O dilema do critério em Hegel : uma crítica a K. Westphal e uma proposta de aproximação com R. Chisholm

Abstract

This work intends to contribute to the discussion that occurs in analytic philosophy on the epistemology of Hegel, investigating the Dilemma of the criterion based on the interpretation of Hegelian response to it made by Westphal and suggesting possibilities of dialogue from the approach with the Chisholm. The Dilemma of the criterion relates to the arguments of Sextus Empiricus on the impossibility of deciding whether there is or not a Criterion of truth. The argument support that there is a circularity between demonstration and criterion, which branches to the contradictory requirement that the criterion is conditioned and unconditioned, and is based on the application of skeptical Trilemma of Agrippa. We agree with Westphal that Hegel faces the Dilemma of criterion to propose to verify the legitimacy of different conceptions of knowledge without presupposing a concept of knowledge as a criterion. However we consider his approach ambiguous to identify criteria that have been borne by Hegel. These criteria defined the coherence in pragmatic, internal and reflexive dimensions. In addition, Westphal points to several assumptions not shown in Hegel: a realism that assumes that coherence is only possible if there is correspondence, a trust in the capabilities and cognitive dispositions of consciousness, the idea of a common culture to unite the figures of consciousness, the readers of Phenomenology and Hegel himself and a teleological view of history. These theses are not integrated with fallibilism that Westphal attributes to Hegel and at the same time, they did not solve the Dilemma of criterion. These theses are interesting, also for its critical potential, but we believe that the essence of Hegel's response to the Dilemma of the criterion is in its immanent approach of justification that it is expressed in the Phenomenology in two methodological perspectives: phenomenological exposure and the dialectical phenomenology. This contains three steps: auto exposure of ontological and epistemological assumptions, reductio ad absurdum and determinate negation. All Phenomenology’s assumptions are submitted to an attempted reductio ad absurdum, and what all they assume is shown as absolute knowledge. This notion contains the elimination of the scission between knowledge and object and, with it, the scission between truth and justification, which underlies to transcendent approach to justification, presupposed by the Dilemma of the criterion and the epistemological approaches. Hegel's answer to the Dilemma of the criterion thus assumes an exhaustive reduction to absurd of all transcendent approaches and the legitimacy of the demonstration by refutation. From this, we propose some points of contact between the approach of Hegel and the Chisholm. Firstly, this author has a very restricted view of the nature of the criteria, which could be extended from Hegel's vision. Second, both Chisholm as his critics use forms of immanent approach that could be better respected, including their relationship with skepticism by a dialogue with Hegel. Third, the potential implicit in the Hegelian approach to knowledge could be further exploited through contact with the theoretical and language resources available in contemporary analytic epistemology.