The Logic of Hegel

...may be regarded as the predicates. Something, we feel, has clearly been said, but we are unsure what it is referring to. Our minds wander from one familiar object to another, trying each in turn to see if it fits the various points of the statement and ties them together. We search here and there for something familiar where these fragments of description can come together, gaining a unity they cannot create on their own. Once we have finally hit upon the right object, our troubles are over, and the empty space is filled with a creation of our imagination. We have reached a stable point in our thinking around which these features can gather.

All the trouble caused by the Hegelian theory of what philosophy involves—namely, the construction of its own subject matter Hegel argued that philosophy cannot simply accept "facts" as they appear to the senses; instead, it must logically demonstrate how those concepts are formed from the ground up.—is avoided by a method well-known to the various branches of science. Scientists typically assume that the student already has a rough, general image of the objects they are examining. Under the guidance of this general image, they proceed to explain and describe its outlines more completely. They begin with an approximate idea that anyone might have, and then work to make it more precise.

The geologist, for example, could hardly teach geology unless they could assume or create some familiarity in their students with what David Hume David Hume (1711–1776) was a Scottish philosopher who distinguished between "impressions" (direct sensory experiences) and "ideas" (the mental memories of those experiences). would have called an 'impression' or an 'idea' of the rocks and formations being discussed. The geometer A mathematician specializing in geometry. gives a brief and common-sense explanation of how angles, circles, and triangles are to be understood; then, with the help of these temporary definitions, we arrive at a more scientific understanding of the same terms. The third book of Euclid Euclid was an ancient Greek mathematician; his "Elements" served as the primary textbook for geometry for over 2,000 years., for instance, provides us with a clearer notion of what a circle is than the simple definition found in the initial list. By using these temporary aids—or "intellectual training wheels" original: "leading-strings"; strings used to help toddlers learn to walk.—the progress of the average science student is made reasonably easy.

But in philosophy,