Hegel, Part 7a
Syllogism
The Subject and the Syllogism
“The
Notion is the principle of freedom, the power of substance self-realised. It is
a systematic whole, in which each of its constituent functions is the very
total which the notion is, and is put as indissolubly one with it. Thus in its
self-identity it has original and complete determinateness.
“The
onward movement of the notion is no longer either a transition into, or a
reflection on something else, but Development. For in the notion, the
elements distinguished are without more ado at the same time declared to be
identical with one another and with the whole, and the specific character of
each is a free being of the whole notion.” (The Shorter Logic, The Notion §160-1)
Lenin
in “The State and Revolution” writes about the true theory of development.
He is referring to the dialectical logic of Hegel. This is not the theory of
“service delivery”, or of the “developmental state”. It is the theory of how
humans, taken all together, became what they now are, and how they continue to
develop as humanity as a whole, into the future.
What
are we getting from our studies of Hegel? One thing we are getting is a theory
of development that can help us to make sense of “developmental” state, which
is otherwise little more than a “buzz word” in our times.
So,
for example, in the quotation above we may substitute the word “nation”
for the word “notion”, and it makes sense, and is compatible with Karl
Marx and Frederick Engels’ statement in the Communist Manifesto that “the free
development of each is the condition for the free development of all”.
We
have also noted that Karl Marx used Hegel’s ways and means to work out what
became “Capital”, the most influential book in history.
We
have got pointers or signposts which will help us as we continue to read, study
and discuss.
Do
we all need to fully master Hegel at once? No, but as a Party we do need a
significant number of the communists to have mastered Hegel. The knowledge of
Hegel needs to be kept alive by a virtual collective of communist scholars.
The
rest of us need to be constantly moving towards a better understanding of
Hegel. We need at least to have an appreciation of why we have to have
some understanding of Hegel if we are properly to understand Marx; and in this
course we have probably achieved that much, at least, by now. We need to
appreciate that for the Party, Hegel is indispensible, and not a disposable
option. That is why this ten-part course on Hegel is one of the sixteen
Communist University Generic Courses and must remain so.
The Subject
The
downloadable study text for this instalment (see below) is Andy Blunden’s
seventh lecture, on The Subject in Hegel’s Logic.
What
is “The Subject”? In philosophy in general, the fundamental question is the
relationship between human Subject and the material Objective universe. Simply
put, life is a dialectical unity-and-struggle-of-opposites between Subject and
Object, where the one cannot exist without the other. Paulo Freire is eloquent
about this, notably at the end of Chapter
One of “The Pedagogy of the Oppressed,” where he writes, among other
things:
“A revolutionary leadership must accordingly practice co-intentional
education. Teachers and students (leadership and people), co-intent on reality,
are both Subjects, not only in the task of unveiling that reality and thereby coming
to know it critically, but in the task of re-creating that knowledge. As they
attain this knowledge of reality through common reflection and action, they
discover themselves as its permanent re-creators. In this way, the presence of
the oppressed in the struggle for their liberation will be what it should be:
not pseudo-participation, but committed involvement.”
The
first page of Andy Blunden’s lecture gives depth to this basic understanding of
The Subject and then introduces a Hegelian elaboration of The Subject. This may
typify the difficulty of Hegel: Just when you thought that you had secured
yourself to a firm philosophical rock, Hegel seems to be taking a hammer to it
and setting you adrift again. Please do not fear: nothing is going to be lost.
Nor
are we in the realm of mysteries. On the contrary, what we find is that Hegel
is providing ways to think about quite familiar things, which may not have been
in the realm of philosophy before, like The Judgement of Solomon, the
Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, and we can add, the South African
Freedom Charter. Hegel is making a theory of how these determined
movements forward can and do, in Hegel’s words, “emerge out of the throng of disputation”.
Hegelian
philosophy, as obscure as it may seem, turns out to be the only
philosophy that can help us with the actual political life we lead.
Almost
at the end of this lecture Andy Blunden says:
“…the
notions, judgments and syllogisms of the section on Subjectivity, render
themselves as typical of the forms of consciousness encountered within such
formal organisations. Lenin’s insistence in 1901 that to be a member of the
Party an individual had to participate in one of the Party’s branches or
activities is rational in this light.” (Read
it! This is one occasion when the introduction will not suffice without the
reading of the actual text.)
Earlier, Andy had written:
“[Hegel’s]
Doctrine of the Notion is made up of Subject, Object and Idea. The Idea is the
unity of Subject and Object, the process in which the objectification or
institutionalization of the Subject continues to drive the development of the
active and living subject. This development of the Subject itself, the inner
development of the subject which continues within and alongside its
objectification, has the form of the movement towards an all-round developed
relation between individual, universal and particular.”
So we can note that there is
a connection between Notion, Subject and Object, and then that the development
of the Subject involves the individual,
universal and particular, which three are soon reduced to “I”, “U” and “P”;
and all this moves towards an articulation of socio-political behaviour which
is practically useful to the point of being indispensible.
Syllogisms
Andy Blunden goes into the
question of Hegel’s specific “syllogisms” very carefully, so we can simply
recommend that reading. But what is a “syllogism” as such? And what is
different about Hegel’s syllogisms, as compared to other ones?
One difference is that
Hegel’s syllogisms are all made up of one each of “I”, “U” and “P”; Individual,
Universal and Particular. Andy Blunden shows very well what that means.
But syllogisms in general are
also typically like the “Socrates” syllogism ("All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore, Socrates is
mortal.") - a tight, undoubtedly true series of two premises and a
conclusion, where because the premises are true, therefore the conclusion must
also be true.
There are other syllogisms
where the conclusion does not necessarily fully “follow” from the premises.
Such a syllogism may appear to be a “non
sequitur” (Latin for “does not follow”), or at least as a possible “non sequitur”. Andy Blunden gives
several examples of such “deficient” syllogisms in his lecture.
Are such half-true syllogisms
any use? Yes! Hegel has found a way to make use of them, and this way of
Hegel’s works because of the distinction between Individual, Universal and
Particular.
It is a bit like
“approximation” in mathematics. When the student first comes across it,
approximation appears to violate and betray everything that was hitherto taught
about truth and certainty. But when approximation is done scientifically, it
creates a degree of certainty out of uncertainty that cannot be got in any
other way.
So it is with Hegel’s
syllogisms.
We are now getting very close
to the precise reference for Lenin’s remark that: “It is impossible completely to understand Marx's Capital, and
especially its first chapter, without having thoroughly studied and understood
the whole of Hegel's Logic.” It should not be too difficult to find in
Marx’s Capital a lot of syllogisms of the Hegel type, which are only
understandable in the Hegel way.
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: The Subject
- Universal, Particular and Individual, 2007, Blunden.
