THE FOUNDATION OF HEGEL'S DIALECTICS

HEGEL, GE. WILH. FRIEDR.

Wissenschaft der Logik. 2 Bde (3 Bücher). Erster Band. Die objective Logik. [Zwei Bücher] (Erster Band. Zweytes Buch: Die Lehre vom Wesen). (Zweiter Band:) Wissenschaft der subjectiven Logik oder die Lehre vom Begriff.

Nürnberg, Johann Leonhard Schrag, 1812-1813-1816.

3 vols. 8vo. Bound in three lovely contemporary uniform (!) green half calf bindings with gilt spines. Very minor, excellently executed and barely noticeable professional restorations to small pieces of spines and boards. A magnificent set in lovely contemporary, uniform bindings. Some brownspotting as usual. Housed in a custom-made marbled paper cassette.

XIV (= title-page + Vorrede + Inhalt), XXVIII (= Einleitung), 334; VI (= title-page + Inhalt), 282; (2 = general title-page stating second volume of Wissenschaft der Logik), X (= title-page, Vorbericht + Inhalt), 403, (1) pp.

The scarce first editions of all three volumes that together constitute Hegel's second main work, his "Science of Logic", also called his "Greater Logic" (as opposed to the Logic section of the Encyclopaedia), in which logic is seen as the science of pure thought, concerning the principles by which concepts are formed, and therefore also as that which reveals to us the principles of pure knowing. THIS IS THE RAREST OF ANY OF HEGEL'S MAJOR WORKS TO FIND COMPLETE - IT IS A TRUE SCARCITY TO FIND A SET IN UNIFORM, CONTEMPORARY BINDINGS.

Hegel's "Logic" is begun five years after his first major work, the "Phänomenologie des Geistes", and the five years which Hegel has had to develop his philosophy in the meantime are clearly reflected in his monumental second masterpiece. The "Logic" can be regarded as a more systematic and well organized epistemological and ontological work. It is in this groundbreaking work of German Idealism that Hegel develops his famous dialectic, which comes to determinate all later reading of his philosophy.

It is Hegel's dialectic theory later condensed as "thesis-antithesis-synthesis" that is developed in this main work of 19th century philosophy. The dialectical process constitutes the movement of thought and consciousness, from basic to complex ideas, and thus demonstrates how the categorical infrastructure of thought can be laid bare by thought itself alone.

With this work, Hegel is considered as having created a revolution in the understanding of Logic, because he widens it from being merely concerned with formal rules of propositions to including all of humanity. He elaborates the laws that govern the development of human practice, and as a consequence, he also uncovers the objective laws that govern the entire objective material world.

Throughout the 20th century, Hegel's logical philosophy was largely neglected, but the last 40-50 years have shown a revived interest in this most fundamental of works, which is of the greatest importance for the understanding of his systematic thought.

Hegel himself considered his "Logic" to be of the utmost importance, and he kept revising it throughout the years. It is very difficult to find a set of all three volumes in first editions.

Order-nr.: 55245