Speculation / speculative
Hegel (methodological concept)
For Hegel, speculation is not mere conjecture or fantasy, but the highest form of thinking: comprehending cognition that thinks the unity of opposites. To think speculatively means not avoiding contradictions but grasping them as the engine of development. The speculative proposition breaks through the usual subject-predicate form: the subject does not remain fixed but develops within the predicate. "The true is the whole" --- a speculative proposition.
Origin
From Latin *speculum* (mirror) and *speculari* (to peer, to look). In medieval philosophy: contemplative vision of the divine. Hegel transforms this: speculation is not passive vision but active movement of thought that reflects upon itself --- the mirror that mirrors itself.
In Hegel
Enz. §82
Cross-references
Dialectic · Method · Vernunft · Contradiction · Concept