Abstract

According to G.W.F. Hegel, being is to be equated with pure thinking. This Hegelian assertion has been questioned by F.A. Trendelenburg in his work Logische Untersuchungen where he claimed that from the point of view of the dialectical method this identity is unacceptable. In this context he formulated a criticism of Hegel by arguing that the dialectical thinking generates logical categories which do not appeal to vision ; consequently, these categories suffer from a lack of experiential meaning. In the paper I present Trandelenburg’s argument according to which the dialectical method may have a scientific value only in correlation with experience. He also claims that knowledge without experience situates itself outside life; in this sense the scientific method cannot but accept experience as the principle of cognition. Key words TRENDELENBURG, HEGEL, DIALECTIC