“One’s own positing” (WL 205, 2-5). Infinite Causality as a Logical Determination and the Objective Spirit
Stefano Papa
While from Hegel’s point of view, Galilean relativity represents a mode of empirical consciousness – that is, presupposes the considerations of phenomenology and cannot be substantially accounted for in the self-explication of the Science of Logic’s Absolute – the same does not hold for Newtonian mechanics. As a consequence, a rational reconstruction of Newtonian mechanics is possible within the frame of dialectics, where causality is explicated as background-selection mechanism. Does Hegel’s dialectical logic of “force” provide an account of causality in classical mechanics as well? Since the point of view of classical physics (including Special Relativity, in a sense) is the one assumed in naïve ontological interpretations of contemporary physical categories, how does causality – as it is defined in the Logic of Essence (”The cause is extinguished in its effect and the effect too is thereby extinguished, for it only is the determinateness of the cause,” WL, 205, 2-5) – relate to the concept of causality presupposed in the evaluation of technological applications, when public issues are at stake?
Keywords: Logic of Essence, Causation, Background-selection, Applied Science, Policy Evaluation
4. P.O.I. - Hegel, la storia e noi- Papa