Abstract

The central thesis is, Hegel determines the ground for Speculative Philosophy in three distinct moments, each representing a level of explication of the experience Being. These moments are, the immediate experience of Being, the mediate reflection of Being on itself, or Essence, the unity of these immediate and mediate moments in the Idea. In , subject and object are implicitly united. In , subject and object are recognized as united, but through the mediacy of reflection. In , the Idea marks the explicit unity of subject and object. We show what this means as a ground for Speculative Philosophy. We focus on Hegel's Logic since this is where Hegel establishes this ground. ;We argue that for Hegel, the main transition from the implicit unity of subject and object occurs in the sections on Essence. There Hegel shows that Realism forms the ground of common sense. Realism is based on a strict separation between subject and object, which does not accord with the experience of Being. Consequently, Realism must be false, so the ground of common sense must be purely phenomenal. Hegel then moves to the actual ground. We argue that Hegel explicates this actual ground through the explicit unity of subject and object {the Idea} that was found to be implicit in the original experience of Being, and was first presented in sections on Being. ;Our approach to the Logic is, insofar as the subject and object are united, the Logic cannot be either a metaphysics or a psychology. This contrasts with those commentators who approach the Logic in only one of these ways. We select G. R. G. Mure to represent the "metaphysics" approach, and J. Burbidge to represent the "psychology" approach. We argue in favour of an approach uniting the two. This explains what Hegel does by providing instructions for readers on the relation between phenomenal and actual grounds, and the significance of this as a basis for reading Hegel. This allows us to explain why the subject-object unity forms an actual ground, and what this means for Speculative Philosophy