第 65 节
作者:
匆匆 更新:2021-02-27 02:11 字数:9322
procedure of the finite cognition of the understanding here is to take up again; equally externally;
what it has left out in its creation of the universal by a process of abstraction。
The absolute method; on the contrary; does not behave like external reflection but takes the
determinate element from its own subject matter; since it is itself that subject matter's immanent
principle and soul。 This is what Plato demanded of cognition; that it should consider things in and
for themselves; that is; should consider them partly in their universality; but also that it should not
stray away from them catching at circumstances; examples and comparisons; but should keep
before it solely the things themselves and bring before consciousness what is immanent in them。
The method of absolute cognition is to this extent analytic。 That it finds the further determination
of its initial universal simply and solely in that universal; is the absolute objectivity of the Notion; of
which objectivity the method is the certainty。 But the method is no less synthetic; since its subject
matter; determined immediately as a simple universal; by virtue of the determinateness which it
possesses in its very immediacy and universality; exhibits itself as an other。
This relation of differential elements which the subject matter thus is within itself; is however no
longer the same thing as is meant by synthesis in finite cognition; the mere fact of the subject
matter's no less analytic determination in general; that the relation is relation within the Notion;
completely distinguishes it from the latter synthesis。
This no less synthetic than analytic moment of judgement; by which the universal of the beginning
of its own accord determines itself as the other of itself; is to be named the dialectical moment。
'Lenin's Summary of Dialectics appears at this point in Lenin's annotations'
Dialectic is one of those ancient sciences that have been most misunderstood in the metaphysics of
the moderns; as well as by popular philosophy in general; ancient and modern alike。
Diogenes Laertius says of Plato that; just as Thales was the founder of natural philosophy and
Socrates of moral philosophy; so Plato was the founder of the third science pertaining to
philosophy; namely; dialectic … a service which the ancient world esteemed his highest; but which
often remains quite overlooked by those who have most to say about him。
Dialectic has often been regarded as an art; as though it rested on a subjective talent and did not
belong to the objectivity of the Notion。 The shape it takes and the result it reaches in Kantian
philosophy have already been pointed out in the specific examples of the Kantian view of it。 It
must be regarded as a step of infinite importance that dialectic is once more recognised as
necessary to reason; although the result to be drawn from it must be the opposite of that arrived at
by Kant。
Besides the fact that dialectic is generally regarded as contingent; it usually takes the following
more precise form。 It is shown that there belongs to some subject matter or other; for example the
world; motion; point; and so on; some determination or other; for example (taking the objects in
the order named); finite in space or time; presence in this place; absolute negation of space; but
further; that with equal necessity the opposite determination also belongs to the subject matter; for
example; infinity in space and time; non…presence in this place; relation to space and so spatiality。
The older Eleatic school directed its dialectic chiefly against motion。 Plato frequently against the
general ideas and notions of his time; especially those of the Sophists; but also against the pure
categories and the determinations of reflection; the more cultivated scepticism of a later period
extended it not only to the immediate so…called facts of consciousness and maxims of common life;
but also to all the notions of science。
Now the conclusion drawn from dialectic of this kind is in general the contradiction and nullity of
the assertion made。 But this conclusion can be drawn in either of two senses either in the objective
sense; that the subject matter which in such a manner contradicts itself cancels itself out and is null
and void … this was; for example; the conclusion of the Eleatics; according to which truth was
denied; for example; to the world; to motion; to the point; or in the subjective sense; that cognition
is defective。
One way of understanding the latter sense of the conclusion is that it is only this dialectic that
imposes on us the trick of an illusion。 This is the common view of so…called sound common sense
which takes its stand on the evidence of the senses and on customary conceptions and
judgements。 Sometimes it takes this dialectic lightly; as when Diogenes the cynic exposes the
hollowness of the dialectic of motion by silently walking up and down;; but often it flies into a
passion; seeing it in perhaps a piece of sheer foolery; or; when morally important objects are
concerned; an outrage that tries to unsettle what is essentially established and teaches how to
supply wickedness with grounds。 This is the view expressed in the Socratic dialectic against that of
the Sophists; and this is the indignation which; turned in the opposite direction; cost even Socrates
his life。 The vulgar refutation that opposes to thinking; as did Diogenes; sensuous consciousness
and imagines that in the latter it possesses the truth; must be left to itself; but in so far as dialectic
abrogates moral determinations; we must have confidence in reason that it will know how to
restore them again; but restore them in their truth and in the consciousness of their right; though
also of their limitations。 Or again; the conclusion of subjective nullity may mean that it does not
affect dialectic itself; but rather the cognition against which it is directed and in the view of
scepticism and likewise of the Kantian philosophy; cognition in general。
The fundamental prejudice in this matter is that dialectic has only a negative result; a point which
will presently be more precisely defined。 First of all as regards the above…mentioned form in which
dialectic is usually presented; it is to be observed that according to that form the dialectic and its
result affect the subject matter under consideration or else subjective cognition; and declare
either the latter or the subject matter to be null and void; while on the other hand the
determinations exhibited in the subject matter as in a third thing receive no attention and are
presupposed as valid on their own account。
It is an infinite merit of the Kantian Philosophy to have drawn attention to this uncritical procedure
and by so doing to have given the impetus to the restoration of logic and dialectic in the sense of
the examination of the determinations 。of thought in and for themselves。
The subject matter kept apart from thinking and the Notion; is an image or even a name; it is in the
determinations of thought and the Notion that it is what it is。 Therefore these determinations are in
fact the sole thing that matters; they are the true subject matter and content of reason; and anything
else that one understands by subject matter and content in distinction from them as value only
through them and in them。 It must not therefore be considered the fault of a subject matter or of
cognition that these determinations; through their constitution and an external connection; show
themselves dialectical。 On that assumption; the subject matter or the cognition is represented as a
subject into which the determinations in the form of predicates; properties; self…subsistent
universals; are introduced in such a manner that; fixed and correct as they are by themselves; they
are brought into dialectical relationships and contradiction only by extraneous and contingent
connection in and by a third thing。 This kind of external and fixed subject of imagination and
understanding and these abstract determinations; far from meriting the status of ultimates; of
secure and permanent substrates; are rather to be regarded as themselves immediate; as just that
kind of presupposed and initial immediate that; as was shown above; must in its own essential
nature 'in and for itself' submit to dialectic; because it is to be taken as in itself the Notion。
Thus all the oppositions that are assumed as fixed; as for example finite and infinite; individual and
universal; are not in contradiction through; say; an external connection; on the contrary; as an
examination of their nature has shown; they are in and for themselves a transition; the synthesis and
the subject in which they appear is the product of their Notion's own reflection。 If a consideration
that ignores the Notion stops short at their external relationship; isolates them and leaves them as
fixed presuppositions; it is the Notion; on the contrary; that keeps them steadily in view; moves
them as their soul and brings out their dialectic。
Now this is the very standpoint indicated above from which a universal first; considered in and for
itself; shows itself to be the other of itself。
Ta