Speculation / Speculative
Hegel (methodological concept)
Speculation in Hegel is not mere conjecture or fantasy, but the highest form of thought: comprehending cognition, which thinks the unity of opposites. Speculative thinking means not avoiding contradictions but grasping them as the motor of development. The speculative proposition breaks through the usual subject-predicate form: the subject does not remain fixed, but develops within the predicate. "The true is the whole" - a speculative proposition.
Origin
From Lat. *speculum* (mirror) and *speculari* (to spy, to look). In medieval philosophy: contemplative vision of the divine. Hegel transforms this: speculation is not passive vision, but active movement of thought that reflects on itself - the mirror that mirrors itself.
In Hegel
Enz. §82
Cross-references
Dialectic · Method · Vernunft · Contradiction · Concept