Maria Daskalaki Hegel’s Critique of Skepticism and the Concept of Determinate Negation Abstract: In this chapter I reconsider Hegel’s attempt during the Jena period to overcome dogmatism and form his own philosophical alternative through critically deploying skepticism. Through this reśexamination I clarify the formation of Hegel’s basic methodological tool, the concept of determinate negation. In the two őrst parts of the chapter I refer to the introduction of the Phenomenology of Spirit to clarify the notion of skepticism Hegel had in mind. In the third part I consider how Hegel understands the relation between skepticism and philosophy in the relevant article of the Jena period. Then I draw on Plato’s Parmenides to examine dialectics as a philosophical method which incorporates the skeptical attitude. After a short presentation of Hegel’s critique of the philosophy of subjectivity, I return to Hegel’s endeavor to ground a new form of philosophical theory that does not exclude but integrates negation as an essential part of it. In the introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel explicitly names his main interlocutors in this work, i.e. dogmatism and skepticism. This is of utmost importance for the interpretation of his writings during his time in Jena, since the Phenomenology appears to be the őnal outcome of this period and, in this sense, it results out of his confrontation with the aboveśmentioned major philosophical currents. Hence, to understand Hegel’s philosophical enterprise itself one must őrstly explore what he thought of dogmatism and skepticism. 1 Dogmatism and true philosophy During the years Hegel was struggling to form his own philosophical project he had a speciőc notion of dogmatism as an opponent he was in combat with. This notion becomes apparent in the introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit (1807). The kind of dogmatism Hegel critiques is much wider than the dogmatism of the metaphysical tradition, which had been criticized by modern philosophy and, speciőcally in Germany, by the representatives of transcendental philosophy. For Maria Daskalaki, Dr. Maria Daskalaki, Collaborating Expert in Philosophy, Centre for Cultural Informatics, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology ś Hellas. DOI 10.1515/9783110528138-002 Brought to you by | New York University Authenticated Download Date | 6/27/17 4:04 PM