Introduction: The Formalization of Dialectics

The idea at the basis of this special issue is that reopening the old debate about the logical status of Hegel's dialectics is extremely interesting, for various reasons. The first reason is that a new Hegel is circulating, nowadays, in the philosophical literature, with specific reference to Hegel's dialectical logic and its relation to the history and philosophy of logic. This development deserves to be accounted for. Secondly, new research about the connection between contradictory logical systems and Hegel's dialectics is also being developed, and this too deserves to be acknowledged. Finally there are, recently, confirmations that the concept of dialectics is of general interest, and that the usual perplexities about the Hegelian triadic and fairly mechanic device of ‘yes, not, and not not’ are in remission.