Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 08 One question repeatedly arose while reading Gurvitch’s critique of Plato and Plotinus: Can one consistently be both a dialectician and a believer in God? The question, however, becomes more illuminating when reformulated. The decisive issue is not whether one believes in God, but what kind ofContinue reading “Excursus 112 – On Closed and Open Dialectics”
Tag Archives: Georges Gurvitch
Excursus 068 – On the Original Meaning of “Dialectic”
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 14 The modern reader often associates the word dialectic with contradiction, conflict, and negation, largely under the influence of Hegel and the later Marxist tradition. Etymologically, however, the term points in a much broader direction. The Greek dialektikē (διαλεκτική) derives from the verb dialegesthai (διαλέγεσθαι), meaning “toContinue reading “Excursus 068 – On the Original Meaning of “Dialectic””
Excursus 067 – On Conflict and Reciprocity as Forms of Movement
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 14 Throughout the history of dialectical thought, conflict has often been treated as its defining characteristic. From Plato through Kant, Fichte, Hegel, and Marx, the vocabulary of dialectic increasingly came to revolve around opposition, negation, contradiction, and struggle. By the nineteenth century, conflict was frequently regarded notContinue reading “Excursus 067 – On Conflict and Reciprocity as Forms of Movement”
Excursus 059 – On Change in the Space of Possibilities
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 07 – 18 Gurvitch dismisses Hegel’s dialectic as “a carefully disguised dance in place,” arguing that all movement ultimately returns to the Absolute and therefore produces no genuine novelty. The present observation accepts Gurvitch’s criticism of Hegel’s teleological conception of history. It questions only the generality of the metaphorContinue reading “Excursus 059 – On Change in the Space of Possibilities”
Excursus 043 – From Pedagogical Models to Ontological Commitments
Hossein Jorjani First publication: 2026 – 06 – 30 Scientific education commonly proceeds by means of simplified models. Because complex systems are difficult to understand in their full generality, instruction often begins with deliberately unrealistic cases that isolate a single principle while suppressing complicating factors. Such models serve an indispensable pedagogical function: they provide theContinue reading “Excursus 043 – From Pedagogical Models to Ontological Commitments”
Hossein Jorjani 