Abstract

It is not usual to associate Hegel’s dialectic with the philosophical trend called nominalism. Nevertheless, nominalism plays an indispensable role in the modern philosophical developments leading up to Hegel’s Science of Logic. Even more, it continues its career within that logic. It would be simply absurd to label Hegel a nominalist, but the challenge posed by nominalism is not simply opposed by Hegel, i.e., it is not opposed without qualification. Of course, one never expects Hegel to confront anything directly. Instead, the nominalist strain is integrated into the movement of his thought in order to be overcome by speculative reason. But what is this overcoming, this sublation? It seems to be the ambitious attempt of thought to cancel out a thought-content, while somehow preserving it and at the same time transforming it. This very ambition has led critics, such as Heidegger and Derrida, to home in on what they take to be a major point of vulnerability in the Hegelian drive for system.