Hegelianism: A Pervading Theological Influence (original) (raw)
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Idealistic Studies, 2010
Hegel indicates toward the end of his Phenomenology of Spirit that there would be a parallelism in the categories of his later system to the various configurations of consciousness in the Phenomenology. Some general correspondences have been indicated by Otto Pöggeler and suggested by Robert Grant McRae, but I argue in this paper that there are at least four important and more specific parallels, bringing out simultaneously a similarity of content and a difference of approach and methodology in the two works: 1) in the philosophical construal of "categories"; 2) in the conceptualization of a "phenomenology"; 3) in the analysis of the dialectical relationship of religion and art; and 4) in the relationship of the history of philosophy to the Absolute.
The John Hopkins Guide to Critical and Cultural Theory
There is no better way to characterize G.W.F Hegel (1770-1831) than as a philosopher of truth. Like most classical and early modern thinkers, Hegel believed that the task of philosophy was to furnish as comprehensive and true an account of reality as possible. As in Aristotle or Spinoza, truth as a category implied extreme rigor, a uniquely wide breadth of scope-ranging from physics and ontology to politics and logic-and a capacity both to reflect the world as it actually is and to express it in the form of a system. Systematicity was for Hegel proof of thoroughness and of the muscularity of reason, but it also mirrored formally an important aspect of reality itself: the latter, he argued, was also a kind of system-an organized, deeply interconnected, and (to some extent) living (or at least dynamic) whole. From a Hegelian standpoint, truth exists not just in the sense that it is possible, that it can be grasped, shared, and made actionable by humans (or perhaps other rational creatures), but that it is fundamentally thisworldly or immanent, rather than other-worldly or transcendent. Truth was not, as in Platonic Idealism, something that hovered over or preceded the world in the form of a static essence. Nor was it contained, ready-made, in the mind of God, an eternal logic or law that only had to be humbly recited by humans to be known. These ways of understanding truth, thought Hegel, reduced humans to passive instruments of a reality they had no hand in making themselves. Instead, truth was best understood as back-bendingly difficult work-a process that could be understood as simultaneously discovery (of something objectively there in the world) and invention (something we ourselves create and wilfully sustain). Despite Hegel's reputation in some circles as an austere theologian of eternity it is important to keep in mind the deeply existential dimension of Hegel's work, one that helps to explain why he was taken up so readily
Hegel's Phenomenology : Reverberations in His Later System
Idealistic Studies, 2010
Hegel indicates toward the end of his Phenomenology of Spirit that there would be a parallelism in the categories of his later system to the various configurations of consciousness in the Phenomenology. Some general correspondences have been indicated by Otto Pöggeler and suggested by Robert Grant McRae, but I argue in this paper that there are at least four important and more specific parallels, bringing out simultaneously a similarity of content and a difference of approach and methodology in the two works: 1) in the philosophical construal of "categories"; 2) in the conceptualization of a "phenomenology"; 3) in the analysis of the dialectical relationship of religion and art; and 4) in the relationship of the history of philosophy to the Absolute.
An Introduction to Hegel's PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT, complete, in 9 Lectures and 36 Videos
This is an introduction to Hegel’s famous 1807 PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT, which is the Introduction to Hegel’s System of Absolute Science. It is based on a series of lectures I gave during the Spring semester of 2019 at St. John’s University and which also contains LINKS to the 36 videos that accompany my lectures. This module will contain 9 LECTURES with 4 parts to each lecture. LECTURE ONE will be an Introduction and Overview, including Hegel’s famous “Introduction” to the Phenomenology; LECTURE TWO will treat “A: CONSCIOUSNESS”; LECTURE THREE “B: SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS”; LECTURE FOUR “C: AA: REASON: A: Observing Reason”; LECTURE FIVE “C: AA: REASON: B: Active Reason and C: Practical Reason”; LECTURE SIX “C: BB: SPIRIT: A: True Spirit and B: Self-Alienated Spirit”; LECTURE SEVEN “C: BB: SPIRIT: C: Spirit Certain of Itself”; LECTURE EIGHT “C: CC: RELIGION: A: Natural Religion, B: Religion in the Form of Art, and C: The Revealed Religion”; and lastly LECTURE NINE “C: DD: ABSOLUTE KNOWLEDGE. Hegel’s Phenomenology is best described as the journey above PLATO’S Divided Line, out of the Cave of illusion – from sense-individuals, to representations, to thought-universals, finally to the ONE ABSOLUTE CONCEPT, which alone is Reality. The main Goal is the Absolute Concept, Absolute Knowledge, and the Logic of Absolute Science; a second Goal, as we’ll see, is “Reich Gottes” or Kingdom Come and the End of History. Thus the Phenomenology’s itinerary simply traces the stages of the realization of the CONCEPT and Absolute Knowing. In passing, we must note that since the Concept, which is alone Reality, is THOUGHT, those “realist” Hegelians who hold that for Hegel Nature and the World is reality and NOT Thought, are absolutely in error. Hegel is an idealist not a realist, as he says at Enc. §160: “The standpoint of the Concept is ABSOLUTE IDEALISM … (and all else that counts as independent) … is known within the Concept simply as an IDEAL moment.” Also at Enc. §381 he states that, “Nature has vanished (it is simply ideal).” Etc.
Second Lecture. From the Phenomenology of Spirit to the Science of Logic 1.3 Remarks on the Phenomenology of Spirit 2. The Science of Logic 2.1 The beginning of the presuppositionless theory Third Lecture. Hegel's Logic I. Quality 2.2 Negation as the first step within the background logic 2.3 Remarks on the logic of quality Fourth Lecture. Hegel's Logic II. From finitude to essence 2.4 The finite, the infinite and being-for-itself. An overview 2.5 From being to essence Fifth Lecture. Hegel's Logic III. The concept and the progression to nature and spirit 2.6 About the logic of the concept 3. Outlook into the Realphilosophie (of nature and of spirit) 1 These talks were given as video lectures at
Hegel’s Philosophy of Religion as a Phenomenology
Filozofia, 2020
The present article takes up the issue of whether Hegel’s accounts of religion can be regarded as phenomenological analyses. This is a complex issue that concerns both the “Religion” chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Berlin Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion. At first, an account is given of how Hegel understands phenomenology. Then this is used as the basis for an evaluation of his analyses of religion in the Phenomenology and the Lectures. The thesis is that these two analyses, although separated by many years, in fact show clear signs of methodological continuity and can indeed be regarded as phenomenological at least on Hegel’s own definition. This reading offers us a way to resolve the long-standing problem of whether the Phenomenology of Spirit can be seen as a genuinely unified text. Moreover, it shows the little-recognized connection between Hegel’s early philosophy of religion and his later philosophy of religion from his Berlin lectures.