Hegel’s Science of Logic

Description

Hegel’s philosophy has had a great influence on much of what has happened in the world since his time (1770 – 1831) and is crucial to understanding much of modern social thought and philosophy as well as to understanding Marxism and the socialist tradition in its varied aspects.

We are going to continue reading the entire Science of Logic over this 2014-2015 until August 2015. You don’t have to commit yourself to the whole course, though you will probably want to. The work divides into three sections. This Fall of 2014 we covered part one, “The Doctrine of Being”. This term we will cover the entire second section, “The Doctrine of Essence”, discussing in detail what Hegel is trying to do as well as how what he is doing fits into the general project of Hegel’s whole philosophical “system”. We will start the course with a review of what has already gone on in the work up to this second section of the work, so nobody will be lost, even if they were not able to take the previous course. We will also be discussing how Hegel’s views here made it possible for Hegel to come to the socially reactionary conclusions that he ultimately drew, while at the same time they were inspirational for so many radical and progressive thinkers as well, including Marx and Engels. This coming Summer of 2015 we will cover part three of the Science of Logic, “The Doctrine of the Concept”.

This course will run 12 weeks on Friday evenings from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM from January 30 to April 17, 2015. We will be reading the edition of Hegel’s Science of Logic translated by A. V. Miller, and published by Humanity Books. (Arrangements will be made for students who cannot afford to buy

Russell Dale is an activist and a philosopher. He teaches philosophy at Lehman College, CUNY. He taught classes on Hegel at the Brecht Forum for the last five years of that institution’s existence. Russell is also on the Manuscript Collective and Editorial Board of the Marxist journal Science & Society, as well as on the Local Station Board of radio station WBAI, 99.5 FM (wbai.org).