The following is an excerpt from an upcoming work titled: “Ethical Considerations of Violent Revolution”. Thank yous must be extended to my friend and peer, Jordan Gerdes and my beautiful partner, Kristy Coventry, for their immense help in revising and adjusting not only this excerpt but the work in entirety and others.
Hegel derived the term dialectic from Plato, who used this term to explain how Socrates argued with people. Someone would argue with Socrates, then Socrates would offer a counterpoint and argue back. This is the dialectic. Hegel was concerned with the whole of the argument. His method was to determine the moments of logical concepts, these concepts made up parts of the whole and this is how arguments evolve. Hegel also applied this theory to how society tends to grow and establish. It’s important to note that Hegel didn’t think that things evolved linearly but rather flowed between two polarities until it came to a mid-point. But these moments that make up evolutions or arguments are contradictory and incomplete because the whole is the synthesis (which we discuss more shortly) of the two incomplete parts. This synthesis is whole, but only for a time. Even a synthesis will have something that contradicts it at some point.
Hegel determines that the dialectic method is a process of logical reasoning, therefore, instead of using the term parts or pieces, he uses the term moments. His method is made up of three moments; the thesis, the antithesis, and the synthesis. The thesis presents a logical proposition. The antithesis presents an opposition to the thesis. Between the thesis and the antithesis, the synthesis develops. The synthesis dissolves the conflict between the two (moments) by negating the contradictions present, allowing for a compromise and finally a positive result.
Since the synthesis grows out of a contradiction between the two opposing rationales, or determinations, the earlier logical determinations are not eliminated but present in the very essence of the synthesis. As the argument progresses through its cycle, an antithesis will develop to challenge the determination of the newly formed synthesis. This provides growth for the logical whole or for the phenomena to which it is applied, e.g. society. The reason this antithesis develops usually pertains to a weakness within the synthesis, or from frustrations that one of the earlier determinations was somehow neglected when the synthesis came to be.
Hegel argues that this dialectical method and development is progressed by a concept called the Spirit of humanity often called “World Spirit” or the Weltgeist, in German. This is not a transcendental phenomenon in the way people believe in spirits, nor is it a tangible object but rather a manifestation of consciousness. This is an incredibly dense and complicated concept developed in Hegel’s work Phenomenology of Spirit and the interpretations vary. In short, we are “conscious” of things and “self-conscious” in regards of ourselves. When we are conscious of things and of ourselves, we know that we have the ability to reason. This action of reasoning brings about a force called Spirit, that allows us to make changes upon society and the world. Hegel argues that this Spirit came unto the world through Jesus Christs’ death and resurrection and it necessitates the existence of Spirit in man. This Spirit has existed forever, since God is Spirit, and since we are supposedly created in the image of God, we are Spirit, thus our actions carried out are also Spirit in practice. Ultimately, the Weltgeist, or World Spirit, is the idea that consciousness is not individual but the unity of reasoning and rational consciousness present in all people.
This idea gave a foundation for dialectic materialism established by Marx and Engels.
Simple Philosophy 