Inline Comments

The en dash (–) at the start of a sentence (and not within one) is often used by Hegel to insert a quick comment. It serves to swiftly elaborate on a logical passage and provide additional guidance. Importantly, in these mini-commentaries, Hegel steps out of the logical development to reflect upon it. Often, immediately after the en dash Hegel begins to speak about extraneous matter to the logical development or uses less precise language, such as in the development of being.

If any determination or content were posited in it as distinct, or if it were posited by this determination or content as distinct from an other, it would thereby fail to hold fast to its purity. It is pure indeterminateness and emptiness. – There is nothing to be intuited in it, if one can speak here of intuiting; or, it is only this pure empty intuiting itself. Just as little is anything to be thought in it, or, it is equally only this empty thinking. Being, the indeterminate immediate is in fact nothing, and neither more nor less than nothing (Hegel 2010, 59/21.68-9).

Here “intuiting” and “speaking of” do not seem appropriate for the purely logical development. If it is correct that the en dash signals the start of a brief commentary here, then it makes sense why Hegel begins to employ intuition and vague language like “speaking of”, since he is now reflecting upon the matter at hand as it has been developed thus far and attempts to help his readers to understand an otherwise extremely abstract idea.

If the en dash does not signal the start of a comment and the logical development still continues, then that invites interpretation as to the precise status of intuition this early in the logic of pure thinking.

Bibliography

Authors
Filip Niklas (2024)