Filosofía

The Origin and Significance of Hegel’s Logic: A General Introduction to Hegel’s System J.B. Baillie
Macmillian, New York and London 1901

Batoche Books
Kitchener
1999

Contents
Preface ............................................................................................... 5 Chapter I: Introduction ....................................................................... 9 ChapterII: First Stage—From 1797 to 1800—Hegel’s Early Logic 22 Chapter III: Second Stage—From 1801 to 1807 ............................. 45 Chapter IV: Hegel and his Contemporaries ...................................... 72 Chapter V: Transition—Origin of The “Phenomenology of Mind” and of the “Logic” ............................................................................ 85 Chapter VI: ThirdStage—From 1807 to 1812–16—The Phenomenology of Mind .............................................................................. 111 Chapter VII: The “Phenomenology” (continued)—Phenomenology and Logic ................................................................................. 135 Chapter VIII: Origin and Nature of the Content of the Logic ........ 150 Chapter IX: Origin and Nature of the Methodof the Logic ........... 175 Chapter X: Relation of Logic to Nature .......................................... 211 Chapter XI: Retrospective—The Historical Setting of Hegel’s Logic ....................................................................................... 219 Chapter XII: Criticism ................................................................... 225

Preface
The student ofHegel usually finds the Logic the most forbidding and impossible part of the System. At the same time he is aware, not merely from Hegel’s own statements, but from the general nature of Hegel’s philosophy, that unless he can discover the clue to the tale of the categories, Hegel’s System will remain for the most part a sealed secret. In his perplexity he generally abandons, after a short struggle,the effort to understand the System, and regards it either with contempt or despair according to his temperament. The difficulties felt are due partly to the strangeness of the System, the absence of apparent points of contact with ordinary thought, and partly also to the fact that Hegel has made no confession regarding the path which led him to his final result. Other difficulties of course remain,even when the preliminary obstacles are overcome; but they are of a different kind and hardly so paralysing to continued interest. It is one thing not to understand what an author means in given context, for this difficulty arises from what we already know of the author and the context in question; it is quite another matter not to be sure what the author really intends to say in any context atall. It is the aim of the present work to attempt to remove these initial difficulties more particularly in the way of understanding the Logic, but also regarding the point of view of the System generally. The author has tried to show how the Science of Logic as expounded by Hegel arose in the course of the development of his System, and to state its general meaning. He has thought that if the waycould be indicated by which the Logic grew up in the mind of its author, much of the preliminary obscurity which hangs over it might be removed, and such philosophical value as it claims to possess might be more easily appreciated. The purpose of

6/J.B.Baillie the inquiry is thus primarily historical. So far as the author has deviated from this, it is mainly to bring out by criticalsuggestions the connexion between one period in Hegel’s development and the succeeding. The concluding chapter is devoted solely to criticism, in order to refer, as shortly as the scope of the inquiry would allow, to some of the points of importance which must be taken into account in estimating Hegel’s result. It does not claim in the least to be exhaustive or even, as it stands, quite sufficient; but...