Return

Hegel (core methodological concept)

Return (to itself in its other) is the basic movement of Hegelian dialectic. Something passes over into its other, recognizes itself there, and returns to itself - but enriched. Example: being passes over into nothing, and returns to itself as becoming. True infinity is a return to itself within the finite. The structure: not A → B (loss of A), but A → B → A' (A is with itself, mediated through B). The circle: the end is the beginning, but enriched through mediation. The absolute is "the return to itself out of its otherness."

Origin

Neoplatonism: emanatio and remeatio (going out and return). Hegel secularizes and logicizes this: return as the structure of the concept, not religious mysticism.

In Hegel

Enc. §95; SL vol. 1, Quality

Cross-references

Reflexion · Cycle · Mediation · Unendlichkeit · Being-for-Self · Method

Im buch

Chap. 1.10, 5.5.A