The Generation of Objectivity and the Principle of No Transcendental Objects: A Framework for Unifying logic and Hegel's Dialectical Account of Contradiction
Abstract
AbstractA longstanding tension divides logic and Hegel’s dialectical account of contradiction. logic treats the law of non-contradiction as a foundational constraint on coherent thought, whereas Hegelian dialectics takes contradiction to be universal and constitutive of development. Addressing this divergence, this paper proposes a unifying framework. Drawing selectively on phenomenology and radical constructivism, it takes insights concerning directedness and the viability of knowledge, extends them to the ontological level, and advances the Principle of No Transcendental Objects. On this basis, the paper reconstructs both logic and Hegelian dialectics within a single generative account of objectivity.Under the Principle of No Transcendental Objects, logic articulates the conditions under which cognition generates and stabilizes objects, whereas dialectics characterizes the structurally inevitable processes by which object-identity destabilizes, collapses, and is reconstituted. In this sense, logic functions as a morphology of cognitive success, while dialectics functions as a dynamics of cognitive failure. The two are therefore not competing metaphysical descriptions but complementary perspectives on the same process of object-generation. The framework resolves the traditional opposition between logic and dialectics regarding contradiction and offers an ontological basis for their systematic integration.Keywords: logic; contradiction; dialectics; Principle of No Transcendental Objects; objectivity; identity;
Fields of Study & Subjects
Philosophical Ethics and Theory
Philosophy and Historical Thought
Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research)
- Publication date
- 3 January 2026
- Document type
- Preprint