Ignasian Study Notes on Introduction of Science of Logic

1. The science of logic is that which cannot have any presuppositions, for the methods are its content. The methods of logic is precisely the content of the science of logic. Therefore, logic must somehow emerge by itself when one has not realized logic, or logic must already be an innate feature of man and man has always been operating by the laws of logic. It seems to me that it is the former which is more true without denying the essential truth of the latter. For we have seen many cases of men denying logic. However, it then shows itself that they are denying logic, not being incapable of logic. It then arises the theory that all man are gifted with logic by God, but some man has chosen to reject that free gift of God and others still embrace it to the fullest. Those who embrace the eternal logic are called saints, and those who reject logic are called wicked and evil men.

2. In every other science other than logic, the matter and the method is different or distinguished. The content does not have an absolute beginning but has its beginning already defined in other concepts and is connected on all sides with other material. For example sociology, the science of society has 2 parts, the method of science and the object which is society. These things are distinct. The concept of society is also clearly not absolutely first, but instead is derived from the union of human and relationship. The concept of society is also connected and relatable with other forms of scientific material. We can intersect religion and sociology, sociology and physics, sociology and chemistry, sociology and biology, and other things.

3. Therefore in science we may speak of these matters, be it the ground, its context, or their method in form of lemmas (premises taken for granted). Such are what I would call assumptions or axiomatic establishments. It is also permitted to apply presuppositions of definitions, and use custom (tradition) ways of argumentation in order to establish their general concepts and fundamental determinations.

4. Such kind of thing is impossible in logic. Logic is beyond all kinds of assumption, custom, or presupposition. For logic is the first foundation of all these things. In logic, the matter is the method to investigate the matter. How can we then have any form of assumption? As said, logic must then be an eternal matter predating all man and giving itself to man's existence, accepted by the saints and rejected by those who have predestined themselves to eternal damnation.

5. It is not just the declaration of the scientific method but also the concept of science itself which belongs to the content of logic and thus make up the final result of science. Logic contains the foundations of all things and as such in a sense contains all things in itself especially science. Science being a derivative of logic, is born out of logic and thus the very concept and idea of science is born out of logic. It is from logic that science emerges and then develops into the scientific method which then enables progression in knowledge.

6. Logic then cannot say what it is in advance, rather it can only emerge after the whole treatment of logic. Therefore we may say that there is a process from which logic emerges before which there is no logic. Otherwise we may argue for an eternal logic, yet even when logic resides within the soul of man, it is never fully realized. One who has fully realized logic has become God Himself. The realization of logic necessitates a prior state to logic, that state which I call Absolute Awareness. Where one merely perceives the truth of logic and has the choice of accepting or rejecting it.

7. The conceptual thinking, which is the subject matter of logic, does not precede logic but is logic itself, such that logic must generate itself without anything before logic. Logic is generated in the process of logic itself, thus that nothing precedes logic. It now comes to me that Hegel is essentially describing the Logos, after all logic is derived from Logos. And indeed the Logos is preceded by nothing other than itself. The Logos is that attribute of God which is in primacy but in consubstantiality with the other attributes of God, particularly that of existence and goodness.

8. Therefore Hegel says that logic cannot be proven or justified scientifically, for that presupposes logic. The honest approach is that logic is intuited, and in my words this is what I call Absolute Awareness. Where we are immediately aware of what is true and we immediately make a motion towards or away from that which is true. A motion towards the truth will lead to Logos and God. A motion away from the truth will lead to anti-Logos and anti-God which is classically defined as death and destruction.

9. It is said that the thinking mentioned in logic constitutes the mere form of a cognition; that logic abstracts from all content, and the so-called matter of cognition must come from elsewhere. Hence the logic can only give the formal conditions of genuine knowledge, but does not itself contain real truth, or again, that logic is only the pathway to real knowledge, for the essential content of the truth lies outside it. I suspect that Hegel will disprove this notion very soon and I can already see problems with this concept. As logic's content is itself then we must say absolutely that logic possess in itself real truth and not just the formal conditions of knowledge. Logic is in itself genuine knowledge as well as the formal conditions of knowledge.

10. Up to this point the concept of logic rested on the separation of content and form, of truth and certainty. It is presupposed that the material of knowledge lies outside of thinking, that thinking by itself is empty and that only when outside material enters thinking that it becomes filled and becomes real knowledge. Yet how is it not possible that thinking fills itself with it? Such that we possess a thinking filled itself, filled with real knowledge of itself. And thereby gaining knowledge of all things which can be gained. Thus the sages say that the world is in ourselves, that God is within.

11. It is said that the object is complete and finished which can exist without thought while thought is deficient and in need of a material in order to be perfect or complete, and as indeterminate form, must adapt itself to matter. Truth is the agreement of thought with the subject matter and in order to produce this agreement, thought must be subservient and response to the subject matter. It is time to dispense away with these kinds of heresies. For the truth is clear that thinking and the subject matter are very much identical, that they are one and the same, and as such thinking is just as independent and complete as subject matter is.

12. In the end, when the difference of subject matter and thought is more specifically defined, they become divorced such that subject matter becomes impossible to reach. Instead thinking becomes mere modifications of itself, and as such thinking alone becomes sufficient. Reason alone is sufficient to determine all the knowledge of the world as God has dictated with His supremely wise reason, the Logos. The subject matter becomes beyond thought and unattainable and thus it loses its power of relevancy towards thought for thought can feed itself.

13. Hegel recognizes that these are fundamental errors in the realm of logic and reason, such that they must be erased from our thought first before we enter philosophy. Only when we obtain the correct understanding that logic is sufficient for itself and needs no other matter is the beginning of philosophy.

14. The older metaphysics teaches a more correct understanding of thinking. That things are first of all of thought and thinking, that thinking and the determination of thinking are not something alien to the subject matters, but are rather their essence. Such that in the end, thinking and the true nature of things are one and the same content. This finally resides in the idea that God is fundamentally awareness. Awareness is existence, and so awareness is God. He who reaches perfect self-awareness, the awareness of awareness, has attained divinity in union with humanity, in other words, he is Christ.

15. The understanding can oppose reason, saying that truth is sensual and that thoughts are only thoughts and not reality itself. In this renunciation of reason, the concept of truth is lost and knowledge has lapsed into opinion.

16. The reflection of understanding must determine and separate the concrete immediate, but this too must transcend separation and connect them. This reflective act of connection belongs to reason, and to rise above the determinations and attain insight into their discord is the great apophatic step on the way to the true concept of reason. But when not carried through we are at risk at misconceiving that reason is self-contradictory. Instead contradiction is the elevation of reason beyond the restrictions of understanding and the dissolution of them. At that point, knowledge flees from sensuous existence. Now since this cognition is only of appearances, the unsatisfactoriness of the latter is admitted and presupposed. Nevertheless, we have correct cognition of appearances, this is akin to saying that one has right insight but only to what is false. This is absurd, but it is no less absurd that cognition which is true but does not know its subject matter as it is in itself.

17. The forms or thought do not apply to the thing in itself. It means that the forms are themselves untrue. However, since they are valid for reason and experience, the critique has not altered the forms in any way but rather has let them be for the subject in the same shape as they formerly applied to the object. It means that previously, the forms apply to the object in a certain way and now they apply in that same way to the subject. However, if they are inadequate for the thing in itself, still less the understanding to which they supposedly belong have to put up with the forms and rest content with them. If they cannot be determinations of the thing in itsself, still less are they determinations of the understanding, to which one ought to concede at least the dignity of an object. The determinations of finite and infinite run into the same conflict. If our representation of the world is dissolved when we carry over to it the determinations of the infinite and finite, still more is spirit itself which contains both thus containing an apparent self contradiction and self dissolution. However, it is not by their nature, but only through our determinations that they have contradictions.

18. Such critique removed the forms of objective thinking only from the object, but not from the subject. It did not consider thinking in itself according to its proper content, but merely took them over from subjective logic in the manner of lemmas. There was no question of an immanent deduction of such forms, or also of deducing them as logico-subjective forms, still less, of a dialectical treatment of them.

19. In its more consistent form, transcendental idealism did recognize the nothingness of the thing-in-itself and sought to destroy it completely. That philosophy made a start at letting reason produce its determinations from itself, but the subjective attitude assumed prevented it from coming to fruition.

20. The common understanding of logic possess a total disregard of metaphysical significance. Admittedly this science has no content which ordinary consciousness would accept as genuine fact. But it is not for that reason it is void of any material truth. Besides, the region of truth is not to be sought in that missing material. Instead, the emptiness lies in the manner in which they are considered and dealt with. Scattered in fixed determinations and not held in organic unity, they are dead forms and the spirit does not reside in them. They lack proper content. However, logical reason is itself the substantial or real factor which holds together all the abstract determinations and constitutes their proper absolutely concrete unity. It is not the fault of logic if it seems empty, but only of the manner in which it is grasped.

21. Any definition where science makes an absolute beginning can contain nothing else than the precise and correct expression of what is represented in one's mind as the traditionally accpeted subject matter and purpose of the science. That just this subject matter and this purpose are so represented is a historical warrant for invoking such or such fact as conceded, or more precisely, the pleading for it. There will always be a possibility that someone will adduce a case in which something more and different must be understood by some term or other. Definitions are open to argumentation which is open to many various opinions and these decisions can finally be determined only arbitrarily. In beginning science with a definition, no mention is made of th eneed to demonstrate the necessity of its subject matter, and hence the necessity of the science itself.

22. Absolute knowledge is the truth of all the modes of consciencess, as only in it that the separation of the subject matter from its certainty is resolved. Truth becomes equal to certainty and certainty to truth.

23. Pure science presupposes the liberation from the opposition of consciousness. It contains thought in so far as the thought is equally the fact, or the fact in so far as it is thought. Truth is pure self-consciousness, so that that which exists is the conscious concept and concept as such is that which exists in and for itself.

24. This objective thinking is the content of pure science. Far from being formal, far from lacking matter, it is its own content which alone has absolute truth. It can then be said that the content is the exposition of God as He is in His eternal essenc before creation.

25. Anaxogoras is celebrated as the first who gave voice to the thought or Nous as the principle of the world. The pure shape must be logic, logic has nothing to do with a particular thought, rather the forms of thinking are the ultimate truth itself.

26. One must put aside the notion that truth must be something tangible. Even the Platonic forms are tangible, they exist but in another world or region. The Platonic idea is the concept of the subject matter. If something deviates from the concept then it ceases to be actual. But on the other side one can appeal to the representations of ordinary logic, for it is assumed that in definitions, the determinations are not jsut of the knowing subject but are rather determinations of the subject matter. Or in an inference drawn from given determinations to others, the assumption is that the inferred is not something external, but it belongs to it. Thus everywhere presupposed byt he use of the forms, they are not mere forms of self-conscious thinking but also of objective understanding. Thought is an expression which attributes the determination contained in it primarily to consciousness. But inasmuch as it is said that reason is in the objective world, that spirit and nature have universal law, it is conceded just as much that the determinations of thought have objective value and concrete existence.

27. Critical philosophy did already turn metaphysics into logic. However, it gave to the logical determinations subjective significance out of fear of the object. For that reason, these determinations remained affected by the object that they avoided and were left with the remains of a thing-in-itself, an infinite check, as a beyond. But the liberation elevates the determinations of thought above this incomplete standpoint, as the logical purely rational.

28. Kant thought further of logic as fortunate because since Aristotle it has become static, moving neither backwards or forwards. If logic has not changed since Aristotle, then surely there is further need of a total reworking; for the 2000 years of spirit's continuous labor msu thave procured for it a higher consciousness about its thinking. A comparison of the shapes to which the spirit of the practical and religious world,a nd of science, has raised itself with the shape in which logic, spirit's consciousness of its own pure essence, finds itself, reveals too wide a difference that one would not be struck, even on the most superficial observation, by the disporpotion and unworthiness of the latter consciousness as contrasted with spirit's other elevations.

29. The additions of other material to logic has later been almost universally recognized as disfigurations. A large part, must appear to be quite shallow and trivial.

30. The reason of the lack of spirit is that the determinations are brought together only in external connection. It becomes void of concept. 

31. For logic to be resurrected and become substance and content, its method must be the one which alone can make it fit to be pure science. People have used other methods to philosophy, such as empiricism and mathematics, and it does not work. Method is the consciousness of the form of the inner self-movement of the content of logic. The one thing needed to achieve scientific progress is to recognize that negation is equally positive, or that what is self-contradictory does not resolve itself into a nullity, but only negation which is not only negation but the negation of the determined fact which is resolved, and is therefore determinate negation, that in the result there is the essence that from which the result derives. Therefore, the negation has c ontent. It is a new concept but one higher and richer than the preceding, richer because it negates or opposes the preceding and therefore contains it, and it contains even more than that, for it is the unity of itself and its opposite.

32. Hegel does not pretend that the method is not capable of greater perfection, yet he knows that it is the one and only true method. This is made obvious by the very fact that the method is not distinct frommc ontent. The dialectic which it possesses within itself. It is clear that no expositions can be accepted as scientifically valid that do not follow the progression of this method, for it is the course of the fact itself.

33. The divisions of the books as well as the explanations are a preliminary overview, and that stricly speaking they are only of a historical value. They are not the content and body of the science but are tahter external reflection which has already gone through the whole of the exposition. 

34. Preliminary definitions and divisions are by themselves nothing other than external indications; but also they never exceed this status. Of the method, there is no deduction.

35. The divisions have no significance than that of an indication of content. But then the necessity of the connectedness and distinctions msut be found in the treatment of the fact itself.

36. Dialectics is often known as something negative, not belonging to fact but in mere conceit, obsessive in subversion and bringing to naught everything firm and true.

37. Kant presented the dialectic as the necessary operation of reason. Kant's dialectical displays do not deserve great praise, but the general idea. Of course, he did this above all with reference to the way in which these determinations are applied by reason to the things in themselves, nevertheless what such determinations are in reason and with reference to itself, this is precisely their nature. This result, grasped in its positive aspect is nothing else but the inner negativity of the determinations which is their self-moving soul. If one stays fixed at the abstract negative, the result is that reason is incapable of knowing the infinite, since the infinite is what is rational, reason cannot cognize the rational.

38. In grasping opposites in their unity or the positive in the negative, that the speculative consists. It is the most important aspect of dialectic, but for the unpracticed the most difficult. It must first practice abstract thinking, hold fast to concepts and learn to gain knowledge by means of them. 

39. As compared with grammar, in the beginning it is dead, then it becomes rich and alive. 

40. Only after profound acquiantance with other sciences does logic rise for subjective spirit. Thus logic reaches its full value after experiencing the sciences, then it displays itself to spirit as the universal truth.

41. The system of logic is the realm of shadows. To study it is the absolute culture and discipline of consciousness. 

42. In the end, thought gains self-subsistence and independence, to see the essence and strip from them every externality. the absolutely true.

43. Reversal of content and forms