On Reading Hegel’s Logic Phenomenologically

This article develops a phenomenological interpretation of Hegel’s logic. I read the logic in terms of the relation between knowing and being, thus as a form of scientific consciousness in which the particular thinker ascends to universal truth. I demonstrate not only that this reading is textually grounded but also has the benefit of opening questions concerning the relation between the historicity of the logical thinker and the apodicticity of logical contents. I argue that, while the historicity of the thinker implies that logical science is open to revision and expansion, it does so without contradicting the possibility of apodictic truth claims. Rather, the phenomenological interpretation demonstrates how apodicticity is disclosed in the logical experience of that particular, historical thinker.