Hegel, Haiti, and the Anti-dialectic

Authors: Mocombe PC

DOI: 10.23880/phij-16000285

Volume 6, Issue 1

Abstract

This work, using the case study of the Haitian Revolution, positions Paul C. Mocombe’s theory of antidialectic within Hegel’s dialectical reasoning. Mocombe posits that the antidialectical position in Hegel’s dialectic is the position of each selfconsciousness when they initially encounter each other at the onset of the master/slave dialectic. Whereas, the master seeks to move to the dialectical position in order to dominate and eliminate the original (antidialectical) position of the slave, the slave remains in this antidialectical position so long as they accept death and seek to fight against their enslavement for the purpose of maintaining and reproducing their original, antidialectical, position, which is social, political, economic, and ideological. In any other instances, they (the slaves) are either in the dialectical, seeking to maintain the status quo, or negative dialectical, seeking to integrate the status quo on equal footing with the master, positions. 

Keywords: African-Americanization; Phenomenological Structuralism; Vodou; Religiosity; Black Diaspora; Dialectical; Anti-dialectical; Haitian Epistemology; Vilokan/Haitian Idealism

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