Logic as the Science of the Pure ConceptCroce, Benedetto
Philosophy
Logic as the Science of the Pure Concept
Croce, Benedetto
Logic
In more precise terms: Beyond doubt the concept is thought only in
so far as it becomes concrete in an expressive form and itself also
becomes, from this point of view, representative. Thus, a logical
affirmation, or one that presents itself as logical, can be viewed
under a twofold aspect, as logical and as æsthetic. It can be regarded
as well thought-out, and so also very well expressed, perfectly
æsthetic because perfectly logical; or as very well expressed but ill
thought, or not truly thought, and so not logical, and yet sentimental,
passionate and imaginative. But this expression-representation,
in which the concept lives (and which is, for example, the tone,
the accent, the personal form, the style, which I am employing in
this book to expound Logic), is a _new_ representation, conditioned
by the concept. We now ask, not indeed the character of this
representation (which is sufficiently clear), but of what kind are
those representations, about and upon which, the thought of the concept
has been kindled. Do they remain apart, excluded from the light of
the concept, obscure as before, that is, logically obscure? Does the
concept illuminate only itself in a sort of egoistic satisfaction,
without irradiating with its light the representations upon which it
has arisen?
[Sidenote: _Logicization of the representations._]
That would be inconceivable and contrary to the unity of the spirit;
and indeed, such separation and indifference do not exist. The
appearance of the concept transfigures the representations upon which
it arises, making them _other_ than they formerly were; from being
indiscriminate it makes them discriminate; from fantastic, logical;
from clear but indistinct (as used to be said), clear and distinct.
I am, for example, in such a condition of soul as prompts me to sing
or to versify, and thus to make myself objective and known to myself;
but I am objective and known only to fancy, so much so, that at the
moment of poetical or musical expression I should not be able to say
what was really happening in me: whether I wake or dream, whether I
see clearly, or catch glimpses, or see wrongly. When from the variety
of the multitude of representations, which have preceded and which
follow it, I pass on to enquire as to the truth of them all (that is
to say, the reality, which does not pass), and rise to the concept,
those representations themselves must be revised in the light of the
concept that has been attained, but no longer with the same eyes as
formerly,--they must not be _looked at,_ but henceforth, _thought._
My state of soul then becomes determinate; and I shall say, for
example: "What I have experienced (and sung and made poetry of), was
an absurd desire; it was a clash of different tendencies that needed
to be overcome and arranged; it was a remorse, a pious desire," and
so on. Thus by means of the concept is formed a _judgment_ of that
representation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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