Negation

Hegel (throughout)

Not mere denial, but determinate negation. Something is what it is through the exclusion of what it is not. Negation is productive - it determines positively.

Origin

Spinoza: "omnis determinatio est negatio." Hegel radicalizes this: negation is not external, but constitutive.

In Hegel

Enz. §91; WdL vol. 1, Quality