La difficulté de définir le commencement dans la Logique de Hegel
In this thesis, we offer a reading of one of the Science of Logic’s opening sections, called “With what should the beginning of science be made?”, in which Hegel maintains that the beginning of the Logic cannot be analyzed nor defined. Hence, we connect the definition with the spekulativer Satz and propose to distinguish between epistemological and ontological perspectives on the notion of beginning to allow for its proper study. Taking into account the rejection of an epistemological perspective on the beginning, this will show that a positive definition of the beginning is acceptable if the notions of choice (Entschluss) and order that lay beneath the notions of criteria and presupposition are put forward. Such a definition grounds itself in the prescriptive dimension of Hegel’s text and explains why the beginning can be both absolute and one-sided. The difficulty of such a definition, however, remains, due to the very nature of the concept of beginning. Indeed, since the beginning lacks all properties, it also lacks the stability of a definition.
G. W. F. Hegel Présupposition Science of Logic Doctrine of being (1812) Doctrine of being (1832) Beginning Definition Speculative proposition Criteria Presupposition