Introduction: For Both a Formal and a Dialectical Reading of Dialectic

Abstract

Sometimes we are told: ‘If you want to know what Hegelian dialectic is, nothing easier : read Hegel’s Logic ¹. There you will find, properly exposed, the principles of that new logic and the necessary immanent movement of the categories of thought and being’. These words promise that the assiduous reader, after overcoming the difficulties proper to Hegelian language, will take possession of the famous ‘Hegel’s secret’— that which should explain the power of speculative philosophy.