How do we get from one thought to the next? This is the question of method.

What we do not do:

We do not say: There simply are property, contracts and punishments. We do not then take a general principle and apply it to them. That is how people work with material they have picked up from somewhere.

What we do:

We watch how the concept unfolds itself. Each step comes out of the one before. We call what drives this movement dialectic.

What is dialectic?

There is a weak form. It takes an opinion and shows that it is not correct. Then only confusion remains. Or doubt about everything. Or the convenient answer that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Even Plato often proceeds this way.

The strong form goes further. It shows where a thought is too narrow. And from exactly this narrowness it gains the next, richer thought. The lack already shows what is missing. In this way something new arises, and nothing disappears.

We do not make this movement. It is the life of the thing itself. We are like someone who watches a plant grow. The plant puts forth its branches and fruits out of itself. We do not pull on the leaves.

So the thing itself is rational. Here it is freedom, which creates a world for itself. We only bring to consciousness what freedom itself does.

Summary: We do not apply ready-made rules to material from outside. We watch how the concept unfolds. The next step grows out of every limit.