The Opening of Hegels Logic: From Being to Infinity

Hegel is one of the most important modern philosophers, whose thought influenced the development of existentialism, Marxism, pragmatism, hermeneutics, and deconstruction. Yet Hegels central text, the monumental Science of Logic, still remains for most philosophers (both figuratively and literally) a firmly closed book. The purpose of The Opening of Hegels Logic is to dispel the myths that surround the Logic and to show that Hegels unjustly neglected text is a work of extraordinary subtlety and insight.

Part One of The Opening of Hegels Logic argues that the Logic provides a rigorous derivation of the fundamental categories of thought and contrasts Hegels approach to the categories with that of Kant. It goes on to examine the historical and linguistic presuppositions of Hegels self-critical, "presuppositionless" logic and, in the process, considers several significant criticisms of such logic advanced by Schelling, Feuerbach, Gadamer, and Kierkegaard. Separate chapters are devoted to the relation between logic and ontology in Hegels Logic and to the relation between the Logic itself and the Phenomenology. Part Two contains the text--in German and English--of the first two chapters of Hegels Logic, which cover such categories as being, becoming, something, limit, finitude, and infinity. Part Three then provides a clear and accessible commentary on these two chapters that both examines Hegels arguments in detail and relates his insights to those of other philosophers, such as Descartes, Spinoza, Kant, Nietzsche, and Levinas.

The Opening of Hegels Logic aims to help students and scholars read Hegels often formidably difficult text for themselves and discover the wealth of philosophical riches that it contains. It also argues that Hegels project of a presuppositionless science of logic is one that deserves serious consideration today.