called "dialectics" a term already used by the Greek philosopher Heraclitus [see Addendum]:
Everything is dialectical. Reality is dialectical. Knowledge is dialectical. The structure of reality is dialectical.
Dialectics is based on the struggle of opposites and their overcoming on a higher level. It is a process based on the so-called "dialectical triad":
Thesis. It is an abstract or intellectual aspect or moment (statement, concept or reality).
Antithesis. It is the negation of the thesis.
Synthesis. It is the overcoming of the conflict between thesis and antithesis. The synthesis becomes a new thesis, which will be opposed by an antithesis to give rise to a new synthesis, and so on in an ascending process.
The protagonist of the dialectic is not the human being, but the Spirit (Geist) that governs reality. Spirit is not the opposite of matter, but the deepest and most real of the existent, the source of everything.
All things are contradictory in themselves. Contradiction is the root of all movement. Only that which contains a contradiction moves.
Cause and effect are moments of universal reciprocal dependence. The same thing presents itself as cause and then as effect.
Logic is the realm of pure thought, and it is also the science of process, of becoming. Logic is divided into three parts: the logic of being, the logic of essence and the logic of concept. The first two logics are subjective. The third is a subjective logic. The logic of essence is based on the fundamental ontological categories. Concepts reflect the essence and the hidden connections and interdependencies of phenomena.
Reality is the union of essence and existence. Essence is not behind or beyond the phenomenon, but is concretized or manifested in the phenomenon.
In dialectical logic, reason deduces one concept from another, embracing ever deeper extensions of reality, and discovering the truth of something after having grasped its relation to the whole.
The logical principle of identity must be replaced by that of incessant transformation, and the logical principle of non-contradiction must be replaced by that of the unity of opposites.
The principle of the excluded third (something is A or it is not A) is a proposition that seems to reject contradiction, but in doing so it stands on a higher level than A and non-A, uniting both.
The dialectical character of the real means that each thing is what it is and only becomes what it is in relation and dependence with other things and, ultimately, with the totality of the real. Facts are relations despite their apparent independence.
Reality is neither fixed nor determined. It is in constant process of transformation and change, whose motor is its internal contradiction constituted as opposition of opposites.
Each particular reality refers to the totality, and can only be understood and explained in relation to the whole. Each reality, each thing, is a moment of the whole, which is constituted in the whole.
Truth is the totality of all aspects of the phenomena of reality and their relations. "Truth is the whole."
Knowledge is a dialectical process of overcoming contradictions, of union of opposites. Knowledge has a dialectical structure because reality is dialectical and because knowledge is an aspect or dimension of reality. Dialectics is also a method of knowledge.
Knowledge, structurally, consists in the subject-object relation. Total and absolute knowledge is attained with the identity between the two. With the union of opposites, wisdom is attained.
Dialectical knowledge is absolute knowledge. Thanks to absolute knowledge every particular knowledge acquires validity and meaning.
Everything is knowable because subject and object are manifestations of the same absolute reality. There is identity between being and knowing.
History must be interpreted from rationality. There is a Spirit that directs history. History proceeds according to the following laws or dialectical categories:
Variation. Everything changes. History is the passage of everything partial towards totality.
Negation. The Spirit ceaselessly destroys and constantly builds itself up. "Out of death comes life."
Reason. Reason is the substance of history. It is consciousness of subject and object. It is the encounter and reconciliation of the subject with the object.
Freedom. It is the fundamental principle that makes history possible in the Spirit at the subjective level. The goal of history is Spirit and the end pursued by Spirit is the conquest of freedom. History is the total overcoming of every process, the ultimate unity of opposites, the culmination and fullness of all being, the ultimate expression of reason and freedom.
MENTAL vs. Hegel
There are extraordinary analogies (although with different terminology) between Hegel and the MENTAL paradigm, so that from the universalist philosophy of this language the German philosopher is better understood:
Hegel proposed a unified vision of reality, a vision of totality.
MENTAL is a universal paradigm.
Hegel attempted to overcome Kant's subject-object dualism. Hegel was a monistic philosopher.
MENTAL is a monistic philosophy, based on internal and external reality sharing the same primary archetypes.
Hegel had faith in reason, that nothing escapes reason, that everything is intelligible and knowable.
In MENTAL reason, the intelligible, resides in the primary archetypes, which constitute the foundation of all that exists and the basis of all knowledge.
For Hegel, the absolute, the essence of everything, is reason. All that exists (phenomena) are manifestations of reason.
In MENTAL, the only real and true things that exist are the primary archetypes. Everything else are manifestations of the primary archetypes.
For Hegel, all particular knowledge is sustained by reason and its dialectical structure.
In MENTAL all knowledge (expression) is sustained by the primary archetypes.
For Hegel, dialectics is a method of knowledge,
MENTAL is the foundation of knowledge and a method for constructing knowledge.
For Hegel, wisdom is attained by the union of opposites.
With MENTAL there is the integral union of opposites, with which transcendence and wisdom are attained.
For Hegel, all reality is dialectical, everything has two poles in constant opposition, but harmonizable from a higher level (the synthesis).
In MENTAL the primary archetypes are of dialectical type and their synthesis is the language itself, from which one has a unified vision of reality.
Hegel considers three logical domains: that of being, that of essence and that of concepts.
In MENTAL we can also consider three domains: that of being (inaccessible by reason), that of essence (the primary archetypes) and that of the manifestations of essence (the expressions).
Hegel centered rationality in logic. In MENTAL, logic (represented by the primitive "Condition") is only one of the dimensions of essence and reality.
For Hegel, everything is in constant transformation, the motor of which is the opposition of opposites, but which evolves towards unity.
MENTAL is the result of the evolution of human thought towards consciousness, where everything is contemplated as one and the same thing. Once established in this language synthesis (or language of consciousness) everything that can be expressed already exists. When we construct an expression we access something already existing.
For Hegel, metaphysics is part of science.
MENTAL is metaphysics because the primary archetypes are inexpressible. And it is also science because the manifestations of such primary archetypes are expressible.
Addenda
Hegel vs. Heraclitus
There are several analogies between Hegel's thought and that of Heraclitus.
For both, the foundation of everything lies in incessant change. Everything is transformed in a process of continuous creation and destruction. This permanent mobility is based on the structure of opposites. Contradiction is at the origin of all things. This flow is governed by the Logos, the universal reason, which not only governs the becoming of the world, but also manifests itself internally in the human being. The equivalent in Hegel is the Spirit (Geist).
For Hegel there is a growing and irreversible evolution toward the universal Spirit. In Heraclitus the universal transformation is cyclical, with two stages: one ascending (of expansion) and the other descending (of contraction).
Heraclitus is considered the father of dialectics (literally, "art of conversation") in the West, the first to consider that contradiction does not paralyze, but energizes.
Heraclitus went even beyond particular opposites, for he also united the generic opposites of change and non-change (or permanence), for he saw things remaining changing and changing remaining.
Bibliography
Adorno, Theodor W. Tres estudios sobre Hegel. Taurus, Madrid, 1974.
D'Hondt, Jacques. Hegel. Tusquets, 2002.
Hegel. Ciencia de la lógica. Ediciones del Solar, 1982.
Hegel. Fenomenología del Espíritu. Pre-Textos, 2006.
Hegel. Enciclopedia de las Ciencias Filosóficas: Lógica, Naturaleza y Espíritu. Alianza Editorial, 2000.
Heidegger, Martin. La fenomenología del espíritu de Hegel. Alianza Editorial, 1992.
