The 'Hegelian dialectic style of logical reasoning' is associated with the philosophy of G.W. Hegel (1770-1831) and was/is one of the most important, revolutionary ideas in the history of Western Philosophy. It ranks right up there with the 'Copernican Revolution' and 'The Darwinian Revolution' -- indeed, The Hegelian Dialectic Revolution was a philosophical precursor to The Darwinian Revolution and far less biologically restrictive, rather, much more broadly and solidly based in all areas of 'living mutations' and 'human philosophical, biological, medical, cultural, political, legal, economic, psychological, mythological, spiritual, religious, and artistic revolution...and evolution...the idea being that it is through 'revolution' -- and this means 'philosophical' and 'conceptual' revolution as well as 'physical revolution' -- that you get 'evolution'...
Karl Marx would later 'turn Hegelian Dialectic Idealism on its head' -- or at least 'reduce' it to only one particular 'human spectrum' by emphasizing 'Socialist and Communist Idealism' as restricted to the realm of 'dialectic-materialistic-economic revolution and evolution' as opposed to Hegel's much more general, all-encompassing, and non-partisan idealistic form of revolution and evolution.
'Hegel's dialectic philosophy and logic was eventually captured in the famous 'dialectic formula': 1. 'thesis'; 2. 'anti-thesis'; and 3. 'synthesis' (which was never directly stated in this fashion by Hegel).
Indeed, if you combine Hegel's idea of the dialectic with Walter Bradford's idea of 'homeostasis', you have arguably the most powerful 'one-two' punch of ideas in the history of Western philosophy.
Now I have never seen Hegel's philosophy of the dialectic from 'The Phenomenology of Mind' (1807) combined in the same sentence with Cannon's concept and philosophy of 'homeostasis' found in his book 'The Wisdom of The Body' (1932). But to me, it is an obvious 'integrative fit'.
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Homeostasis
The concept of homeostasis was first articulated by the French scientist Claude Bernard (1813-1878) in his studies of the maintenance of stability in the milieu interior. The term itself was coined by American physiologist Walter Cannon, author of The Wisdom of the Body(1932).
"Homeostasis" is derived from the Greek words for "same" and "steady." The term refers to ways the body acts to maintain a stable internal environment in spite of environmental variations and disturbances. Both the mind/brain and the body are endowed with a multitude of automatic mechanisms of feedback-inhibition that counteract influences tending toward disequilibrium.
Homeostatic stability is advantageous in the realm of osmoregulation, temperature-control, and the regulation of blood sugar levels. (From the internet.)
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In the same manner, that the mind and body is controlled internally by homeostatic counter-balancing functions, the same thing can be witnessed to be true on a social and cultural level in every aspect of man's existence, and indeed, arguably on every level in the planet's existence.
'Homeostasis' or 'homeostatic balance' seems to be one of the lowest common denominator principles of life.
We can talk about the balance of politics, the balance of law, the balance of the market, the balance of power, the balance of nature, and in these different regards, distinguish between 'political homeostasis', 'legal homeostasis', 'economic and market homeostasis', 'power homeostasis', and 'ecological homeostasis'.
Furthermore, it can easily be argued, as Hegel mainly has (I am just putting a few more philosophical pieces together here and adding some exclamation marks onto the end of these philosophical pieces), that all of man's external, internal, social and cultural homeostatic functions (such as all of the ones listed above) are interconnected with both the idea and the phenomenon of the dialectic.
In short, it is through the methodology and/or process of the dialectic that homeostasis manages itself back and forth from thesis to anti-thesis to synthesis, and alternatively, from polar extremism to homeostatic (dialectic) balance.
Indeed, the Hegelian Philosophy of 'Dialectic Evolution' is every much as viable a theory of evolution as Darwin's Theory of Evolution. In fact, Hegel's theory of dialectic evolution: 1. preceded Darwin's theory of genetic evolution; 2. can be viewed as encompassing Darwin's theory of evolution; and 3. is intellectually, pragmatically, existentially, and generically superior to Darwin's theory of genetic evolution.
In short, Hegel's theory of evolution is a better theory of evolution than Darwin's mainly because: 1. it is much broader in its 'worldly, historical, and evolutionary scope'; and 2. it has much more general and specific functional application value.
Indeed, if there was an 'Intelligent Designer' ('God' if you will) who created the world, and/or even the entire universe, it would seem very, very possible and logical that He/She/It designed it according to, first and foremost, the principle of homeostasis, and secondly the principle of the dialectic as the 'cosmic homeostatic, thermostatic methodology of moving from polar extremism to homeostatic-dialectic balance as a means of maintaining optimal health and fitness on all levels of human, animal, plant, and ecological life'.
This has been a 'subconscious to conscious' 37 year project on my part getting philosophically to where I just brought you here. It started with one of the first books I read in high school that really excited me -- 'Psycho-Cybernetics' by Maxwell Maltz. Maltz preached many of the same ideas about 'balance'...shifting off balance towards one extreme or another...and then 'counter-balancing' to bring things 'back on the right track again'.
I have just broadened the scope of what Maltz was talking about and applied Maltz's principle 'psycho-cybernetics' which can be traced back to both Cannon's theory of homeostasis and, before that, to Hegel's principle of the dialectic which if we want to keep going back deeper and deeper into history, we can probably also trace back to Hegel's main German influences, Schelling perhaps, Fichte and Kant for sure, and if we really want to go back to both the beginning of Western and Eastern philosophy, we could definitely add the ideas of Heraclitus and Anaxamander from Greece, and Lao Tse and the creators of Daoism from China (specifically, the ideas of 'yin' (feminine energy) and 'yang' (masculine energy) providing the healthy balance of all mankind (and indeed, the whole cosmos).
To summarize, if you want to know what the 'four major cornerstones' of DGB Philosophy-Psychology...are, they are this: Hegel's dialectic philosophy integrated with Cannon's principle of 'homeostasis' such that we can talk about 'homeostatic-dialectic balance' which reaches back as far as both Ancient Greek philosophy (Anaxamander and Heraclitus) as well as ancient Chinese dialectic philosophy which arguably probably dates back earlier than the earliest Greek philosophy (Thales and Anaxamander are on record as being the earliest known Greek philosophers), and/or/but which likely includes such major Chinese philosophers as Confucius and Lao Tse (and/or whoever else was involved in the creation of the principles of 'yin' and 'yang' -- and the beginning of 'Daoism'. There is some historical uncertainty in the earliest beginnings of 'yin', 'yang', and 'Daoism').
Thus, we can identify the four major cornerstones of dialectic philosophy -- and in particular DGB Post-Hegelian Dialectic Philosophy as;
1. Pre-Socratic (Ancient Greek) Dialectic Philosophy;
2. Ancient Chinese Philosophy ('yin', 'yang', 'Daoism');
3. Hegel and the rest of German Idealistic (and 'Counter-Idealistic') Philosophy as most notably detailed in Hegel's 'The Phenomenology of Spirit';
4. Cannon's theory of 'homeostasis' and 'homeostatic balance' as most notably detailed in his most famous book, 'The Wisdom of The Body'.
-- DGB, Sept 26th, 2006, updated April 13th and Dec. 29th, 2009.
-- David Gordon Bain
Monday, April 13, 2009
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