ABSTRACT
Hegel argued, quite as earnestly, that in the world of pure thought, where the matter should be determined, the vitality of the negative is essentially the life of being, and that negation is 'positive in its result'. Dialectic, which for Plato meant conversation, as rendering opposite sides, is an esoteric diversion, in which the negative has been exploited as a quasi positive. Transcendental dialectic, positive negation, truth as contradiction and essential opposition and inconsequent process, all this is but a house of cards, the baseless fabric of a vision, an insubstantial pageant that will leave not a rack behind. One should gather from the citations foregoing that in self-relation and positive negation the German genius has exhausted the only sources or ground of cosmic explanation. Surely one must welcome the Good; the downpour of gratuitous Nature dissolves the logical necessity which renders negation positive in its results.
