tonesforjonesbones
10-13-2008, 08:20 PM
This is long..and it's only the Introduction. I have read it 2x...and STILL don't have it down. In my search for truth...I stumbled upon this. T.
Why study Hegel?
"... the State 'has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State... for the right of the world spirit is above all special priveleges.'"
-- Author/historian William Shirer, quoting Hegel in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959)
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..."
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a 19th century German philosopher and theologist who wrote the Science of Logic in 1812. For many historians, Hegel is "perhaps the greatest of the German idealist philosophers."
In 1847 the London Communist League (Marx and Engels, pictured left) used Hegel's theory of the dialectic to back up their economic theory of communism. Now, in the 21st century, Hegelian-Marxist thinking affects our entire social and political structure.
The Hegelian dialectic is the framework for guiding our thoughts and actions into conflicts that lead us to a predetermined solution. If we do not understand how the Hegelian dialectic shapes our perceptions of the world, then we do not know how we are helping to implement the vision for the future.
Hegel's dialectic is the tool which manipulates us into a frenzied circular pattern of thought and action. Every time we fight for or defend against an ideology we are playing a necessary role in Marx and Engels' grand design to advance humanity into a dictatorship of the proletariat. The synthetic Hegelian solution to all these conflicts can't be introduced unless we all take a side that will advance the agenda. The Marxist's global agenda is moving along at breakneck speed. The only way to stop land grabs, privacy invasions, expanded domestic police powers, insane wars against inanimate objects (and transient verbs), covert actions, and outright assaults on individual liberty, is to step outside the dialectic. Only then can we be released from the limitations of controlled and guided thought.
When we understand what motivated Hegel, we can see his influence on all of our destinies. Then we become real players in the very real game that has been going on for at least 224 years. Hegelian conflicts steer every political arena on the planet, from the United Nations to the major American political parties, all the way down to local school boards and community councils. Dialogues and consensus-building are primary tools of the dialectic, and terror and intimidation are also acceptable formats for obtaining the goal.
Calverton Private School has posted a great visual chart explaining the dialectic.
The ultimate Third Way agenda is world government. Once we get what's really going on, we can cut the strings and move our lives in original directions outside the confines of the dialectical madness. Focusing on Hegel's and Engel's ultimate agenda, and avoiding getting caught up in their impenetrable theories of social evolution, gives us the opportunity to think and act our way toward freedom, justice, and genuine liberty for all.
Today the dialectic is active in every political issue that encourages taking sides. We can see it in environmentalists instigating conflicts against private property owners, in democrats against republicans, in greens against libertarians, in communists against socialists, in neo-cons against traditional conservatives, in community activists against individuals, in pro-choice versus pro-life, in Christians against Muslims, in isolationists versus interventionists, in peace activists against war hawks.
No matter what the issue, the invisible dialectic aims to control both the conflict and the resolution of differences, and leads everyone involved into a new cycle of conflicts. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore.
1. The origins of deductive and inductive reasoning
Methods for reasoning are mathematical formulas that base their conclusions on ideas, experiences, or information from outside sources. It was introduced to the world by the Greeks in the 4th century B.C. Aristotle gave us the foundations for the most often used methods for logical and critical thinking. Deduction is a process that moves from the general to the specifics. Induction moves from the specifics to the general.
Kemerling (2002) explains: "In a deductive argument, the truth of the premises is supposed to guarantee the truth of the conclusion; in an inductive argument, the truth of the premises merely makes it probable that the conclusion is true."
Here is a chart from Whitworth College explaining inductive and deductive reasoning.
At Lander University: Philosophy 103: Introduction to Logic: The Nature of Logic.
The History of Western Philosophy posted at marxists.org.
Deductive reasoning is often defined as pre-Enlightenment thinking because it's based in the commonly held belief that God created the universe. Inductive reasoning is considered to be the scientific, non-religious formula that gained authority after the enlightenment. Aristotle wasn't all that concerned about which method was preferred, or best used, but a well-founded scientific argument that uses deductive and/or inductive reasoning establishes strong premises that relate directly to the conclusion.
Man's capacity to reason beyond the knowable can be seen in modern universal principles, such as with the theory that said the earth was round and not flat. For centuries the established religious belief was that the earth was at the center of the universe, and the naked eye tells us the earth is flat and the sun goes up and down. The deductive principle was that God created the universe and man was created in God's image, which placed the earth at the center of God's universe. This belief also designated the monarchy and the established church as the divinely appointed rulers of man. Unseeable, unprovable conclusions (such as the earth is round and the earth circles the sun) were formed under an inductive form of reasoning based in man's abilty to think beyond what can be seen or is commonly believed. The original methods for reasoning based its premises on commonly held truths and used mathematical principles to advance mankind into realms of greater knowledge and truth.
Deductive reasoning dominated up until the 16th and 17th centuries when rational thinking expanded to include both deductive and inductive reasoning. This paved the way to applying inductive scientific reasoning to political and economic systems. Many amazing scientific advancements were made by the greatest rational thinkers in the world who were able to apply both. Rational thinking was the foundation behind the documents used by Americans to obtain their freedom.
The scientifically based political ideas of man's natural rights to property were based on the writings of John Locke, who historically may be one of Englands most rational thinkers. He is remembered as "the intellectual father" of the U.S. Locke used both deductive and inductive reasoning, as did the Americans who inherited his ideas. Locke subscribed to the three levels of law: top-God's law, middle-Natural law, bottom-Civil Law, and he believed that each type of law must correspond up to the next level. Men believed that while God's law was unknowable, it was possible to understand God's law through an understanding of nature, and that civil law was bound by the rules of natural law. The realization of U.S. laws and citizen's inalienable rights to individual freedom were attained via both the belief in a Creator and purely scientific, rational thinking.
The most commonly used formula for reasoning is called Modus Ponens: If A and B both exist, it's probable that C exists if it is a combination of A and B.
For example: (A) 1 + (B) 1 = (C) 2.
Or: If (A) I live in a country where everyone is free under God's laws, and (B) you live in my country, then (C) we're both free under God's laws.
2. Merriam-Webster's definition of the dialectic
Main Entry: Dialectic
Date: 14th century
1 : logic
2 a : discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation; specifically : the Socratic techniques of exposing false beliefs and eliciting truth b : the Platonic investigation of the eternal idea
3 : the logic of fallacy
4 a : the Hegelian process of change in which a concept or its realization passes over into and is preserved and fulfilled by its opposite; also : the critical investigation of this process b (1) usually plural but singular or plural in construction : development through the stages of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis in accordance with the laws of dialectical materialism (2) : the investigation of this process (3) : the theoretical application of this process especially in the social sciences
5 usually plural but singular or plural in construction a : any systematic reasoning, exposition, or argument that juxtaposes opposed or contradictory ideas and usually seeks to resolve their conflict b : an intellectual exchange of ideas
6 : the dialectical tension or opposition between two interacting forces or elements.
Main Entry: Dialectical Materialism
Date: 1927
1 : the Marxist theory that maintains the material basis of a reality constantly changing in a dialectical process and the priority of matter over mind.
3. How the Hegelian dialectic changed the formula for deductive reasoning
The original method of deductive logic based its premises on the presense of agreed upon truths which led to an otherwise unknowable conclusion.
Hegel altered deductive reasoning from a simple 1 + 1 = 2 formula to a series of progressive triads where two opposite premises combine into a synthesis, and then each synthesis becomes the premise in the next triad, and on and on it goes (where it ends, nobody knows).
He established that history follows a "logical" progression through the dialectical process of constant conflict between extremely different ideas that keep blending together, over and over, forming new ideas that keep merging and blending again and again, until mankind realizes perfection in philosphy.
Most importantly (to us) is that "Hegel's version puts all of the emphasis on the collective expression of what is best for the people rather than on each individual's capacity to discover it for herself or himself" (Kemerling 2002).
Hegel took logic to the next logical level, in what many consider to be a higher intellectual level, claiming an (A) ideology conflicting with its (B) opposite ideology = (C) a new and sometimes better philosophy. The dialectic pits A against B in a constant conflict and resolution, which eventually creates an outcome that may or may not have any resemblance to A and B. According to modern social scientists, C does not have to be a reasonable conclusion, since Hegel's dialectic takes pure reason out of the reasoning.
If you don't get it, that means you got it, because anything arrived at using Hegel's "logic" doesn't have to make any sense.
Here is a quote from Bertrand Russell on the end of rational thinking.
The dialectical method of reasoning is based on the premise of constant conflicts of opposites, or ongoing tension between two or more commonly acknowledged truths. Good versus evil is the most commonly understood dialectic.
In Hegel's version it is through our understanding of what is evil that we are able to understand what is even better than good. Hegel's dialectic was an inward discovery of being versus nothing. This method changed the format for deductive reasoning into one in which truth is obtained by pitting truth against a falsehood which leads to a false truth.
Frederick Engels and Karl Marx expanded on the Hegelian dialectic to suit their own purposes. See: Critique of Hegel's Philosophy in General by Karl Marx (1844) and Marx's Grundrisse and Hegel's Logic by Hiroshi Ouchida (1988).
Hegel's dialectical idealism was founded on the premise that the abstract thought process comes before the actualization of the idea. To Hegel, the idea came first. Marx and Engels said the opposite, and wrote that human events preceed the ideas about the events. They used the dialectic to explain the necessary conflicts that will lead mankind into social perfection. State control of the production of goods and services and equal distribution of all wealth was to be the final crowning achievment of mankind. The communist theory of human progress proves life is an ongoing conflict between people at various levels of material wealth, and Marx thought of himself as a scientist who had discovered the key to human history.
Dialectical materialism changed the Hegelian formula in several crucial ways. First they excluded God's law from the formula altogther, then they pitted a lie against a lie, claiming the result was a perfect synthesis. Their theory of inexorable, inevitable world evolution into totalitarian communism was attained via the Hegelian dialectic. The modern theory of global spiritual evolution into global communitarian collectives was as well. Transformational Marxism is the Hegelian dialectic applied materially, as opposed to ideally.
The Soviet Union was based on the Hegelian dialectic, as is all Marxist writing. The Soviets didn't give up Hegelian reasoning when they supposedly stopped being a communist country, they simply modernized their language.
Hegel Resources from Andy Blunden. Mr. Blunden is an Australian communist who studies Hegel's contributions to totalitarian "dictatorships of the people."
American author Steve Montgomery explores Moscow's adept use of the Hegelian dialectic in Glasnost-Perestroika: A Model Potemkin Village.
For a lengthy analysis of Hegel's dialectical reasoning, the University of Idaho has an online version of Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic by John Ellis McTaggart (1896). In Chapter VI: The Final Result of the Dialectic, the author explains the confusion inherent in Hegel's philosophy:
"Hegel taught that the secrets of the universe opened themselves to us, but only on condition of deep and systematic thought, and the importance of philosophy was undiminished either by scepticism or by appeals to the healthy instincts of the plain man. But there is some difference between taking philosophy as the supreme and completely adequate means, and admitting it to be the supreme end. There is some difference between holding that philosophy is the knowledge of the highest form of reality, and holding that it is itself the highest form of reality. It seems to me that Hegel has been untrue to the tendencies of his own system in seeking the ultimate reality of Spirit in philosophy alone, and that, on his own premises, he ought to have looked for a more comprehensive explanation."
TO BE CONTINUED................:eek:
Why study Hegel?
"... the State 'has the supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the State... for the right of the world spirit is above all special priveleges.'"
-- Author/historian William Shirer, quoting Hegel in The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (1959)
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..."
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a 19th century German philosopher and theologist who wrote the Science of Logic in 1812. For many historians, Hegel is "perhaps the greatest of the German idealist philosophers."
In 1847 the London Communist League (Marx and Engels, pictured left) used Hegel's theory of the dialectic to back up their economic theory of communism. Now, in the 21st century, Hegelian-Marxist thinking affects our entire social and political structure.
The Hegelian dialectic is the framework for guiding our thoughts and actions into conflicts that lead us to a predetermined solution. If we do not understand how the Hegelian dialectic shapes our perceptions of the world, then we do not know how we are helping to implement the vision for the future.
Hegel's dialectic is the tool which manipulates us into a frenzied circular pattern of thought and action. Every time we fight for or defend against an ideology we are playing a necessary role in Marx and Engels' grand design to advance humanity into a dictatorship of the proletariat. The synthetic Hegelian solution to all these conflicts can't be introduced unless we all take a side that will advance the agenda. The Marxist's global agenda is moving along at breakneck speed. The only way to stop land grabs, privacy invasions, expanded domestic police powers, insane wars against inanimate objects (and transient verbs), covert actions, and outright assaults on individual liberty, is to step outside the dialectic. Only then can we be released from the limitations of controlled and guided thought.
When we understand what motivated Hegel, we can see his influence on all of our destinies. Then we become real players in the very real game that has been going on for at least 224 years. Hegelian conflicts steer every political arena on the planet, from the United Nations to the major American political parties, all the way down to local school boards and community councils. Dialogues and consensus-building are primary tools of the dialectic, and terror and intimidation are also acceptable formats for obtaining the goal.
Calverton Private School has posted a great visual chart explaining the dialectic.
The ultimate Third Way agenda is world government. Once we get what's really going on, we can cut the strings and move our lives in original directions outside the confines of the dialectical madness. Focusing on Hegel's and Engel's ultimate agenda, and avoiding getting caught up in their impenetrable theories of social evolution, gives us the opportunity to think and act our way toward freedom, justice, and genuine liberty for all.
Today the dialectic is active in every political issue that encourages taking sides. We can see it in environmentalists instigating conflicts against private property owners, in democrats against republicans, in greens against libertarians, in communists against socialists, in neo-cons against traditional conservatives, in community activists against individuals, in pro-choice versus pro-life, in Christians against Muslims, in isolationists versus interventionists, in peace activists against war hawks.
No matter what the issue, the invisible dialectic aims to control both the conflict and the resolution of differences, and leads everyone involved into a new cycle of conflicts. We're definitely not in Kansas anymore.
1. The origins of deductive and inductive reasoning
Methods for reasoning are mathematical formulas that base their conclusions on ideas, experiences, or information from outside sources. It was introduced to the world by the Greeks in the 4th century B.C. Aristotle gave us the foundations for the most often used methods for logical and critical thinking. Deduction is a process that moves from the general to the specifics. Induction moves from the specifics to the general.
Kemerling (2002) explains: "In a deductive argument, the truth of the premises is supposed to guarantee the truth of the conclusion; in an inductive argument, the truth of the premises merely makes it probable that the conclusion is true."
Here is a chart from Whitworth College explaining inductive and deductive reasoning.
At Lander University: Philosophy 103: Introduction to Logic: The Nature of Logic.
The History of Western Philosophy posted at marxists.org.
Deductive reasoning is often defined as pre-Enlightenment thinking because it's based in the commonly held belief that God created the universe. Inductive reasoning is considered to be the scientific, non-religious formula that gained authority after the enlightenment. Aristotle wasn't all that concerned about which method was preferred, or best used, but a well-founded scientific argument that uses deductive and/or inductive reasoning establishes strong premises that relate directly to the conclusion.
Man's capacity to reason beyond the knowable can be seen in modern universal principles, such as with the theory that said the earth was round and not flat. For centuries the established religious belief was that the earth was at the center of the universe, and the naked eye tells us the earth is flat and the sun goes up and down. The deductive principle was that God created the universe and man was created in God's image, which placed the earth at the center of God's universe. This belief also designated the monarchy and the established church as the divinely appointed rulers of man. Unseeable, unprovable conclusions (such as the earth is round and the earth circles the sun) were formed under an inductive form of reasoning based in man's abilty to think beyond what can be seen or is commonly believed. The original methods for reasoning based its premises on commonly held truths and used mathematical principles to advance mankind into realms of greater knowledge and truth.
Deductive reasoning dominated up until the 16th and 17th centuries when rational thinking expanded to include both deductive and inductive reasoning. This paved the way to applying inductive scientific reasoning to political and economic systems. Many amazing scientific advancements were made by the greatest rational thinkers in the world who were able to apply both. Rational thinking was the foundation behind the documents used by Americans to obtain their freedom.
The scientifically based political ideas of man's natural rights to property were based on the writings of John Locke, who historically may be one of Englands most rational thinkers. He is remembered as "the intellectual father" of the U.S. Locke used both deductive and inductive reasoning, as did the Americans who inherited his ideas. Locke subscribed to the three levels of law: top-God's law, middle-Natural law, bottom-Civil Law, and he believed that each type of law must correspond up to the next level. Men believed that while God's law was unknowable, it was possible to understand God's law through an understanding of nature, and that civil law was bound by the rules of natural law. The realization of U.S. laws and citizen's inalienable rights to individual freedom were attained via both the belief in a Creator and purely scientific, rational thinking.
The most commonly used formula for reasoning is called Modus Ponens: If A and B both exist, it's probable that C exists if it is a combination of A and B.
For example: (A) 1 + (B) 1 = (C) 2.
Or: If (A) I live in a country where everyone is free under God's laws, and (B) you live in my country, then (C) we're both free under God's laws.
2. Merriam-Webster's definition of the dialectic
Main Entry: Dialectic
Date: 14th century
1 : logic
2 a : discussion and reasoning by dialogue as a method of intellectual investigation; specifically : the Socratic techniques of exposing false beliefs and eliciting truth b : the Platonic investigation of the eternal idea
3 : the logic of fallacy
4 a : the Hegelian process of change in which a concept or its realization passes over into and is preserved and fulfilled by its opposite; also : the critical investigation of this process b (1) usually plural but singular or plural in construction : development through the stages of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis in accordance with the laws of dialectical materialism (2) : the investigation of this process (3) : the theoretical application of this process especially in the social sciences
5 usually plural but singular or plural in construction a : any systematic reasoning, exposition, or argument that juxtaposes opposed or contradictory ideas and usually seeks to resolve their conflict b : an intellectual exchange of ideas
6 : the dialectical tension or opposition between two interacting forces or elements.
Main Entry: Dialectical Materialism
Date: 1927
1 : the Marxist theory that maintains the material basis of a reality constantly changing in a dialectical process and the priority of matter over mind.
3. How the Hegelian dialectic changed the formula for deductive reasoning
The original method of deductive logic based its premises on the presense of agreed upon truths which led to an otherwise unknowable conclusion.
Hegel altered deductive reasoning from a simple 1 + 1 = 2 formula to a series of progressive triads where two opposite premises combine into a synthesis, and then each synthesis becomes the premise in the next triad, and on and on it goes (where it ends, nobody knows).
He established that history follows a "logical" progression through the dialectical process of constant conflict between extremely different ideas that keep blending together, over and over, forming new ideas that keep merging and blending again and again, until mankind realizes perfection in philosphy.
Most importantly (to us) is that "Hegel's version puts all of the emphasis on the collective expression of what is best for the people rather than on each individual's capacity to discover it for herself or himself" (Kemerling 2002).
Hegel took logic to the next logical level, in what many consider to be a higher intellectual level, claiming an (A) ideology conflicting with its (B) opposite ideology = (C) a new and sometimes better philosophy. The dialectic pits A against B in a constant conflict and resolution, which eventually creates an outcome that may or may not have any resemblance to A and B. According to modern social scientists, C does not have to be a reasonable conclusion, since Hegel's dialectic takes pure reason out of the reasoning.
If you don't get it, that means you got it, because anything arrived at using Hegel's "logic" doesn't have to make any sense.
Here is a quote from Bertrand Russell on the end of rational thinking.
The dialectical method of reasoning is based on the premise of constant conflicts of opposites, or ongoing tension between two or more commonly acknowledged truths. Good versus evil is the most commonly understood dialectic.
In Hegel's version it is through our understanding of what is evil that we are able to understand what is even better than good. Hegel's dialectic was an inward discovery of being versus nothing. This method changed the format for deductive reasoning into one in which truth is obtained by pitting truth against a falsehood which leads to a false truth.
Frederick Engels and Karl Marx expanded on the Hegelian dialectic to suit their own purposes. See: Critique of Hegel's Philosophy in General by Karl Marx (1844) and Marx's Grundrisse and Hegel's Logic by Hiroshi Ouchida (1988).
Hegel's dialectical idealism was founded on the premise that the abstract thought process comes before the actualization of the idea. To Hegel, the idea came first. Marx and Engels said the opposite, and wrote that human events preceed the ideas about the events. They used the dialectic to explain the necessary conflicts that will lead mankind into social perfection. State control of the production of goods and services and equal distribution of all wealth was to be the final crowning achievment of mankind. The communist theory of human progress proves life is an ongoing conflict between people at various levels of material wealth, and Marx thought of himself as a scientist who had discovered the key to human history.
Dialectical materialism changed the Hegelian formula in several crucial ways. First they excluded God's law from the formula altogther, then they pitted a lie against a lie, claiming the result was a perfect synthesis. Their theory of inexorable, inevitable world evolution into totalitarian communism was attained via the Hegelian dialectic. The modern theory of global spiritual evolution into global communitarian collectives was as well. Transformational Marxism is the Hegelian dialectic applied materially, as opposed to ideally.
The Soviet Union was based on the Hegelian dialectic, as is all Marxist writing. The Soviets didn't give up Hegelian reasoning when they supposedly stopped being a communist country, they simply modernized their language.
Hegel Resources from Andy Blunden. Mr. Blunden is an Australian communist who studies Hegel's contributions to totalitarian "dictatorships of the people."
American author Steve Montgomery explores Moscow's adept use of the Hegelian dialectic in Glasnost-Perestroika: A Model Potemkin Village.
For a lengthy analysis of Hegel's dialectical reasoning, the University of Idaho has an online version of Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic by John Ellis McTaggart (1896). In Chapter VI: The Final Result of the Dialectic, the author explains the confusion inherent in Hegel's philosophy:
"Hegel taught that the secrets of the universe opened themselves to us, but only on condition of deep and systematic thought, and the importance of philosophy was undiminished either by scepticism or by appeals to the healthy instincts of the plain man. But there is some difference between taking philosophy as the supreme and completely adequate means, and admitting it to be the supreme end. There is some difference between holding that philosophy is the knowledge of the highest form of reality, and holding that it is itself the highest form of reality. It seems to me that Hegel has been untrue to the tendencies of his own system in seeking the ultimate reality of Spirit in philosophy alone, and that, on his own premises, he ought to have looked for a more comprehensive explanation."
TO BE CONTINUED................:eek: