The first is the one we usually refer to and which my other posting
discusses: a movement from abstract conceptions to their concrete basis and
back again in ways that transform how we think and what we do -- this
hardly does justice to _praxis_, so see my other posting for what I mean
here in shorthand.
But the second is the other dimension also in Hegel -- the historical
progression or evolution (the correct metaphor today would actually be
'development' as in development biology) of less differentiated, 'vaguer'
forms of social order into more differentiated (the most precise notion for
this now 'of greater logical depth') forms, which in some sense 'subsume'
or 'presume' (or even coexist with) the earlier forms.
The first is a methodological or intellectual dialectics ... ideally a
praxis of transformative action-cum-discourse. It operates on the timescale
of human inquiries and analytical-practical agendas. The second is a
historical dialectics, which operates on the much longer timescale of many
generations. Marx certainly, and Hegel perhaps, were looking for more than
just formal similarities between these two dialectics, they were looking
for some ideal/material connection between them. Hegel perhaps sees them as
the microcosm and macrocosm, the individual's search for .... [truth,
fulfillment of our nature, etc.] and the species corresponding development
[ a logic which can lead to Hitler, but also to Teilhard ...]. Marx links
them through his material logic of history, posing our contemporary problem
of just how it is that all our individual acts add up to historical change.
I'd be interested if other people have a sense of these two dialectics and
how they relate. JAY.
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JAY L. LEMKE
PROFESSOR OF EDUCATION
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU
<http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/education/jlemke/index.htm>
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