{"id":1143303,"date":"2026-07-31T09:36:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T16:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/?post_type=msr-research-item&#038;p=1143303"},"modified":"2026-09-09T17:03:56","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T00:03:56","slug":"self-reflecting-large-language-models-a-hegelian-dialectical-approach-2","status":"publish","type":"msr-research-item","link":"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/research\/publication\/self-reflecting-large-language-models-a-hegelian-dialectical-approach-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hegelian Self-Reflection for Improved Mathematical and Symbolic Reasoning, and Scientific Discovery in Large Language Models"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In this paper, we introduce a self-reflection framework for Large Language Models (LLMs) grounded in the Hegelian Dialectic, a philosophical method in which an initial proposition is challenged by a generated opposition, and both are reconciled into a unified, more comprehensive idea. We formalize this process as an iterative operator over the space of consistent theories and apply it to two complementary tasks: (i)generating novel scientific ideas across domains such as mathematics, physics, economics, and philosophy, and (ii)improving reasoning by enabling LLMs to identify and correct their own errors through structured self-critique.<br>We study generation temperature through two configurations (a dynamic annealing schedule that shifts from creative exploration to refinement, and a constant temperature), to examine the effect of fixed versus dynamic temperature rather than advocate either. To evaluate ideas without domain experts, we introduce Multi-Agent Majority Voting (MAMV), in which multiple LLMs independently assess the validity and novelty of each synthesis. Our experiments show significant gains over baselines on mathematical (GSM-8k, GSM-hard), symbolic (GSM-Symbolic), and knowledge-intensive (MMLU Pro) reasoning, with promising qualitative results in open-ended scientific ideation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In this paper, we introduce a self-reflection framework for Large Language Models (LLMs) grounded in the Hegelian Dialectic, a philosophical method in which an initial proposition is challenged by a generated opposition, and both are reconciled into a unified, more comprehensive idea. We formalize this process as an iterative operator over the space of consistent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1185746,"template":"","meta":{"msr-url-field":"","msr-podcast-episode":"","msrModifiedDate":"","msrModifiedDateEnabled":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"_classifai_error":"","msr-author-ordering":[{"type":"user_nicename","value":"Sara Abdali","user_id":"42405"},{"type":"text","value":"Can Goksen","user_id":0},{"type":"text","value":"Michael Solodko","user_id":0},{"type":"text","value":"Saeed Amizadeh","user_id":0},{"type":"text","value":"Julie E. 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