History, Concepts and Normativity in Hegel

Abstract

That Hegel somehow linked history with logic is almost universally taken to be one of his most original contributions to philosophy. Many, of course, would grant that this link is an original but a philosophically uninteresting move. One only needs to consult the official histories of logic to see that Hegel’s Logic plays no role.1 Others would concede there might be something philosophical about the link, but that the connection Hegel hinted at is really one between history and metaphysics, rather than between history and logic. Thus, if the enterprise carries any interest at all it must lie in its contribution to metaphysics, not to logic or semantics. A more sympathetic account would consider Hegel’s departure from traditional logic and insist that his originality lies in the attempt to come to terms with the ‘logic’ of human historical existence.