Excerpt from The Principle and the Method of the Hegelian Dialectic, Vol. 1: A Defence of the Dialectic Against Its Critics, Being a Thesis Accepted by the Faculty of the College of Letters in the University of California in Part Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy; The Principle of the Dialectic Hegel's Logic has been the object of attack upon every conceivable ground. Hence no defence of it can be circumstantial without falling under the category of the false Infinite. Wishing to keep out of that category, I have attempted to defend the Logic against two objections only; but these are the most vital objections, for it seems to me that the most significant attacks that have been made against the Hegelian dialectic have been attacks upon the very conception of that dialectic, or attacks upon the consistency and uniformity of tin metftod which the dialectic pursues. Those who repudiate the very conception of the dialectic take as their theme the impossibility of treating logic as an organic science without the aid of experience; for they conceive the Hegelian dialectic as a science apart, and of course they have no very great difficulty in showing the impossibility of such a science. Those who attack the method of the dialectic generally try to convict that method of inconsistency and vacillation. To them it seems to be rather a lack of method, a blind fumbling and a grasping of whatever comes within reach if, peradventure, it may serve the purpose in hand. In accordance with the desire to be brief in my discussion of the subjects undertaken, I have merely attempted, in answer to criticisms of the first class, to show what was really Hegel's claim with regard to the alleged presuppositionless character of the Logic, what his view of the relation of logic to experience, and what his justification for beginning the dialectical movement where he begins it. In treating the second class of criticisms, I have taken Mr. Mctaggart's treatise as fairly representative of the others. I have done this because it is the most recent work on the subject and is probably fresh in the reader's mind; because it is able and clear; and, above all. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This book was written in 1968, and defended as a doctoral dissertation before the Philosophical Faculty at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1969. It treats of the systematic views of Hegel which led him to give to the princi ple of non-contradiction, the principle of double negation, and the principle of excluded middle, meanings which are difficult to understand. The reader will look in vain for the philosophical position of the author. A few words about the intentions which motivated the author to study and clarify Hegel's thought are therefore not out of place. In the early sixties, when occupying myself with the history of Marxist philosophy, I discovered that the representatives of the logical-positivist tra dition were not alone in employing a principle of demarcation; that those of the dialectical Marxist tradition were also using such a principle ('self-move ment') as a foundation of a scientific philosophy and as a means to delimit unscientific ideas. I aimed at a clear conception of this principle in order to be able to judge whether, and to what extent, it accords with the foundations of the analytical method. In this endeavor I encountered two problems: (1) What is to be understood by 'analytical method' cannot be ascertained un equivocally.