2119

In his characteristically gentle and winsome manner, Randall is presenting a common criticism of Hegel's philosophy. The dialectic confrontation between thesis and antithesis, in this criticism, does not necessarily result in an improved state of understanding-- it can sometimes result merely in a useless muddle of concepts where the synthesis is even worse. A less-enlightened soul might have presented this criticism in a less charitable fashion (such as the old line that a pint of dog turds mixed with a pint of vanilla ice cream ends up tasting a lot more like the former), but Randall's is sufficiently mature and grounded to approach even the deepest philosophical quandaries with magnanimity.