"It is clear that no expositions can be regarded as scientific which do not follow the course of this method [the dialectical process], and which are not conformable to its simple rhythm, for that is the course of the thing itself." "I could not of course imagine that the method which in the system of logic I have followed is not capable of much elaboration in detail, but at the same time I know that it is the only true method." (George Hegel as quoted in Carl Friedrich, The Philosophy of Hegel)
"The Method is no-way different from its object and content;―for it is the content in itself; the dialectic it has in itself, that move it on." (George Hegel, Reading Hegel, The Introduction) The "content," i.e., the "thing in itself" is a persons dissatisfaction with the way the world "is," and the desire for 'change," i.e. for motion ("that move it on"), with him thinking (reflecting upon, dialoguing within himself) about how the world "ought" to be: "For it is not what is that makes us impetuous and causes us distress, but the fact that it is not as it ought to be." (George Hegel, The German Constitution) The greater the distance between the "is" and "ought" the more the person will be motivated to 'change' the world, i.e. to 'change' the situation. The greater the negativity (dissatisfaction) the person has toward the world that "is," the more the person becomes an individual: "a greater inner negativity and therefore a higher individuality" (George Hegel, System of Ethical Life). Losing identity with (hope in) the way the world "is," the "is" looses meaning and value, with the "ought" itself becoming 'reality,' i.e., the drive and the purpose of life. "What can no longer be related to a concept [begriffen] no longer exists." The method is therefore the "is" and the "ought" being posited (tossed back and forth in the mind) until the "ought" becomes the "is," i.e., becomes 'reality,' negating the world that "is," i.e., that was.
"Human reason [a persons dissatisfaction with the way the world "is," therefore thinking about how it "ought" to be]— the consciousness of one's being is indeed reason; it is the divine in man, and spirit. In so far as it is the Spirit of God, it is not a spirit beyond the stars, beyond the world. On the contrary, God is present, omnipresent, and exists as spirit in all spirits." (George Hegel, Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion: A. The Relation of the Philosophy of Religion to its Presuppositions and to the Principles of the Time. I. — The Severance of Religion from the Free, Worldly Consciousness)
In this way of thinking, God is man 'discovering' himself, i.e. man is God 'discovering' Himself, i.e. the particular and universal becoming one through dialectic 'reasoning.' According to dialectic 'reasoning,' without the God above man, restraining "human nature," i.e. engendering dissatisfaction in man, and therefore causing man to think about how the world "ought" to be, i.e., man could not come to know himself as he is, dialectic (reasoning) in nature, i.e. 'liberating' himself from the world that "is," i.e. 'liberating' man from God's authority (the child from the parent's authority). In this way the outcome itself is not the objective, the method is. It engenders the outcome "in and for itself."
As Tillich stated it: "The answer to man's predicament lies in the realization by individual man, that all men are essentially one and that the one is God. This self-realization is a 'return' to union: potential becomes actual ["ought" becomes "is"]." (Leonard Wheat, Paul Tillich's Dialectical Humanism: Unmasking the God above God)
Therefore, if you refuse to 'reason' dialectically, i.e. refuse to question God's (or your parent's) commands and rules, and question His facts and truth, i.e. challenge His authority in your feelings, thoughts, and actions, and in your relationship with others, i.e. you refuse to identify with and become a part of 'reality,' you are of no worth to the world that is "becoming."
© Institution for Authority Research, Dean Gotcher 2015