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P H I L O S O P H Y P A T H W A Y S ISSN 2043-0728 http://www.philosophypathways.com/newsletter/ Issue No 185 12th May 2014 Edited by Peter Jones CONTENTS I. 'City in Words' by Lukas Clark-Memler II. 'Hegel's Dialectic of the Concept' by Martin Jenkins III. 'The Continuum East and West' by Peter Jones >From the List Manager IV. New PhiloSophos philosophy search engine EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION In this issue we have discussions of Hegel and Plato focussing on their use of dialectic analysis and the dialectical method. This is the 'Socratic' method or 'method of elenchus'. As a method it is what C.S. Peirce calls 'abduction', a process of inference by which we test the defences of one or more hypotheses in an attempt to eliminate those that lead to self-contradiction, by so doing revealing those that are logically defensible therefore plausible and potential 'keepers'. It is a strictly cold and rational method of analysis and as such vital to philosophy and the formation of our philosophical theories. Socrates promoted it as the rational alternative to (the worst kind of) sophistry and rhetoric, which is often concerned more with convincing ones opponents, at any cost, than with arriving at truth. Aristotle famously formalised its procedure as a set of three rules. As a method it is concerned directly with knowledge and epistemology, namely the elimination of self-contradiction and inconsistency from our theories in pursuit of a systematic worldview. Yet it may be extended as a principle in ontology also, on the presumption that the world is a mirror of, or even a creation of Reason. The first two essays on the dialectic here illustrate this difference of emphasis. For a stereotypically 'Western' approach to philosophy the dialectic would be a method of debate and reasoning and no more than this. Its implications would be strictly epistemological. For an 'Eastern' or more 'Hegelian' approach we would have to see it as more than this, for it would describe the formation and functioning of the categories of thought, and thus the formation and functioning of the space-time or psycho-physical universe. Lukas Clark-Memler begins by arguing that Plato's Republic is an example of the dialectic in action and not, as may often be thought, a naive utopian dream or blueprint for totalitarianism. The latter view, while it may be common, would make Plato a lesser philosopher than the former, and so this alternative interpretation would be the more charitable. Clark-Memler points to the considerable pre-meditation that informs Plato's text as evidence that more is intended than mere political fiction. In 'Hegel's Dialectic of the Concept' Martin Jenkins explains Hegel's use of the dialectic not merely as a means of arriving at truth in debate or at a 'best' theory of truth, but as revealing the nature of the Absolute. The dialectic process relies on the inevitable truth that for every positive dialectical thesis there will be a positive counter-thesis. It is, therefore, a process of choosing between extreme views. Hegel reduces the categories of thought by a process of transcendence or 'sublation' and is led to conclude that the distinctions and divisions upon which these opposing views depend cannot be fundamental. Reality would outreach the dialectic. Thus a dialectical analysis leads him, much like Kant a little earlier, to a worldview for which at some level the universe would be a unity beyond all difference and division. The dialectic as an analytical method becomes also a guide to ontology. The Editor's contribution examines an issue that helps us to define clearly the difference between what we call 'Eastern' and 'Western' philosophy. It is the quite different conceptions of the continuum endorsed by the two traditions. Physicist, philosopher and mathematician Hermann Weyl is taken to be authoritative on this topic, and his view is quoted at length and promoted as being correct. It is an issue not unconnected with a discussion of the dialectic, since the two conceptions of the continuum that he discusses would form a pair of opposed dialectical theses between which, as philosophers, we may appear to be forced to choose. Peter Jones Email: peterjones2...@btinternet.com About the editor: http://www.philosophypathways.com/newsletter/editor.html#jones -=- _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@greenhouse.economics.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://greenhouse.economics.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
