Claim. The core of Hegel’s logic is the dialectical triad of Being, Nothing, and Becoming — where Being (the most abstract, empty thought) is negated as Nothing, and their unity is the first concrete thought, Becoming.
Elaboration. Sang Hun Lee unpacks this opening triad (The Dialectic of Being, Nothing, and Becoming). Hegel begins with Being — that which simply exists. But Being as such is the most abstract of all concepts, entirely indeterminate, empty. Therefore, Hegel says, it is negative — it is Nothing. For Hegel, Being and Nothing are both empty concepts; there is little distinction between them.
The unity of these two opposites is Becoming. Both Being and Nothing are empty abstractions, but Becoming, holding their opposition together, is ‘the first concrete thought.’ From this opening dialectic, Hegel’s general method — thesis/antithesis/synthesis, affirmation/negation/negation-of-negation — comes to be established.
The move from Becoming to Determinate Being then transitions from abstract to concrete: Becoming contains Being and Nothing as a contradiction, and through that contradiction transcends itself to become Determinate Being — Being with a definite form, a qualified Being. The determinateness implies both affirmation (the positive content of something) and limitation (not being something else); thus reality and negation are united in Determinate Being. From there, Being-for-self emerges as Being that maintains itself without changing into another.
Lee flags a specific objection: Hegel separated Being and Nothing, treating them as opposed, when originally ‘Nothing… is merely an interpretation of Being.’ This separation is methodologically suspect — if Being and Nothing are barely distinct, forcing them into thesis/antithesis is artificial. Worth a thread once the counter-atomic on Unification’s alternative reading of Being is in place. The Unification reading will replace contradictory opposition with give-and-take between paired terms (Sungsang/Hyungsang, yang/yin) — opposites that complement rather than negate.
See also. hegels-triadic-system-being-essence-notion, hegel-logic-as-development-of-gods-thought, development-through-harmony-not-contradiction