Hegel’s doctrines of absolute negativity and “the concept” are among his most original contributions to philosophy and constitute the systematic core of dialectical thought. Written by Alexander Von Humboldt research fellow Brady Bowman, this work explores the interrelations between these doctrines, their implications for Hegel’s critical understanding of classical logic and ontology, natural science, and mathematics as forms of “finite cognition,” and their role in developing a positive, “speculative” account of consciousness and its place in nature.