Q.Write a note on the Hegelian dialectics.
Ans. HEGELIAN DIALECTIC
George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel is the most self confident philosopher who ever lived. He aimed at nothing less than a complete reconstruction of modern thought. The two main points found which the thought of Hegel centres are the dialectical methods and the idealisation of the nation state.
1. Greek Dialectic: The Sophists were the first philosophers to employ the term dialectic According to them the dialectic was not a method of demonstrating known truth or of discovering new truths. It was a method of disputation whose primary aim was to trip up a speaker by showing that what he was saying is self refuting. It centred round ambiguities of terms and grammatical constructions. According to Plato the dialectic was the process of thinking by which the dramatic conflict of idea was resolved by definition. Thus, for Greeks dialectic was a process to discover the structure of logical system.
2. Hegel's Meaning of Dialectic: According to Hegel, dialectic was not merely a process by which logical ideas developed. It was a process by which all ideals in the world developed in this universe, which is an organic whole. Every thing is the creation of ideal or the spirit of reason. Reason is the sovereign of the world. The essence of reason is self consciousness. In its attempt to attain self realization. Reason has beep unfolding itself in various forms. History is nothing but the process of unfoldment of Reason in its various stages.
3. Dialectic a rational process: According to Hegel the unfoldment or development of Reason has taken place not in a positive or straight manner, but in a spiritual or zig zag form. The formula of unfoldmentls that of thesis, anti-thesis and synthesis. The thesis shows one aspect of reality; the anti-thesis and synthesis. The thesis shows one aspect; and the synthesis reconciles the two. The synthesis again becomes a thesis and comes in higher synthesis, and the opposition between the two is overcome in a higher synthesis and so on the progress continues. In the words of Wright, "The dialectic begins with the most abstract conception of pure logic that of mere brief. and terminates with the most concrete phase of thought, the philosophy of the Absolute mind in its full comprehensiveness and concreteness" Law of Dialectic: The law of dialectic was the law of contradictions. Hegel explained this law by three terms-being, nothing and becoming. He gave the example of genus changing into specie as a result of the sublimation of differentia. The process of change involves a substance first negating itself and then engaging that negation into a higher form. Dialectic may be seen in the evolution of the life germ in an egg. The egg contains a germ (thesis) which when fertilized gradually consumes (negatives) the contents of the egg. This act of destruction results in the production of a new form of life completely different in nature from its origin the germ or the contents.
5. Social Dialectics: To elaborate the process on the social level, despotism (the thesis) calls into being democracy (its antithesis), and from the clash between the two results constitutional monarchy (the synthesis). Similarly, family (the thesis) provides its anri thesis (bourgeois society), and from the clash between the two the state (the synthesis) emerges which is a higher form of social evolution. It was the ambition of Hegel to deduce the entire universe, which he describes as the Absolute Idea from the most abstract of all conceptions, the idea of pure being in accordance with the dialectic method. Through it.he tried to explain the progress of society and its institutions.
3. Supreme importance or the state: Hegel, thus, puts too much emphasis on the state. He called it the 'divine idea on earth' the manifestation of the sprit in its march as history. State was to history what the individual was to biography. It was the actualization of freedom, the embodiment of reason, the image of a rational conception. It Was a perfected rationality. In the words of Hegel, "The state is the spirit that dwells in the world and realises itself in the world through consciousness, while in nature the spirit actualises itself only as the other of itself, as dormant spirit. It is the course of God through the world that constitutes the state.... When conceiving the state, one must not think of a particular state, not of particular institutions, but one must much rather contemplate the idea, God as actual on earth, alone". 4. The State as true ethical order: The state is the true ethical order. As Hegel put it, "The state is the self contained absolute mind which acknowledge no abstract rules of good and bad, shameful and mean, craft and deception." It was the incarnation of general will and true freedom. The individual consisted of obeying the laws of the state and looking it as his substantive purpose and the foundation of his self.
5. Collectivism: The state is something that stands over and above the individuals and other organisations in society. It is collectivistic or organic.It is not a sum total of the individuals who are its members.
6. End in itself: As the highest and perfect embodiment of
Reason, state is an end in itself. It has a will and personality of its own different from and superior to the wills and personalities of the individuals who constitute it. The state is the creator of rights; the individuals can have no rights against the state. It is an "absolute, fixed end in itself. It is eternal, it can never act unrepresentatively and contains within itself the social morality of its citizens. If can recognize no objection other than of its own safety in its relation with other states. Its own welfare and preservation is the highest end. The particular interest of the state is the most important consideration.
-7. State as super organism: The state has interests, it has passions and can act as an individual. And since it embodies the universal principle of reason, it can never be defeated; it can never go wrong. The state has the first right on the individual. In a word, the state for Hegel is the ethical whole and the absolute end of reason. It is super organism "the institutionalization of perfect public spirit and complete, disinterestedness....with the demands of which individual desires are in imperfect harmony."
8. State is not contractual: Sir Ernest Barker writes: "In the state, man has fully raised his outward self to the level of his inward self of thought, his free will has found the broadest expansion which its positive quality demands, and the highest expression which its objective character requires. To such a stale no idea of contract can apply. Contract belongs to the domain of mere law and is only concerned with property. The state must be envisaged in terms neither of law nor of the morality of the individual conscience, but in terms of social ethics. It is an expression and the highest expression of that, social morality...which lies of the family behind the life of all other social groups and behind the life of the political community itself.
9. Dynamic concept of stale: Hegel's conception of the state is not a static one. It describes the state as a relative organisation expressing at each stage of its development the degree of rationality at which mankind has arrived. This means that Hegel's theory of state admits the necessity of growth.
10. New Emphasis: Hegel gave a new emphasis and importance to the state. He called it a new, higher and more rational level of reality. He corroded the flaws in the theory of individualism which ignored the social character of man. Hegel showed that man is influenced by society. He made the idea of liberty richer by showing that man's conception of it largely depends upon the institutions which have trained him and given him education. He regarded the police state as inadequate. He made law something more than mere command. He viewed the state as part of the moral end of man.
Criticism and Conclusion
Hegel's view of the state never made an appeal to the Englishmen. It is a contradiction of their traditional, political thinking and a condemnation of their most popular political practices. They have ended to regard it as some thing that is dangeous, and that ought to be abolished. "Few of us, moreover could agree that the state is the chosen representative of God, even though we recognize the great importance of the part it has played in bringing about the order which is necessary for all intellectual development for the state has not been the sole factor in furthering this growth of rationality."
To conclude with Barker, "The full Hegelian doctrine of the state is a doctrine of more than the state and for that reason it cannot be accepted as a doctrine of the state. Hegel's state is really society as well as state. It is the whole complex of influences arising from the fact of association".
