1st Edition

The Formalization of Dialectics

Edited By Elena Ficara, Graham Priest Copyright 2024

    This book explores the relationship between Hegel’s dialectics and formal logic. It examines the concept of dialectics, its meaning, and its use in contemporary thought.

    The volume opens the “old” debate about the formalization of Hegel’s dialectics and is motivated by the idea that asking about the connection between Hegel’s dialectics and formal logic is still relevant, for various reasons:

    • Firstly, a new Hegel is circulating nowadays in the philosophical literature, with specific reference to Hegel’s dialectical logic and its relation to the history and philosophy of logic.

    • Secondly, new research about the connection between contradictory logical systems and Hegel's dialectics is also being developed.

    • Finally, there have been recent confirmations that the concept of dialectics is of general interest, and that the usual perplexities about the Hegelian triadic and fairly mechanic device of ‘yes, not, and not not’ are in remission.

    The chapters feature philosophically and historically motivated presentations of formal features of Hegel’s dialectics, critical considerations about the very idea of ‘formalizing dialectics’ and presentations of past attempts to formalize Hegel’s dialectics.

    The Formalization of Dialectics will be a key resource for scholars and researchers of the history and philosophy of logic and Hegel’s dialectics. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about the concept of dialectics, its meaning and its use in contemporary thought. This book was originally published as a special issue of History and Philosophy of Logic.

    Introduction: The Formalization of Dialectics

    Elena Ficara and Graham Priest

     

    1. Form, Formality, Formalism in Hegel’s Dialectic-Speculative Logic

    Angelica Nuzzo

     

    2. Intuitionist and Classical Dimensions of Hegel’s Hybrid Logic

    Paul Redding

     

    3. The Logical Structure of Dialectic

    Graham Priest

     

    4. Hegelian Conjunction, Hegelian Contradiction

    Jc Beall and Elena Ficara

     

    5. Hegel’s Interpretation of the Sorites

    Franca d’Agostini

     

    6. Hegel’s Logic of Self-Predication

    Gregory Moss

     

    7. A Lack of Form in Hegel’s Logic? Hegel and the Trans-classical Logic of Gotthard Günther

    Valentin Pluder

    Biography

    Elena Ficara is akademische Oberrätin a. Z. at the University of Paderborn, Germany. Her works include: The Form of Truth. Hegel’s Philosophical Logic (2021); (ed.) Contradictions. Logic, History, Actuality (2014).

    Graham Priest is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, City University of New York, and Boyce Gibson Professor Emeritus at the University of Melbourne. He is known for his work on non-classical logic, metaphysics, the history of philosophy, and Buddhist philosophy.  For further details see grahampriest.net.