Dialectics of A.F. Losev and G.W.F. Hegel

Abstract

The article provides a comparative analysis of the understanding of dialectics by A.F. Losev and G.W.F. Hegel. Both the commonality of approaches and funda­mental differences are revealed here. Both thinkers consider dialectics as a uni­versal philosophical method of cognition. At the same time, Losev, in his in­terpretation, returns to Plato, in whom the dialectic begins with “one” and “the other” (dialogue "Parmenides"), and not “being” and “nothing” (“Science of Logic” by Hegel). The Russian thinker goes beyond the boundaries of Hegel’s rationalism, affirming the anagogic (uplifting) and, in its completion, the apo­phatic nature of dialectics, which ascends to the transcendent source. “Absolute dialectics” from him, acquiring this or that content, appears as metaphysics – “absolute mythology”. As a result of this, thought again meets being, the empty content, formalism and abstractness of thinking are overcome. Losev revealed the ontological potential of Platonism, freeing dialectics from nihilistic interpre­tation. Studying hesychasm allowed him to overcome both impersonalism and the determinism of Hegel’s logic: the basis of dialectics is not negativity, not nothing, but the creativity of the personal principle.