ABSTRACT
G. W. F. Hegel (1770–1831) flatly rejected the regress-engendering demand that rational validation must always rest in pre-established premises. As he saw it, what validates propositional acceptance is not necessarily demonstration from “prior premises,” but rather systematization—fitting in a smoothly harmonious way into the overall fabric of what we are minded to accept. The justification of our cognitive commitments is thus not demonstrably sequential but rather is a matter of systemic coordination. As Hegel saw it, recourse to systemic integration enables the problem of justificatory regression to be entirely circumvented. 1
