Totality and negativity in Hegel’s Science of Logic

Abstract

One of the strongest pillars for a metaphysical reading of Hegel is the totalitarian aspect of a system that attempts to cover all of reality, determining the place and function of each being in the whole. If the truth is the whole, we will only gain access to it through access to the whole. This paper attempts to show that the whole in Hegel is never totally accessible to thinking; that its main characteristic is to be determined negatively, that is, by what it is not. To do so, an analysis of the concepts of the infinite and necessity will be offered as they appear in the Science of Logic, in order to provide certain conceptual tools for a non-metaphysical reading of Hegel, that is, a reading that emphasizes hermeneutic and critical elements not commonly associated with Hegel’s philosophy.