SHORT COMMENTS ON HEGEL'S SHORTER LOGIC

"...that in point of time the mind makes general images of objects, long before it makes notions of them, and that it is only through these mental images, and by recourse to them, that the thinking mind rises to know and comprehend thinkingly." Hegel, Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences, Introduction, Paragraph.1


Here Hegel has accurately explicated the linear order of thought's cognition. Images are the foundation of thought's ascent to understanding. Thought is the thing that develops our understanding of the image. To rise to the stage of knowing something, "thinkingly," is to exercise the criticism of thought against the simplicity of the image. This entails a kind of deconstruction and contextualization of the object. Almost nothing is as important as context. The more shallow this stream the more pollutants one will draw from the water, which is to say, thought will fail to comprehend the object which stands before it. This failure will result in the stultification of thought's power against the tyranny, and confused force, of the object. We say, 'confused force of the object,' as a reference to the object's motion, undirected by intelligence. Shallow context is the secret to idealism's abstract supremacy. Dialectical Context, which is historically broad, striving to function outside the boundaries of space and time, is by its nature comprehensive, not desiring to be deceived by the object's appearance and fictional isolation. Dialectical Context is the force which shatters the abstract tyranny of idealism.

"... with the rise of this thinking study of things, it soon becomes evident that thought will be satisfied with nothing short of showing the necessity of its facts, of demonstrating the existence of its objects, as well as their nature and qualities." Ibid.

This implies that polemics is the need of thought, without polemics thought is incomplete. Polemics is the consummation of thought's labor against the error of the image, the point at which it crystallizes itself against the lie of appearance. The satisfaction of thought is not merely to declare itself, as is the contentment of error, but to distinguish itself from that which is false, from that which tries to assert itself as the authority of being. Polemics seek to recover this authority, to align it with its proper object, to expose the emptiness of the claim where it lacks substance. In short, thought seeks to comprehend the objects that come before it. Polemics seek, not only to shatter the false image, but also to liberate understanding from delusive impressions induced by the image. The true force of Polemics is the concretion of Dialectical Context. Polemics wield this context against the force of the lie, through polemics, the tyranny of the moment and error of the image, are liberated from their confinement and stagnation. The result is not only greater comprehension, but a greater power of resolution.

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