# The Hegelian Dialectic and the Current Condition By:: [[Ross Jackson]] 2022-11-26 Within philosophy, the Hegelian dialectic is a method of interpretation that is used to work through antagonistic positions. The method starts with a proposition (i.e., thesis), advances to its opposite (i.e., antithesis), and is eventually resolved at a new integrative position (i.e., synthesis). This process can continue indefinitely. This process is being worked out to understand the current condition. With the Enlightenment, the human condition was positioned in what is known as modernity. Central Enlightenment principles include the pursuit of knowledge based on reason and experience, along with the ideal of human progress. From the modern perspective, one can reason through things to advance humanity. Taking modernity as the thesis, its antithesis is postmodernity. Unlike modernity, there is less agreement as to what constitutes a postmodern perspective. Whereas it lacks uniformity, postmodern thinking is often marked by skepticism, a suspicion of reason, and an awareness of how ideology is created and maintained to legitimate regimes of power. Postmodern thinking has been useful for critique. It highlights the contestability with the grand narrative of progress within modern thinking. For all its critical import, postmodern thinking precludes the establishment of unity. From a linear perspective, one might ask what is post-postmodern? However, those informed by the Hegelian dialectic have started to work on the synthesis position between modern and postmodern. This emergent perspective is known as metamodernity. Since it is currently being articulated, metamodernity can’t be pinned down with the level used for modernity and postmodernity. At its core, so it seems, metamodernity attempts to address the crisis of meaning generated through postmodern thinking through the reestablishment of the modern notion of progress. In the process, human vulnerability and ironic sincerity are focused on means of being and communication which establish solidarity and authenticity. The current condition calls for something different. Ideally, working through the Hegelian dialectic allows humans to understand, reconcile, and advance. Our society is currently fragmented. It has been before. Our society can be more unified, as we have experienced at our better moments. Perhaps metamodern thinking offers a path toward this. At a minimum, it shows that others are concerned with this moment in social history. How we move and how we understand those movements is contingent on our perspective – modern, postmodern, and metamodern. This appears to be a rich area in which to not overthink. #### Related Items [[Philosophy]] [[Solidarity]] [[Authenticity]] [[Metamodernism]] [[Enlightenment]] [[Progress]]