more information - www.cambridge.org/9781107033597 Hegel and tHe MetapHysics of absolute negativity Hegel’s doctrines of absolute negativity and “the concept” are among his most original contributions to philosophy and they constitute the systematic core of dialectical thought. brady bowman explores the interrelations between these doctrines, their implications for Hegel’s critical understanding of classical logic and ontology, natural science, and mathematics as forms of “finite cognition,” and their role in devel- oping a positive, “speculative” account of consciousness and its place in nature. as a means to this end, bowman also re-examines Hegel’s relations to Kant and pre-Kantian rationalism, and to key post-Kantian figures such as Jacobi, fichte, and schelling. His book draws from the breadth of Hegel’s writings to affirm a robustly metaphysical reading of the Hegelian project, and will be of great interest to students of Hegel and of german idealism more generally. brady bowman is assistant professor of philosophy at the pennsylvania state university. His recent publications include Sense Certainty: On the Systematic Pre-History of a Problem in German Idealism (2003). 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Hegel and the metaphysics of absolute negativity / brady bowman, pennsylvania state university. pages cm. – (Modern european philosophy) includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-107-03359-7 (hardback) 1. Hegel, georg Wilhelm friedrich, 1770–1831. i. title. B2948.B664 2013 193–dc23 2012036033 ISBN 978-1-107-03359-7 Hardback cambridge university press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. contents Acknowledgments page ix A note on citations and translations xiii List of abbreviations xv introduction: “a completely altered view of logic” 1 1 the Hegelian concept, absolute negativity, and the transformation of philosophical critique 26 2 Hegel’s complex relationship to “pre-Kantian” metaphysics 62 3 Hegelian skepticism and the idealism of the finite 102 4 skeptical implications for the foundations of natural science 134 5 the methodology of finite cognition and the ideal of mathematical rigor 158 6 Die Sache selbst: absolute negativity and Hegel’s speculative logic of content 201 7 absolute negation and the history of logic 239 Works cited 261 Index 271 vii