Full Idea
Hegel relies on the claim that every concept depends for its determinacy upon its relation to other concepts which it is not (so that even the concept of being depends, for example, upon the concept of nothing).
Gist of Idea
Every concept depends on the counter-concepts of what it is not
Source
report of Georg W.F.Hegel (Science of Logic [1816]) by Andrew Bowie - Introduction to German Philosophy 4 'Questions'
Book Reference
Bowie,Andrew: 'Introduction to German Philosophy' [Polity 2003], p.90
A Reaction
How does he know this? A question I keep asking about continental philosophers. The negation concepts must be entirely non-conscious. Which negation concepts are relevant to the concept 'tree'?