12123
Contradiction ('Widerspruch')
?- 0 Hegel's 'System of Science'
- 1 Logic (Thinking of Thinking, Science of Science)
- 2 Nature (science of matter)
- 3 Spirit/Mind (Science of humanities)
- 11 Being (immediateness, 'Ontology')
- 12 Essence (mediation, reflection, metaphysics)
- 13 Concept (Notion / Logos / Comprehension, 'Begriff')
- 121 Essence as Reflection Within Itself
- 122 Appearance (Erscheinung)
- 123 Actuality (Wirklichkeit)
- 1211 Shine ('Schein')
- 1212 The Essentialities
- 1213 Ground (the reason, 'Grund')
- 12121 Identity
- 12122 Difference
- 12123 Contradiction ('Widerspruch')
Contradiction
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Not a formal error (to be avoided), but productive tension (the motor of development). Contradiction compels progress, sublation. "Something is alive only insofar as it contains contradiction within itself" (Science of Logic). A productive contradiction shows that our previous categories were one-sided and press toward a higher synthesis.
Origin: Traditional logic: contradiction is to be avoided (the law of non-contradiction). Hegel: contradiction as the motor of development --- it shows the limit of our previous concepts.
In Hegel: Enz. §119; Science of Logic, Vol. 2, Essence
Cross-references: Dialectic, Sublation, Opposition, Negation of the Negation, Ground