Stern versus Houlgate on the Presuppositionless Nature of Hegel's Science of Logic

Abstract

Hegel remarks in the early pages of the Science of Logic that his science “must not presuppose” anything; it “must not be mediated by anything nor have a ground”. In this paper, I consider two recent interpretations of these remarks. Stephen Houlgate argues that in beginning with “indeterminate immediacy”, that is, with the concept “pure being”, the Logic is indeed presuppositionless. According to Robert Stern, in contrast, “pure being” expresses at most the effort to begin without presuppositions, an effort Hegel believes is in vain. After defending features of each of these lines of interpretation, I conclude that the evidence is more solidly on Stern's side.