Making sense of Hegel’s dialectic: what kind of method is it?

The paper presents an interpretation of a central Hegelian concept “dialectic” reading him as a post-Kantian critical thinker. We can speak of objective dialectic as processes in the world and subjective dialectic conceived of as a method. I shortly discuss the correctness of the approach to dialectic as a special kind of logic and relation of dialectic to formal logic. (Subjective) dialectic is interpreted as a method of inquiry that is closely related to contemporary projects of abductive and interrogative logic. Such method reflects on our theoretical practices and formulates strategic rules that guide inquiry and aim at enhancing its productivity.

Further, the three familiar moments of dialectics are scrutinized and interpreted from “analytic” point of view. The abstract moment refers thematically to the object language (in different domains) that has no awareness of its own implicit presuppositions. It is a rigid and hence finite form of thinking. The negative-reasonable moment signifies the process of thinking coming into “motion” and is marked by noticing and reflecting on the presuppositions of the object speech. It tries to establish the connection between different domains and apprehend and bring the previously concealed presuppositions into a consistent system. This is a questioning of the concealed premises, which implies a resolution of conundrums emerged and a connection of it into a whole unified system of differentiated and articulated content with awareness of presuppositions. This allows to accomplish both semantic and conceptual progress as an increase of distinctions and nuances in our thinking. The resolution of the second negative moment is labeled as the positive-reasonable or speculative moment. It contains the results and contents of previous moments and also implies that the method itself and its actor comes to the fore. That actor is the collective epistemic agent in its different forms, Hegel calls it the Concept. Thus, dialectic is a reflective pragmatic approach or method of inquiry, which strives to be developed into a dynamic or genetic theory of categories.