‘Beginning’ : A Study on the Problem of ‘Negation’ in Hegel's “Science of Logic”

(1) When we analyse Hegel's treatise on the 'Beginning' by the method of 'the Absolutl Idea' of the Greater Logic, we find there a scheme of dialectic of the 'Beginning' such as follows : [Table omitted] (2) 'The first Negation' is the synthetic Ur-tei'en (fundamental dirision) of the Absolute at the Beginning, and Being is in fact the result of this self-negation of the Absolute. The Absolute in itself is therefore the subject which makes itself wholly immanent in the predicate. We have to distinguish speculatively the previous dialectic from the Being that follows it. Being or pure indeterminateness is predicatively immediate, but it is speculatively mediated by 'the first Negation'. (3) Thus, the Subject should first cease to be a subject in order to be Subject as such ; while in this negation or in self-estrangement, the subject must remember itself so for as it continues to be subject. And this movement of self-remembrance is the proper method of the subject. The Subject is nothing else than the Absolute in its self-contradiction and self-identity. (4) Therefore, here is a circle which first drives the self into contradiction, which means its death, and then through the mediation of this very contradiction makes it the true self, namely, the self-remembering Subject. This circle is the dialectic, and negation or contradiction is the spirit of it. Thus, Nothing, Quantity, or Essence is the determination of the Absolute in terms of the Transcendental which exclusively negates the immediateness of predicates, but in reality in terms of the inner core of them ; Becoming, still more, Notion and Idea are the unity recognized through the contradictory process of the claims of Being and Nothing. (5) But, in this completed circle, has that previous dialectic really become a predicate? Hegel describes the first Negation with unphilosophical predicates such as : ' zusammenfallen ' (collapse), or 'abstossen' (repel). If the previous dialectic makes itself immanent solely in the predicates, and if it only remains the limitless past as reflected in the predicates, then, does not such a metaphysics of subjectivity by reason of its very premise conflict with the idea of synthetic division and ruin itself? Nevertheless, such a cross-questioning is based on the remainder of the logic of understanding. The completedness of the circle does mean the revelation of the logicity of being itself, not the being observed in terms of logic. The creative subject which unconditionally determines itself anywhere and at any time, completing the circle, is the true and real beginning of philosophy. The predicative consciousness is pierced through and 'aufgehoben' (canceled) by this creative subject. But in its turn it mediates the selfrevelation of the Absolute ; Therefore, such predicative consciousness is the genuine individual and personality. Thus Subject and Predicates live the same and single circular life. Hegel's Science of Logic, so interpreted, points to the glow of religious flame at its innermost core