CHAPTER I
THE LOGICAL BACKGROUND
The Outlines of the Philosophy of Right, with which we are chiefly concerned in this book, is the last important systematic work which Hegel himself published, and it has Hegel’s general system as a background. In order to understand it we have to begin some distance off. I propose in this chapter to discuss some important aspects of his logical theory, for in it the roots of his ethical doctrines are to be found. In the next chapter I shall explain in greater detail some of the principles which his logic lays bare, and on the comprehension of which the interpretation and judgement of his ethical philosophy depends.
Philosophy for Hegel covers three main provinces, logic, nature, and mind; and the sciences of these three realms give us progressive, yet inter-related, analyses of reality and experience. Hegel’s view of logic is remote from that of the ordinary text-book. What is usually called formal logic occupies itself chiefly with an account of various processes of thought whereby inferences can be consistently drawn from assumed premises. This analysis is generally prefaced by a statement, partly logical, partly grammatical, partly psychological, of the ‘elements’ of thought—the pieces with which the game is played. By logic Hegel means something more important than this: he offers an analysis of the fundamental constitutive principles of the content of all experience; and the specific forms of ‘right reasoning’, as detailed in the usual formal logic, occupy a subordinate place in the whole. In order to see how he reaches this position we may look at the matter from two points of view; firstly, the necessity of the case, and secondly, the historical development—mainly with reference to Kant.
Logic in the narrower sense attempts to be a self-contained body of doctrine with a recognized sphere and a special method. It separates itself from the theory of knowledge and from metaphysics, and it claims that its own province is
