Logic and Existence (Suny Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy)

JEAN HYPPOLITE

OGIC AND XISTENCE

SUNY Series in Contemporary Continental Philosophy Dennis J. Schmidt, editor

TRAN S LATED BY LEO N ARD LAWLOR AND AMIT SEN

JEAN HYPPOLITE

OGIC AND XISTENCE

STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Originally published in France under the title Logique et existence by Presses Universitaires de France, Paris.

© 1953 Presses Universitaires de France

Published by State University of New York Press, Albany

© 1997 State University of New York All rights reserved

Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address the State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Albany, NY 12246 Production design by David Ford Marketing by Fran Keneston

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hyppolite, Jean.

/ Jean Hyppolite ; translated by Leonard Lawlor and

[Logique et existence. English) Logic and existence Amit Sen. p.

(SUNY series in contemporary continental philosophy)

em.

Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-3231-9 (alk. paper). - ISBN 0-7914-3232-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831-Contributions in doctrine of logic.

2. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831-Contributions in

notion of phenomenology.

3. LOgic.

1770-1831. Wissenschaft der Logik.

4. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 5. Phenomenology.

TI. Series.

B2949.L8H913

1. Title.

6. Hegel, Georg

Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831. Phanomenologie des Geistes. 1996

96-13009

193--dc20

CIP 10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

CONTENTS

vii xvii xix

Translator's Preface Translators'�ote List of Abbreviations

PART 1. LANGU AGE AND LOG I C 3

Introduction 1. The Ineffable 2. Sense and Sensible

23

3. Philosophical Dialectic, Poetry and Mathematical Symbolism

39

7

v

vi

LOGIC AND EXISTENCE

PART 2. SPEC U LATIVE THO UGHT AND REFLECTIO N 1. The Transformation of Metaphysics into Logic

2. Reflection and Reflections 3. Absolute Knowledge as Identity and Contradiction: Logos, Nature, Spirit

4. Empirical Negation and Speculative Negation

57 71 93 105

PART 3. THE CATEGORIES OF THE ABSOLUTE

1. Empirical Proposition and Speculative Proposition 2. The Categories as Categories of the Absolute 3. The Organization of the Logic: Being, Essence, Concept

129 149 161

Conclusion. Logic and Existence

177

Appendix. Review of Jean Hyppolite, Logique et existence, by Gilles Deleuze

191

Index

197

Hyppolite is the one who has establishedfor us all of the problems which are ours.... Logic and Existence . . is one of the great works of our time. .

-Michel Foucaule

LEON ARD LAWLOR

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE

l'

l

Originally published in France in 1952, Logique et existence illuminates what Hyppolite himself calls Hegelianism's "most obscure dialectical synthesis" (see below, p. 188): the relation between the phenomenology and the logic.2 .AF, he says, "how does the passage from the Phenol!l­ enolo8Y..to absolute J>nowledge work? This questi0!'l-� the !-1egelian _ _, question Pllr....fZf?ll?11c..?,)!9. !! .. _!:!:te, very purpose of this work lies in the �

'

.

'

--'''""�.",,,, ---.-.--_. ---.�.--....-..,--,."--...•-��.".........-",......,.......-� .. .. -

gram for Jean Hyppolite, 19 January 1969 at the Ecole Normale Superieure, and published in the Revue de Metaphysique et de Morale 2 (1969), 131-36. 1. From a eulogy presented by Foucault, at a commemorative pro­

2. In his earlier Genesis and Structure of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit/' Hyppolite already recognized that the most difficult, perhaps insoluble,

vii

vili

f

_

U

()

\

LOGIC AND EXISTENCE

attempt to pose this question by confronting Hegel's diverse attitudes concerning it " (see below, p. 27). Hegel solves this almost insoluble problem by means of a notion of correspondence (see below, p. 35). Correspondence means, according to Hyppolite, that the phenomenol­ ogy and the logic mutually presuppose one another (see below, p. 26). Hyppolite says, ':?xperience and the Logos are not opposech..1he dis-'

[C ;��e;��E����erio����� (

-I

[

There would be no possible ,e?meriE:[lce witho,Et th�presuE�tio1l.Qf abSolut� kilowled�e, but the path {)�exp�€!l��.-E�!!'lts�a.h�E:�t!£_absQ­ . lute kriow1eage7'lsee'velow,-'p:"3(6):'The logic presupposes the phenome-I nOIogfffiSofar' as it is only across (a tragzgrs) the history of humanity that the logos appears (see below, pp. 177, 179), an� the phenomenology presupposes the logic insofar as it is only the c$mcept that "explains " (see below, p. 36) or "supports " (see below, p. 66) experience. Mutual.:( correspondence therefore implies, for Hyppolite, that man is "the house (la demeure) of the Univers?!, of the Logos of Being " (see below, p. 187). �t mutual corresEondence does_ not imEly that man is equiv�ent to �versal self-c_