Hyppolite Jean Studies on Marx and Hegel

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STUDIES ON MARXAND

HEGL

Jea Hypoliterasad, wh a Iroduco, Noad Bbography, by

JON ONELL

HARPER TORCHBOOKSHarper Row, Publishers

New York, Evanston, Sa Francisco, Londo


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This book was published in harcr by Basic Books, Inc. It is herereprinted by arrangement Orginally published in French under the titleudes sur Mr e ege by Marcel Rivire et Cie in 1955.

STUDES ON MARXAND HEGELCopyright 1969 by Basic Books IncAll rights reservd. Printed in the United States of America. No part fthis book ma be used or reproduced in any manner without written

pemssion except in the case of brief quotations embodied in criticalarticles and reviews. For informataion address Harper Row PublishersInc. 10 East 53rd Street New York N.Y. 10022. Published simultaneouslyin Canada by Fitzhenry Whiteside Limited Toronto.First HARPER TORCHBOOK edition published 1973.

STANDARD BOOK NUMBER 06-131766-7


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PREFACE

to e

Ensh Etio

Jean Hyppolite

1907 e Itlian phlosopher Benedetto Croce pubshed essay enitled "What Is Livig and What Is Dead n the Philosophyof Hegel e time had come, it seemed, to make a l reckoning of Hegel's iuence (wich was considerable evehere Europe exet France) nd what might suvive of his lega.Croce could not envisage a Hegelan renaissce; he was unable to

oresee at by a sange parado Hegel wold become associatedwih the eisteniist cuent whose pre


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v Preface to the ngish dition

arantee however e risks are ccated. e names associatedwith movement n France ar ose of Sartre and MeeauPon, e movement being no enemy of Masm. What it keptom Maism was ony the aysis of concrete historica situaons, reecon upon the econoic bases of human existence, andespeciy the necessi of e beraon of mnd through theroetaria suppression of its own historic ienaon. About thsme e eary works of Hege and M were iscovered. Thegenesis of the Hegeia system om e Theologicl Witing (avery quesonabe te) to The Phenomenology of Mind 1807,

and the orins of M nd Enges diectic materaism omthe itique of Hegel Philoophy of Right rough e Economicnd Philoophicl Mnupt to the itue of PoliticlEconomy of 1859 (the germ of itl) constuted a genunereveation for an enre generation. Before deveopng his systemHege had described a unhappy reigious and historic consciousness remscent of emes in Kierkegaard or Feuerbach.

Jean W pubshed The Unhppy oncioune in the Philo-ophy of Hegel 1929. The present auor transated The Phe-nomenology of Mind nto French for the st me and attempteda historic commentary upon its puzing descripon of the sagaof e huma mid as a terresi repeon of Dante's DivineComedy Even ough work cuminates n a absoute owedge which seems to swow exstence, it remans of vue fr the

concrete deti and diversions n e joey of cosciousness. eves the reaons between individua consciousness and nateand especiy with oer ndividu consciousnesses. It providesa descrion much more tha a deduction of the concrete basesof a history constuted by e enconter of individuas i asge to e death for ecognion, an absoute war which, asi ausewitz, is conceived as the exeme imt. Indeed, such a

strgge woud bring huma hstory to an impasse; the war woudhave to end for wnt of combatants. at is why at rst recogionis not reciproca; there are masters and saves, but e savewho works ends by dominang the master because he acteshis negavi a product which subsists rather than through thenoigess of death. e product, nsment, too, machie, deed, every means becomes a substaa end. History is the wok


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Pre/ace to te ngis dition

of each and of a; it provides is own spectace and epresentaonin egion in and ay one day in phosophy But e ee

ment of ragedy does not disapper; it survives n he eaonbeteen conscousness engaged n acn nd contempave consciousness hs phenomenolo as Ma understood it Hegeoften described with great dei some of e fundamenta chaacteriscs of he human condition n parcuar hose of theenaon of mn hrough condons of work and exstenceMarx's Economc nd Philoophicl Mnucipt are noing eehan a comentry on The Phenomenolo of Mind

Kojve's Intoduction to the Reding of Hegel2 contanectes given n the 1930's that wee extremey uent at hate Going beyond a itera eading Kojve spoke of Hege'ahesm and Hege' nteretaton of e Napoeonic Empre whichat that te (1807) he aw a e lent of e French Revouon

e discove of he eary wrings of Hege and Ma ha

enabed West European inkers to understand n tes oehan ose of the ystematcEnclopedi and he schemac dectcof Enges what was he meaning of Hege's Phenomenolo andMrx's hitoicl mteilim. has enabed us to rase in a freshway he probem of he reaon between Hege and Marx Themuch too smpe idea of a diecca eversa eading om hemonism of he Hegen Sprit to the materast monism of Marx

has perhaps been revised It is he theme of ienaton and heconquest of ienaton whch s now at he center of ou attenonActuy it had been he inspiraton of Marx's eary works Buthere s n ebb and ow and e generaton whch succeedne exstentst generaton is so tang notce of e greatpobems of structure hat are donnt in Mrx's pitl andHege's Logic. Moreover on hs issue which coser to e

nterest of East European commentators it seems at rcentanayses w aow us to pose he probem of the reationshpbeteen Hege and Ma somewhat derenty than herto

Havng dscovered he pas foowed by the young Hege andMarx we are preseny engaged n eection upon he consquences of these exporatory joueys nd upon he great works of

her maturity ney Hege's Logic and Ma' pitl


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v Peface to the ngsh dition

its very mportant st phase in itique of Politicl Economy1859) The de of exisentialism now yields before e rise notof essenaism (displaced forever) bu of sructraism At e

oment there are only a few insances of approach to thescturlist featres of Hegels Logic and Marx's pitl so atwe shl draw upon two essays of Louis Alhsser published n LPene whch n our opnion sae the issue quite clearly. Masconceon of the dialecic is not e same as Hegel's we consider its atal role in his analysis of human sociey and caitIt s no a case of he same mehod applied to a sysem which s

jst the reverse of he oher Hegel s ndeed an idest and aost For hm here exists a ingle pinciple an indivisibegenec tolity which experiences sef-division and sef-opposion order naly o be renegrated wih iself (a process whichn his noes on Hegel righly fond very obscure) involvesan bolute ubject at enaes itsef and becomes is own phenomenon in order to reconquer iself e spri loses isef and

ds isef. e joey of absolue spirit is such hat it has already retued at the me it starts ot What we have here is aheolo and when East uropean comentaors subsue maer

for Hegels absolue spri and ret e dilecic of he One whichnegaes isef nd recovers isef n he negaon of e negaion,like Hegel, hey ar lso theologin ey presere n Heel whatMarx felt obiged to reject They enrench hemselves n a dogma

sm sar to theologicl meaphysicsWhat deserves admiraion in Hegel nd even n Logic shis unfaihfness to is monism, parcarly the docne onssence There he describes srucres in which he essenial andunessen are reecedin one anoher, in which the exisenicondiions of a dominant contradicon are an elemen in econadiction isef In Marx ere is neer ny queson of absole subject, Maer or Spri, which migh follow a coninos dialecical development ere ar never anyhing butconcree pre-exisng scres Thre is no indivisible genecToaliy, but many oliies; for example, hman sociey hecapiist phase ese oaiies are no essences bu strcresin which, as L Alhsser has shown, e dominan contradcion,or example, beween he relaions and he forces of producon is


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eface he ngish dito

reeced in is eiseni condiions, which are no longer conngen superscures arbirarily ed o er nrascure edoinan conadicion can shi, can appear in various aspecs(Mar was no insensible o hese characerisc eaures o hsory, as can easly be seen om reading wha he wroe on hecass suggles in France and he emergence o Napoleon where he eplanaion is ar om smplisc) Sucure is no heapearance o a unique subjec bu an original ensemble, a oalio a quie deren pe om Hegels spriual principle I iswihin is oai ha developmen akes place wheher n phases

were anagonsm is sl only a dierence or where i appears asan over suggle or as an eplosion which nvolves he Toaliin a muaon one were o reu o he oen remarkable commena by on Hegels Loc one could rediscover conceps o his order when, or eampl he shows he relaon be

/

teen a naural developmen and a spiriual developmen, orwhere in a ical image, in connecion wih e logic o Essence

he insiss upon he imporance o he posiion and movemen oevey d in a riverOn ug er aenion o hese sudies o srucureand

o saegyWese sudens are perhaps in closer rappor whEas European commenaors on he HegMa aon On onepoin, however hey keep eir disance ey rejec Engelsdialeccal schemaism e moism and deeminism ha are

more Hegean han Maan We may add a hese sudies osrucreand saegywhich make a science o Maism andundoubedly corespond o Mars own hinking seem o us obe lacking where hey elmnae he youhul mpulses and heeisenal reecon upon alienaion Indeed wha would be hemeaning o hsory and he signcance o he revoluionay movemen i ere no cared in esence hough he awareness

o aienaion and he resolves o sumoun i? JeanPaul Saremigh ask how he orise can emerge om he inise or oman eisence aneceden o consciousnss Ma who a e me

o he Paris ommune had hough he revol premare andneeca immediaely ook is ar once i had broken ou andhe was able o se in i he basis o a new revoluonay adionere is a universal value or us in reecion upon he re


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x Prfac to th ngsh do

aionshi beween Hege and M. is no jus a hisocaegacy. I invoves a robem ha can aways be re-exaedand which can acquire esh meanng a any given me in hisory.

N O T E

1 Jean Hyppolite, Gese e srucure de a pomooge de espr de

Hege (Pris, 946) Alexandre Kojve, Inroduco o e Readg of Hege, edited and withan inoduction by Allan Bloom (New York: Basic Books, 969)

3 Louis thuser "Conadiction e surdterminaon, Pese (December 962) pp. 32; Sur la dilectique matrialiste (De l'igalitdes origies), bd (Augus 963) pp 546

V I. Lenin, Conspectus of Hegel's Scece of Logc, PlosopcaNoebooks, Coeced Works, Vol (Moscow Foreign Lan

gages Publishing House, 96)


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INTROUCION

eel and Ma on isto

as uman isto

John O'Ne

e rediscovery of the concept of alienation by Maists in searchof a amework for e intepretaon and criqe of sociaistreali hs been chalenged an aempt to refbish a speclativeHegeian noon whic ax abanded for e more rcise con

cept of explotaion e "historical Ma, hat to say, Ma ofthe ommunt Mnifeto and pitl whom Maists emselveshave given to history, is now to be forsaken for a histo made otof the revoltionary event of Marxs discove of alienaon in he

prope system and the topian sggestion that the colectvizaonof proper wold end alienaon and the prehisto of man1ese events might be taken to indicate hat here at any rate Masciqe of Hegel appears to have baced and that Hegels oginalconcept of aienaon as an ontological expeience is the moreeneral concept hat Marxists now need for he nderstanding ofthe nhappy sociaist consiosness

I thi it can be arged hat what is saly set forth as Masredenion of he Hegeian concept of alienaion is nohing else

a progression to be fond in The Phenomenolo of Mind his is indeed so, en he "existenist version of Hegelsconcept of aienaon is not wholy e to Hegels accont of herelaon beween the indvidal and sociey and cannot be em

A disussio paper for e Cooquium o Hege M ad CoemporarPhiosophy Xh Ieaioa Cogress of Phiosophy Vie epember 2-9968)


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Introductin

ployed to revise Mrx. e atempt to correct late Mrx wih earlyMa aears to be a correction in favor of egel oly f Heelhisef is corrected ters of a readg of e early phenoenological escripton of the "Unhapy Consciousness. But f thisdiscussion is folowed throu to the historic description of sefesaneent and culture enexperience of alienaon is neiher indvidul nor socil in ori

but the historical eiaon of socie and the indviul roughthe process of work as self-expression or culture (Bildung) which alienaon s ulately suspended. Now I ait that is

ore colete account of Hegels concept of lienaton s closerto that of M thn perhas Marx hself understood in theEconomic nd Philoophicl Mnucipt But f we usconsider Marx's phlosohicl and econoic thought as a unty,2as I we ust, then our Hegelian ends ust do the sae forHegel. We ay then proceed in agreeent, as Mrx was fond ofsaying to Engels.

I deg wih the convergence between Hegel and Mrxand I wnt to show that the "existenlist version of is phenoenon is not proery grouned n eiher Hegel or Marx e consequences of is ay be seen in Sarre's stuggle te itiquede l ion dilectique to unite the ontological alenation involved the diectc of rcognition of the other wih a concept ofintersubjectivi as the necessary ground of poltic action an

orgation.e ulate goal of self-consciousness is to recover the uniof the self and the world which it scovers abstracly in the uniof the nd and is objects. e recove of the word is ediateby desire which reveals the word as y praxis. But this is stl olyabsactly a wod unl y interests are recognized by the oter.The ialecc of recogniion apears as a life and death suggle

because of desire which bis consciousness to the wold of thngsand sultaneously revels its transcendence as the negation ofings andthe Other But the categories of subject and object, negaton, sef, oher and recognion are not a riori categories of exerience. They rise in the course of the sefterretaonby conscious

ness of its odes of lived exeience whch volve consciousness in aialecc between tenonali and an irreducible ontologic f


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Hege and on Histo Human Histo xii

ference which generates the wod and e recognion of e Other.For consciousness did not encounter the resstance of gs andothers, it could oly know hngs percepuly and others by

anlogy and it would have no orgnic or socil ife. But this mensat consciousness can neer be satsed in a desire for objects andthe Oer. For in ths it would only cosume itself wheres itneds a common word n whch hngs and ohers reect consciousness back upon itsef. "Selfconsciousness, which is bsolutely foritself, and chctees its object drectly as negae, or is primly dese, wl rely, therefore, nd hrough experence his

object's ndependence3 Desre then is ot the acli of sefconsciousness but oly its potentli for actug itsef in acommon word and ntersubjectii. Hence the sggle to thedea which origntes in dese is exteriorized in the relaon toobjecs established beeen the Master nd the Slae which preseestheir independence in the form of a iing dependency " experience sef-consciousness becomes aware at lfe is as esen

tal to it as pure self-consciousness.4With respect (fear) for lfe t is bo om the sggle to the

death there is itated a frther dilecc which the Slae'sapprentceship to things makes possible the praccal obseratonof the laws of ther operaion. ough he works for another, thelae les to work wih objects whose independence now sub

its to his producon ough not to his consumpon. By the smetoken he Masters ndependence of ngs mediated by e laebecomes hs dependence upon the Slaes cultiaton.

au the the had s dese esaed ad checkedeaescece deayed ad pstped; the wds au shapesad fashs the thg. e egate eat t the ject passest the fm f the ject t smetg that s pemaet ademas; ecause t just f the aue that the ject hasdepedece5

Thus om the recogion of the alue of lfe and the fear ofdeat, expressed n subission to ngs for he sake of lfe, theexperence of domaton and sertde opens up the cycle of

cultue as he objectie meition of self-expression and te world.


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Hege and Ma on Histo Human Histo

onscousness would ean an ep poject and ts eedo apue negaty wout a wod. It n the pocess of wok thatconscousness expeences e dent of feedo nd natue e

exteaon of conscousness a natual expeence thoughwhch an objecte cultue and hstoy s ceated whch tuges sape to the inddu who acques though t hs esseno genec huan

It s often eaked at Hegel spted acton whee Mxateed t. Mx hself beleed ths to be the substance ofhs ctque of Hegel. But I thee s soe edence fo e

aguent at Hegel d Max ae engaged n a sl ctque ofenaton as esngeent o acon as expesson; and usthee a connuty between Hegel's The Phenomenolo of Mnd and Max's Economc nd Phloophcl Mnucpt

hs eks on physognoy Hegel agues that the extenaon of conscousness s not contngenty elated to ts pupose but s essenta to conscousness as ebded beng. us e

hun hnd nd hun seech ae essent ogans of conscousexpesson and t s by eans of the that we establsh a coon

wod of afacts and eanngs It ough te body that wege to ou edate suoungs a gene hun shape dfo, o at east the gene chacte of a clate, of a poon oe wold, just as we nd egons of e wold chaacteed bydeent custos and utue. It s ough e expesse ogansof the hand and speech at we ee a un of puose andobject whch coneys ou pesence n e wod d to othes

huan body us the expesse nsuent of spt ad not tssple objecte enaton; t s the nstuent wheeby thee canbe culte and hstoy whch n shape hu sensb,ought, and peceton.

For the organs general proved to be incapable of beng takenas expressions of the inne for the ason that in them the acon present as a process, while the action as a deed or (ished)act merely exteal, and inner and outer in this way fall apartand are or can be alen to one another, the organ must, in view ofthe pecuari now consdered, be again taken as also a iddle

erm for both . .7


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Introductio

s sef-consciosness not esanged b its natral beng forthe hmn body is an expressie organ ogh whch meanng emboied speech nd the wor of hman hans which together

arclate the natre of mna th had, howeve,. us exhibi ad eveal he iheeaue of idividualiy as egads its fae, is easily see o hefac tha afte the oga of eech i he had os of y

which a acuaizes ad aess hiself I is he aiaedace of fortue; we ay say of the had i is wha adoes, fo i i as he eective oga of e he is hee

pese as he aiag soul; ad sice he is uliaely doigialy his ow fae, he had will hus expess his inae nhee ature8

The expression of the hman sprit is not e abstract conontation of a pre interiori wh a smple exteriori bt the recprocation of intenonliy gestre and the deed rogh which joy

sorrow and nob deineate ther own meaning n the eyes eoice and the hans of mane growth of hman clre is the grow of hman sensibil

i So long as cltre is epenent pon the class dominaion ofResorces or Wealh hen the jent of Good iented wihthe Power to comn wealh and Ba wh e welh hat alwaysthreatens to be lacng bt for power oer it Bt he niersaiza

tion of clre mplcit in the expressie aciy of wor is progressiely made explcit n e power of he spoen word toexpress e intellectal polical n econoc ieal of action assefexpression of which the spreme prereolionary expressionis Dierots Neveu de Rmeu The liberl iencaon of selfexpression wih e organzaton of socie a system of needsreslts n a hybrid polcl economy And it is he crtqe ofpoicl economy begn in Hegel whch proies the brge toM e b of Hegels crqe of lberal society is hat it restspon a confsion of a law scoered in he worngs of he passions the nisible law of the maret wih law n the ehicalsense of a law embrace by ration selfconsciosness dstincon is he basis for Hegels ransion to his phlosophy ofe State which Karl Lwih for example considers an apparent


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ege a a o Hiso Huan Histo xv

diectic ansition within liber socie, or rather oy its. "suspension through e idea of the pli"9 We mght en understndHeges crique of bera society not as a recomendation that theState supersede Socie, but that the ibera subordination of

law to an empirical law of the passions as a criterion for theorgation of socie be superseded n faor of a socie orgnzed about a conception of aw based on the subime need of sefonsciousness to achiee sef-epression ts objects and actities

Whateer the nature o the dierences between The Phenome-ology o Min and the Philoophy o Right it is perhaps fateful

that Mar begn his citique of Hege with n attack on theHegein oncepon of the State M attacks the HegelinState as a culturl unersl on the ground that it ony absactly

mediates the separaon between the priate nterests of the bourgeoisie, summrized in the dcine of Natur Rights, nd thenature of Man supposedy outied n the docne of Rights Hereman is far om being conceied as a member of a gener class;

rather the fe o ths cass itsef, socie, is conceied as a framework ete to the ndiidus, a restron uon thei originlndependence The ny bond holding them together is needand priate nterst"10 Mar concudes that bourgeois socieannot b anscended poiticy, for the state rests upon and isnothing ese thn the egitmation of n indiidulistic socie ertique of bourgeois society can ony be gounded a re-emina

tion of the process through whic the toti of human life andepression is reduced to a set of needs dened by the impoerishment of abor

It is not necessry to ace Mar's economic and historicanysis of the institution preconditions of enaon This sthe aspect of Mr's work which, thou not lacng in Hegel,eparates Mr from Hege e dierences, howeer, seem

smer once attention is gien to M's conception of the unierl nature o work and the humn wod nd sensibi which isitsproduct I hae tried to show eaier that Hege did not regardmn s pure sef-consciousness H eaent o consciousnessas embodied being n which the orgns of hand and speech are thenatury epressie and creatie agencies of a humn word shouldat lest modi the criticism that Hege's concept of ienaton


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Inoducon

cosed the to processes of extemaon nd estrangeent.Insofar Hegels concetion of Mn is that of an ebodiedconsciousness, en I Hegel could wel have concurred with

e anroologcal concet that Mrx ought he was oosngto Hegel n the foowing reark

To say that is a ooreal, living, re, sensuous, objetivebeng of natral vigour is to say that he has real, sensuousobjets the objets of beng or of his life, or that he an onlyeress his fe n real, sensuous objets To be objetive, natural,

and sensuous, and at the same me to have objet, nature, andsense outside oneself, or oneself to be objet, natre, and sense for thrd part, one and the same hng12

Fnly, there are severl asects of Marx's concet of ienaon ong which there is, I a cenal noon where agaMarx and Hegel share a coon conceon of acon as sef

exression. For Mx ienaon is fact of olitcal econoy notof henoenology at s to say, in the rst lace, under caitlis an is esanged o e roduct of work which n estrges o hs own ature as a sensuous nd socil bengUnder such conditions the eang of work becoes erely a easof subsistence for the satisfaction of urely al needs d loses itsnature a huan need which is to work creavely even in the

absence of hYSicl needs. M and Nature re thus involved in acultral atx in which the naturl hstory of m nterovenith the huanaon of naturl hstory

Only hrough the objtively unfolded rihness of mans essenalbeing the rihness of subjetive human sensibility (a musialear, an eye for beau f form-in short, senses apable of human

atiations, senses orming themselves as essential powers ofman) either ultivated or brought into being For not only theve senses but also the soalled mental senses-the pratialsenses (wi, love, et)-in a word, human sense-the humanness ofhe sensesomes to be by virtue of its objet, by virtue ofhumanized nature e fong of the ve senses is a labour ofhe entire history of theworld down to he present13


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Hegel and a on Hiso Huan Hiso

e eoluon of human nature proceeds in terms of the interaconbeteen man and nature and the technology and soci relaonsof production which mediate that process this sense the poten

ii of human natre may be regrded a function of the mensnd relaons of production

Bease of this simpe fat that every seeding generation itsef n possession of the prodtive fores won by the previosgeneration whih serve it as the raw materia for new prodtion,a oneon arises in hman history, a history of hmanity shape whih has beome e more a history of hmanity sinethe prodtive fores of man and therefore his soia reationshave been extended Hene it neessary foows: the soia historyof men is never anythg bt the history of their individa de

veopment, whether they are onsios of it or not14

us I it possible to conclude that neither egel norM separated Nature om istoy and that bo regarded wod

hstory a history of culture n which human needs fush aprimary sucture open to a multiplici of cultural forms which n shape e estenal character of need but directed towardhe uly humn needs of creai nd socii

Toonoanua

N O T E

1 J Oeill "eatio Class Struggle ad Maia A-olitics, Review of Metapsics, X,No3 (March 1964),46271

2 J Oeill "Te Cocep of Esageme i the Erly ad Later gs of Karl Marx, Pilosop ad Peomeological Researc, (September 1964), 6-84

3 Te Peomeolog of Mid p. 221, aslated by J B Baillie4 Ibid, 2345 Ibid, 2386 Ibid, pp 349-350.


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7 bd p. 3438 bd

Intoducio

9 Karl Lwi rom Hege o Nezsce aslated by David E. Green

(New York Holt ehart ad Wisto 1964 p 24210 bd p 24511 J O'Nel "Marxism ad Mythology Ecs L No 1 (Octobe

1966 3849

12 Ecoomc ad osopca Mauscrps of 1844 (Moscow: ForeignLaguages Publishig House 1956 p 156

13 Ecoomc ad Posopca Mauscrps p. 10814 Marx to Aekov Brussels Decembe 28 1846 Seeced Corespod

ece 18461895, traslated by Dora To (Lodo Lawrece aWishart Ltd 1934 p 7.


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CONTNTS

PREFAE

NTRODUON ege and Mar on to

man tory y John Neil

PAR e ne Le d sene Hee

1 _The Concept of Lfe and Concoune of Lfe

ege Jena hoophy

2. Te Concept of Existencei the HegelianPhenomenology

PAR T n e ne Hs Hee

e Sgncance of the French Reouton

22

ege Phenomenolo3

Aenaon and Ojeccaton: Commentry onG Lukac T Young Hege 70

AR T m M d Phshy

Ma and hoophy6 Mar Crtque of e egean Concept of e

State 16

On the Structure and hoophca reuppoonf M pit 126


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Contents

AR e Plem e Relan beween and Eene

8 e Human ituaon he Hegeian

henomenoogy On he of Hege

BBLOGRAHY

NDE

53

6

8

5


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PART

I

THE CONCEPT OF

LIFE AN

EITENCE IN HEGEL.


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1

e Concept of Life

and Consciousness of Life n

Hegel's J ena Philosohy

Cooue d Le

e chapter on "Sefconscousness n The Phenomenolo oMin constutes one of the principal momnts of the Hegeliandalecc. Consciousness comes to the discovery that ts object

s no longer alien to t Te "inte sucture or "essence of

things ceases to be an "object in-tse' apart fom all relatonto conscousness.1 I ts immediate for sel-conscousness i

Desire and the object whch it oonts s nothing ese than theobject of ts desire Conscousness case s dentc wfe and the creature moed b desire does not consider the objectof ts desire as something essenti aien As a ing creature

he eperiences the character of "being other on as a moment

with an encounter that s irtu resoed in satisfacon eing creature appropriates the object and assimiates it wth hsown substance so that t becomes esh and bood In this wa hes the den intsef of the object and himsef In writings at ena some ears prior to the Pheomenolo Hegerepeated refers to ths reation between e ig creare andthe inorganic enironment "e organic s uediated power

e act which so to speak grounds the norgic an organcu2 another passage Hege remarks at "Eatg and drink

ng make of norganc things what te are in temsees or intuth t s their unconscious conception3 Here we see how

Hege understood the act of conception that s as the penetraon of the object through a mode of kowledge that coincideswth the development of theobject. Ts noon of a consciousness

3


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The Concep o Lie and isence in Hegel

idenica wi he iing eperiences of mn eads us ino egesearies mediaions e he was a Be and a Frur hewas ess ineresed in phiosophica specaion hn in a ecip-io of he humn coniion Indeed, i is hardy possibe wioua owede of he eary wrings on Abrahm or on Loe oaemp an adequae inereaion of eges more dcu reecons upon onsciousness nd Lfe

ere howeer, an imporan dierence beween egelseary works nd he s Jenene Syem or he Phenomenology he aer works ege inends concepuze ife whereasearier he was conen o describe i4 ough and fe are noonger o be separae domains, where ife ways ousips houghand hough neer comprehends ife e wo erms are o beidened so ha fe concepued as ife and hough breakswih is adiion forms order o grasp nd epress ife isefis concepion of ife is, of course, a comon heme hroughouGermn romanicism In u One, Goehe conass iing

hough wih moribund specuaionInstead of lvng nature whch God created an,

you're surrounded by soke and rot,anals skeletons and dead en's bones5

cheng broke wih eiique of Jugmen

in order o conceienaure as a iing whoe his Jena wriings ege, basing hmsefupon his friends Philoophy of Nue orgaed and syseeds concepon of ife Neerheess eges specuaions upon ifedier om hose of Sheg ege is ess conceed wih fe asa bioogica concep hn as he fe of ind and spiri egesconcep is ess an inuion of naure hn of he deopmen of

humn consciousness e is more conceed wih human desirehan wih bioogica dries one were o characerize egesphosophy as a whoe, o eress is origin nd basic nuion, onewoud hae o say ha i eek o be he hough of humn life"To hink ife, ha he probem, ege remarks in an eryagmen, adding ha he consciousness of ife n isef woud behe same hng as he consciousness of wha man6


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Lie and Cnsciusness Lie in he Jena Phisph

Scheing's pilosophy of naur is absorbe ino Hege's sysemo he exen ha i conibues o a beer unersanng of hesp which is e "ruh of naure n which presupposes naure.In he earies secions of he Metphyik Hege regars naur asan inferior momen of Iea an no as a compee manifesaon of he bsoue: Th spiri of nare is a hien spiri. "Ioes no eveop isef n he sme form as spri i s ony spr

for he sri who is conscious of i, i s spiri nsef, bu noforisef7 Moreover, "Hege's phiosophy of nar is in no waya meaphysics of naure bu is ceny a meaphysics of nara

science, ha is o say, a meaphysics of h whoe of man's oweg of naure8 Hege, en, ows o Scheng e concepon ofnaure ha he worke ou n he wrngs a na. Bu h bascexperience upon which h reecs s human expeence n lsrnges Heg acks ha "cosmic sympay wch is e origncharacrisic of Schelg's ough On e oher han, h unersanng of spiriua reaionships acking in Scheing is prsn

in Hege Numerous passages om T Phenomenoloy of Minon an sefconsciousness usa he ssena roe of heveopmen of he consciousness of ife hrough hough anrecion. The eveopmen of consciousness has a creave anynamic ro in he Hgeian ecc because, as h says n hsJna wings, spiri is "ha which iscovers isef,9 an naus ony he scen of he sefiscove of spiri.

LeRelan

e objec coone by sefconscousness ceases o b absac beng or he "ng of percepon viewe prte extprte bu a ivng being consier om e sanpoin of heoa of ife, so ha sefconsciousness ossesses in is objec a

mag of sef In Spinozan erms, sefconscousness iscoverssef in he reaionship beween ife an he ving creare, hegenus an iniua, subsanc n moe is reaonshforces e unersnng o break wh s caegories For eunersaning aways grass pars n an exea raonshp oone anoer, an whn i posis a oai i conceives i as en apar om muipci. xeror, spaiy, n mech


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6 The Cncep Lie and isence in Hegel

asm ae the deg chaactes of e attude of peceptiowhich is cosequetly a much moe absact attitude tha twould peted. "The omipesece of the simple i a mulpleextealiIO is a mystey fo e udestadg But it is just

isepaabi of e whole ad its pats i a ital immaecewhich ostitts ty Te coep of Lif n Inni rienical. the ] n r Logik Hegel coceives temsof a dilectical elaoshi betwee the e ad the May, but this dilecc oe c discove th cocept of Life. Recipocally, lfe is itsef this dialecc ad it is lfe which leads the

spit o id to dialeccally.e should ot, howeve, believe at it is this oo of lif,cosideed as a toti, at is e souce of what is oigal iegelia thought. volume o Hegels Realphiloophie J.Hoeiste has show cleay that this oo was como to alGem oatic thought. a famous moologue of FaGoethe sumos the souce of lfe:

Eteal natue, whee shall gasp yu?Whee ae yu, beasts, yu spings f life which hang heaven and eath,twad which the pached heat pesses?Yu w, yu suckle-must d withut yu?

Hede, Goethe, ad Schellig used Spoza lagage to coastnara narn nar naraa ad atue as "te poductivity with atue as a "coditod ad lited oduct.12 oatic philosophy the cocept of Ethe is th coutepaof e wold-sul i which spiit, foce, ad matte ae ecocled is, fact, the supa-sesibl substatm of atue whichKat declaed to be uowable.I3 he cocept of the wod

soul is the st fom assumed by Schellig's cocept of de,at is to say, "the highest uity om which eveg comesad to which evethig etus,4 much e Spiozas Substace

e oigiali of Hegels thought, the, does ot lie i itscocept of ie but i e phlosohical attempt to coceptuiz

lie by meas of a dialectic which pemits "ite deteaosto be eguled i "the deet. us, as aly as 1802 i


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Lie d Consciousness o Lie in the Jena Phiosoph 7

sdy of the catego of Quanti, Hegel criticzes Schel'sorces for faig to discriiate the quaitative features of

beig.I Scheg sees ite reity as smpy a deviation om

he Absolute produced by a number of oscaons in e vicio Identi is mode of though may vey wel be adequatfor the ituition of naure, but it is decient for conceivig spirituallfe n which the opposions are essena and quaitative Opposion quaitave and sce there is nothing outside of the Absolute, oppoitio itelf abolte ad it is oy because it is absolute that it can ranscend itsef16 Reection and opposition should

not be conceived outside o the Absoute but wit the veryheart of the Absolute Ue Fichte, Hege does ot conceive ofthe te a beyond owedge Nor does he of reducingthe wod o oppositions to simple deviations so that derenes

become merey exteal eects, as in Scheg Hege's view isthat quantave dierences reveal the very nature of the concretethg (ie Sache elbt) e te, ed as producvi

but emped of concrete opposition, oy oers an abyss nwhch derences dsappear An ntution of deveopment whichemai a pure intuion and does not conceive of the obstacle its actui and as someig itea is not e ntuition ofthe sprit that never ceases to negate the Absoute to betruly producve, it must be conceived as a negative power, aninteal acvi which posits division and opposition withn itse

order o negate it We have here the mystic mage of anAbsolute which divides and tears itse apart n order to be absoute But in Hegel is mystic noon asformed througha dalectical phiosophy which is vaidated by the tensi of theintelectual thrust that it brings into beigP Hege's creativnesslies not in e myscl image but in e conceptal anslationof it which he eects at strikes one upon readig the JeneneLoik e interrelation beteen a myscl tuion ad a system of thought which grasps the livig re of ogical raon-ships

e iite does not lie beyond nite oppositions; on the cona, e latter are conceived as nite In Hege's conceptionthe iite is no ess restless than the ite: e disitegrave

:u of the te only actuaizes itse rough he existence


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8 The Concept o Lie and istence in Hegel

which it disintegrates e anscended for all that reains nabsolute It engenders itsef in e very rocess of disntegraon

for the latter resuoses a being at destroys itself"18 Desite

its arent obscuri ere an underyg thought assage which clear enough As he reked 800 Hegelwas to rough the bond beeen relaon and non-relaon" e key concet which enables h to ough eelation (Bzihg) nd not sly to ive it an unreectedway is e concet of Ii. I- concet which rovides efoundaton of e dileccal logic of 802 n which we have e

genec ework of e Hegeian systeFro Desctes to Knt e roble of relaon had been ecenl roble of e theory of owledge e Cartesian ogito

reresents ntuion whic grass in a ure act of nd the ostrofound ui of ought nd being oginly questioned by theCartesian doubt Kantian hlosohy a losohy of law or ofe relaons beteen ite deteaons Hegel connues

reecon uon the nate of laws in roof at l owledgeof asonoy resuoses a relaon beteen e nd sace He not conceed sily to reect uon e eiricl relaonsbeteen e to quane but to show how e concet of eresuoses e concet of sace and in rsuosed by theconcet of sace But it is aicularly in e conceaonof ife at e need aears for e categories of uni and divi

sion the iving rincile of relaon that is the dilecticpcile by which e develoent of each ter of a relationay be conceived To tke a nite detenaon as te is toas it according to its restless caaci for self-anscendence orecoing oer an itsel : As such e deteinate clar essenly e absolute resessness of not being what it is19

Nevertheless it not suce to osit a transcendent enttywhich forever beyond each rticula deteation Each detenaon negates itself through it coelave but at e saee discovers itself the latter snce it correlative negates itsefrough it Consequently e te or e tot of this two

fold oveent shold in no way be ostlated as an unattainablenscendent e uni exressed in a relaon resuoses the

distncon of e ters at it relates For ui

the act of


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Lie and Consciousness o Lie in the ena Phiosoph 9

ascedece ad ot a ascedetal e,0 i which the disco of tes disaeas hus eveg is life ad movemetthough the elao isofa as it is e

e life of the elatio is to be foud i the Hegelia dialectic,which is ot to be thought of a foal techique which cabe applied ideetly to ay object he dialectic is e life ofe object ad dialectical thout is i o way a absact categoizatio Eve living reltion h it on prticlr trctrewhich mt be conceptlize ch o achieve this i is ecessa to gasp each of the tems ad the elatio itself ude e

categoy of Inni i therefore the mile term whichmke it poible to conceptlize life n the living reltion nthe men whereby the problem of knowlege n the problemof life re ientible.1 Hegel's st tease of logic is e plyto a queso he had posed to himself as a youg m What aethe itelligible coditios of huma life? Howeve, the dyamismof the elatio oly possesses its tue sigace oce thee ap

peas a active cosciousess of ife is ol the spiitual elaothat is a dialecc foitself at is why Hegel speaks of atue oly a cocept iitself, so that biologic life ca oy ed death o a adical dissolutio of e uivesal ad the paticula But i Hegel death is e begng of the life of espit

e De o Le d heLveHow does iite life at is the ro of itsef appea

to self-cosciousess? eectig upo life oe ca equallywel stat om the ui of life (ntr trn) ad poceedto the distict idividual, o oe ca begi with the sepaate idividual (ntr ntrt) fo whom the whole is a exteal ui,

ad the discove that ui as the imaet ae of the idiidual e two p9cedues may ideed be complemet i acyclic fashio exemplay of a dialectcal elatio

Let us stat om the poit of view of the sepaate idividual,o what Hegel calls a livig fom o a idividual sucte ise detaches itself om whole ad declaes itself to bedepedet t is what Spioza calls a mode But wheeas e


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33/224

Lfe and Conscousness of Lfe n the ena Phosop 1 1

by mes of is on negaon nd maturaon. The inividuis fe and therefore idenca with tempori wich a peetusef-negation26 e ife of the individu beongs to the categoryof acon and not of "thig. rough acon the individu negateswhat is xed n hsef inte inorganic nature) nd ascends hmsef. iherent inte contradiction of ife is exteed n the deveopment of the species nd in the division ofte sexes e inividu sees opposite member outside of himsef and idenca with himsef Desre is no onger directed towardan object but upon noer sef. is descripon derives om

Heges eary reecons upon ove n which "ife senses fe27 Butthe reation beteen e sexes s a reaon of ediacy andit acks the consciousness that woud make of it n te "foritsef Acty, in the reaon beteen e sexes e bioocaindividua isappers as n individua e nividu dies andbecomes another being through which e cye of ife is repeatede fe of the chid is the dea of the parent us the cyce

coses upon itsef The eness cyce of ife, Hege says, just asmuch a fo'ation of independent inividu shapes, as it a wayof canceg a shape assumed 28 e iving beng in posinghimsef negates himsef His deveopment and lent are ipicity his death, or, considered more posivey, the creao ofa new nividu Lfe and death are to ndissoube aspects ofe ived moment or e that shares n both beng and nonbeing

e postuaon of a uiversa consequenty appears to the isoated ndividu under two aspects, as a unverse exte to himsef and as a toti immanent within msef: "We have, then,here a conected system, where one exeme is e uivers ifequ univers or genus, the oer beng the same ife qu a singewhoe or universa ndividu29

the cyce of fe e uivers nd the individu intrpenetrate

one nother and phenomenon sated into the ogicnoon of the power of the principe of negativi As a totife idenca wi the acvi of nscening its dierenaonsand us its conceptation presupposes sctres at reseparate and extea Conversey, each one of these suctures a ivig fo and therefore contans e power of absoute negavi whereby it may negate itsef as a subsistent for, eecng


34/224

The Concept o Lie and istence in Hegel

a negaon of the negation ad a re to totai. Here we haen intance o the concept o inni thogh it i a yet notealize or itel in the living vortex lack the concione

which alone i capable o the eective elzation o inni edevelopment of such a consciousness is the source of the dialecticof Absolute Spiit, whic makes its rst appearance in theJenener Metaphyik and is refeed to in e following passage:For the monad essena being exists oly a anscendentuni. reli, for us (e phlosopher who conceives of spit such) this ascendent is the manent rei of e monad."30

e Cosousess o Le d pr s Hso

e chapter on self-consciousness nd e n e Phenom-enolgy Hegel wites that the forer e uni o which theabsolute i of erences exists, e latter, however, i only uni itself, so that ui is not at the same me for itel"31 The

process of ie which scaters and disperses itsef n e fase of the mltitude of livng beins fails to achieve consciousness of its , of e te relaon as a bond beteen the relaon and the non-relaion" except n the case ofsel-consciousness [ife] is neier what expressed to beginwi, th immediate contiui and concrete soidi of its essenal nature; nor the stable, subsisting fom, e discrete individuawich exists on its own account; nor the bare process of fom; nor again is it the smple combnaon of ese moments. Iis none of these; it is the whole wich develops itsef, resolves ison development, and in movement smply preserves itsef."32However, fe cn oy be a whole for e onsciousness of lfe. the case of biologic life simplici only realed throughdeath. a conscious ben dea conceived as a posiive phenomeno We may then understand Hegel's remarks on deah ine Preface to the Phenomenology Death not somehing beforewich we should emble or an idea that we should suppress. eue lie of the spt endures death and in death maintais itsbeig . . is dwelling beside it is the magic power at converts e negave nto beng."33 ese remarks perhaps llumi

nate fmous diaecc of the Logik and reind us at the con


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Lfe and Consciousness of Life n the ena Philosophy 13

sciousness of lfe i quite dierent om ife itsef. I consttese u of ife, but a trth that c only be red in humexpeence. Te moments of fe, whe ntegrated huma co

sciousness, develop in e form of Hisor nd huma consciousness is the Absolute Subject which discovers its iden i ecourse of me.34

"Sprit is me,35 Hegel had sid his Jena ings, alusaon oft enigmatic formula i to be found i the Phe-omenolo. For it i only n the tempori of a consciousnessthat e whole which "develops itsef, resolves it o develop

ment, n tmovement simply preserves itse' can be presetto itsef. Tat i why only the spirit is history, a history, moreover,that is lways oriented towrd e ftre since e sprit i absolute prciple of egativi.36 Tis is perhas a clue to egenerl orientatio of the Hegei system. Whe reson observesatre it nds o rel midle term beee ife as a totia e ivng individul. Beeen the genu a the indivu

ere is, of course, te arculaon of e species. But the speciesi not for-ief, d e ndivdul who embodies e species imodable by his relaon to e unversl individui, e e,e clmate, nd te vriaons of evironmet By conast,consciousness tes e ile term betee univers spiritd its ndividuao or sense-consciousness, the system of shapsassumed by consciousness, as orderly sef-constted whole of

e fe of spirit,the system of for of conscious ife whichi det wi it treatise [The Phenomenolo oj Mind, dwich nds its objective existenl expressio as the history ofe wod. But orgnic natre has no history37 I e biologiclnividu, s Hegel says, the toti i not ly present "and thewhole -i not there because e whole i ot as such here foritsef.3 Te ue is i the consciousness of e totithat i e heart of each ndividul momet. Now histoy i econcrete sef-developmet of such cO)sciousness nd the reao of e ife of e spirit n a profoun uni of e indiviud e universl. T i a dynmic cocepo of uni, ot inton, nd a uni which expresses e dileccal concepo ofe te as set out in e Logik of 1802.

cocepon of the spirit s history, m e rstda


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4 The Concept o Lie and xistence in Hegel

of e Jena perd rough a sees of essays wch play upn ecntrast beeen cncept nd ntion, receives developedexpressin n Hegel's The Phenomenoloy of Mi Trou

s const beteen cncept nd nitin Hegel expresses plosopicly e const beween life an consciousness of fe.Fr Hegel e concept s e very act of cgniO?, inseprableom its content; it is the iion wich is xim of consciousness. te Jena perid Hegel grew to a awareness of plosopicl idel. He beg by oppsng Fichte's delism onthe grund tat it ws crribly abstrct. Ficte's system cn

ts nly he pure reexive ct of Consequently, e ideremns frever unatanble and, fr l pupses, n coctwith lved reli. Scellng, by conast, copletely idened ecncepts of lie and owledge. His system s ounded e"denti wich it discvers at e cre of l re, at s,nature a sprit. Te iden of owledge d relity s acievedtrough nuon r ttl indierence toward e subjecve andobjecve.39 is wrk on e Dieren e Fichtechen unSchellingchen Sytem40 Hegel appers to ave dopted epsion of is iend Scelling. However, we ave seen tat eLogik of 1802 e devels a dilecc of e te quite deretom Scelng's cnception.

Neverteless, e Sytem er Sittlichkeit Hegel's rst dof Philoophie e Geite wich is contemprary wi eLogik ves n ndicatin of e dilecc of te te. Te rstpilsphy f mnd lgs beind the Logik an Metaphyk n as suck te comentators ll he more as e plspyof mnd s egel's own dmn.41 However, ere s a nswerto tis problem. 1802 Hegel was prmly absrbed a cncrete plsophy f sprit. He tkes sides wi Scelng agst

Fichte and tus e at rt ientie the Abolte with the ifeof a people42 Te vrius mments in e fe of e sprit, suchs labr, e mcne, e fmly, lnguge, and law, wichHegel studied n dep, cnstute e determinate aspects f fein sciey. Te ide rem nd e eveyday wd re nt to beseprted but are t be hugt f tgeter e orgc ttiof te nn in wich he cncept is subsumed in te intion.

Fr "te ntun is e nderence of ndetermnables and dis-


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ife and Consciousness o ie in he ena Phiosoph

cvers he ai as an bjecive rea hus we d n nd ns wrk Hegels he realizain he "Abslue Spri whichseemed be he mplican his Metaphyik wren abu hesame me e lie a peple des n aceve reecin by ise Nr des e cnscius e e spri ranscend and mdis livng rei A ue awakeng cnsciusness wuld nduce anxie and nsab n he hear s nuiin Bue inuin scends he cncep jus as he rganic real scial le anscends indivdual cnsciusness Fr in inuiin hespiri becmes absrbed n is bjec Cnsequenly inuiin

dynamic ven when i preends asp e isel as suchr as pure prducvi And as early as 802 Hegel had undersd e pwelessness nun. he dialecc he ein he Loik a crique Schellings Abslue r he veryreasn a i lcks win isef ppsiins and s als cme n cnac wih real develpmens

Bu m 802 806 Hegel wrked cninuusly upn he

develpmen his phlsphy mnd The Sytem er Sittlichkei llwed by an essay n Naural Law3 hen we have e d The Philoophy of Min which precede The Phe-nomenoloy of Min hus we are in a psin recnsuche develpmen Hegels hugh r raher his wn inelecualbigraphy We witn the borintion of itition to the cocept the evelopment of a creative concione an the realiza

io of the pirit olely throh the meim of it o hitoyeady n he essay n Naural aw Hegel shws a "hespri is superir naure45 because i is capable ugback un isel reec upn ise Bu n ha essay Hegelha n ye cnceived he ineal pwer develpmen nduced by cncepn cnsciusness He is bsessed by hePlanic visin an rganic ci which is he imanen sucure

every hisrical ci He seeks ranslae Schelings aesecinuiin in mral and scial lie By pttin the concept beforinition Hel introce hitorical evelopment into the centerof the life of the pirit hus i wil be remarked in he Phenomenoloy ha he spiri alne hisry because he dvelpme cnsciusness a e same me a srical prcess.

The Philoophy of Min (803-80) e develpmen


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6 The Concep o Lie and isence in Hegel

consciousness clerly hs precedence over intition. Heglabndos the possibli of an objecve, imnent intuition thatdoes not ivolve sef-reecon. "Intuition is' now posited y con

sciousness.46 I is possible to stdy bjective min independenyof e study of spirt s socil rei. In e draf of 180-180Hegel hs discovered himsef once for l as the phlosopher ofthe spirit. Spirit is historicl nd moves n a dilecticl progressionom the ncient ci to mode fos of socil orgationWod history or the spirit of the world nscends the spirit ofa people as ts oments.7 Te task of the phlosophy of spirit

as a concrete diectic is to surpss intuition nd to become aphilosophicl history of e srit as a process of sef-developent.

In The Philoophy of Min of 180-180 Hegel has a fuledged concepon of e Absolute Sprit, parly envisaged nhe Metaphyik of 1802 Spirit anscends both nare and eife of a people nd grsps its uiversi in Art, Religion, nd

Phosophy. Crists reigon surpasses e religion of a peoplebecause it s n it at e spirit achieves self-consciousness.8From point Hegel i possession of his ow creave phlosophy of the spirit, nd n e Prface of e Phenomenoloy he wilater conont Schengs phosophy of ntuion with his ownphosophy of the cncept, nd to a phiosopy of e Absoluteas substnce he oppose a philosophy of the Absolute as

subject.I is cear that Hegels phlosophy is a phlosohy of hun

fe, of the ife of consciousness, and not a philosophy of nare ikehat of Scheng. On the one hand, the descripons of lfe oy become inteligible through Hegels erly wrtngs, for example, onAbram or Love, nd, on the other hnd, e consciousness of lfe the reaon of ty, having become truly "for-itsef Tecomplementrity of these interpretaons is boe out by the development of Hegels Jena phosophy of mind. We have readyemked that, er his arrivl at Jena, Hegel wnted to developa philosophicl concept of lfe nd at he idented the relaon(Beziehng) nd fe. In tu, through e concept of inni hesfoed the relation nto a dileccl relation, in oer words


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Lie and Consciousness o Lie in he ena Phiosophy 7

he conceived it s a iving relaion. H use of every term nvolvesa dync conast nd reconcliation. Thus synthesis nd anlysisare siply aspecs of a relation whic entetns division nd

reconclaon win itself. But, above , a dynic nd livngrelaon is a spil relaion, a is to say, a relaon live by aconsciousness. The dm of the elements wiin a totis only possible in the nsance of a consciousness which overcomesediacy nd bngs about its mediaon.

From Hegel's ely wrings we have ied o show a remrkably creative atempt to give a philosophicl account of sprita

relaons nd to describe e hun siaon, in the course ofwhich w beeve we have found he source of Heges dialeccought.49 To Hegel wh i fnmenl i experience i he experience of piril relion n heir evelopmen the relaionbeteen man and man, beteen the ndiidul nd socie, Godand mn, bteen master and slave. That is why, in the chapter ofThe Phenomenolo Min on "Sel-consciousness we nd he

immediae relaon beween ivng bengs ansfomed y consciousness ino a sprita relaon between two sef-consciousnesses. We refer o the weown dialectic of he master andslave. 50 the dalecc of recogniion he iedae relation ofdonaon and servitde is ansformed, e master becoming hesment of his own enslavement, whle the slave, as a producerof objecs, shapes51 his own self nd become maser of the master

e enslaved consciousness "does in fact contin wihn iselthis of pure negavi. I has own anxie no for or tha moment of me bu "for is ene being; i felt the fer ofdeath, the sovereign master.52 The consciousness that comes oow fer and enorced sevice n this way moves om the stateof meiacy o a mediaed condition which is the fondaonof a spi relaonship. e awreness of such a relaton on

the p of a consciousness such as Epicets is the foundaion ofhe Soic expeience. e course of is development the spiriulrelaonship becomes a "for-itsef, that is o say, the apprentlyxed and independen elements of the relaionship are nvolvedn a rel movement in which lfe and the dialecic concide. Atths pont we have enteed human histo, nd it was for the


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1 8 The Concept o Lie and xisence in Hegel

understndng of at hstory and of the lfe of an that Hegelconscted e decc naly t n the cutural scences thate dalectc reans a ethod

O T E

1 G. WF. Hegel, Te Peomeoog of Mid, anslated, with an Inoducon and Notes by J. B. Balie (London : George llen and Unwin, 1964), p. 218

2 G. W F. Hegel, Jeeser Reapiosopie, Vol. 18051806, editedby J. Hoeiter (Leipzg, 1931), p. 118

3 Ibid, p. 124 e derence between the early wor and the rt Jeeser Sstem

appeared a a "mystery to Ehrenberg, the s commentator on theSstem Pror to the latter work Hege had lived the transion omthe te to the te; he then strggles t conceptualize it. Relion

elds to philosophy. C Ehrenberg' Preface to Heges erstes Sstemedited by H. Ehrenberg and H. Link (Heideberg, 1915)5 Goethe, aust, Par One, ranslated by C. F MacInre (New York

New Direction, 195) rans.] G. WF. Hegel, Ear Teoogica Wrtigs, anslated by T M. Knox,

with an Introduction and Fragments anslated by R. Kroner (Chicago :Uiversi o Chicago Press, 1948), p. 254 A smilar concusion drawn a study of the fundamental igcnce o the ture the Hegelian conception of time, by Kr, Hegel na: A propo de publications rcentes, Reue d'istoire e de piosopie reigieuse de Strasbourg No. 5 1939), pp. 42058

7 G W F. Hegel, Jeeser Logik, Metapsik ud Naurpiosopiedited by G. Lasson (Leipzig, 1923), p. 113

8 J Homeister, Goete ud der deutsce Ideaism us: Eie Eifurugzu Heges Reapilosopie (Leipzig, 1932), p. 65

9 Jeser Logk, pp. 1818510 Sciece of Logic, anslated by W H. Johnston and L. G. Sther,

Vol. (London: George llen and Unwi, 1961), p. 403

1 1 aust, Par One, nlated by C. F. MacIntyre. rans.]12 Eleitg z dem Enwr eie Systems der Nauhlosophie

Smtlice Werke edited by K. F. Scheling, Vol. I Part 3 (Stutgar and Augsberg: J. G. Cotta 18561861), p. 284

13 "Schelling i related to oethe a Kant i to Newton. C E. Cassire


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ife and Consciousness o Lie in the ena Phiosoph 9

Te Prblem f Kwledge (New Have, Co Ye Uversi Press,1950), p 145

14 J Hoeister, Gete ud der deutsce Idealsm us, pp 34315 hreerg orrety oserves ha i his disssio o the ategory o

Qity, Hege attakig Fihte, ad whe he dissses the ategoryo Qa, he ritiig Sheig. Hege's ow system is i pothe ategory o ty whih spersedes the oher ategores. ]eeser Lgk, pp. xiv

16 ]eeser Lgk, p 13. at "opposio i itsef asote meas thoppositio Gegesatz) eomes oadito (Wderspruc) ad thaoppositio is ite to the Asote; i other words, the Asote iSjet or te actualzat f te Self shod e oted tha Hegeldisgishes dvers, asped thro a a o reeo exte ohe thigs temseves; ppst, whih is a reatio eee wo termtha re oeatives ad ths reated thro otras; ad ctradc, whh opposio has eome tea to eah erm (eah eotais its opposite withi itse). Coaditio is ths ctradct subect, d tha is why the se develps e reatio is oseqety o oger the rest o a ompariso eee wo preexisg d idepedet terms e three Hegei heses eome idetia

the Asote is Sjet, Oppositio is Asote, Reai is DeveopmetWe may the derstad why Hege resists the oo o a se hapreexsts its prediates. is the ife o he prediates that reates esjet Asote posited apr om its deveopme o baythig t a emp ititio.

1 Hege grasps the moveme o tho egaged i a edess io ofdistit terms ad distitios etwee tes tha re orreatves Ithis proess astratio (the power o egav) is a essea mmet Reative to the isttio ewee terms that are orreavesio is oy astrato, ad ve versa.

18 ]eeser Lgk, pp 3334.19 Ibd, p. 3120 Ibd21 Hegei thoght is stred thro the eqvaee o these

terms hma ie wih mst e give phiosophia expressio; e

reatio, whih is thoght itsef d y, whih is te oio foeptg fe ad the reatio or the adeqao of tho dife

22 e idividJ exists oy iasmh s the tot o ife divdedto parts, he himsef eig oe pr d the res the other par;ad agai he exists oy iasmh as he o pr a d asmhas othig eprated om him. From Frae o a Sys arl Telgcal Wrtgs, p 310.


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0 The Concep o Lie and isence in Hegel

23 Leibnit sny inuenced Hegel in his Jena perid. ut the Leibnitian mnad is clsed t the utside Hegel's cricism f the mnadlgy is that it is anscendent in relatin t the activi f a sinemnad.

24 The Pheomeolog o Md pp 222223.25 Jeeser Realphilosophie, Vl. 1805180, p 11.2 The Pheomeolog o i p. 221.2 "Lve, in Earl Theological Wrgs, p 305. [rans28 The Pheomeolog o Md p 224.29 Ibd p 324 Jeeser Logik, Meaphsk ud Naurphilosophe p 1. We shall

deal later with the evlutin f the Jena phisphy f mind and itsrelatin t the cncept f Abslute Sprit.

3 1 The Pheomeolog o Md, p. 221.32 Ibid, p 22433 Ibid, p. 93 [rns34 I the Preface t the Pheomeolog Hegel cnceives the Abslute as

Subject and nt as Sustnce

35 Jeeser Realphlosophe Vl I, 18031804, p 4.3 Th diaeccal mehod assumes an te principle f develpment, an

endless negativi int the future. ut the ttali is immanent in eachmment and this ttlity must be cnceptulied as a sem The system and the methd d nt have the same cndins.

3 The Pheomeolog o Mid p 32.38 Ibid39 "Darstelung meines Systems der Phsphie, Smliche Werke, Vl

I Part 4.40 C Erse Druckschrie edited by G Lssn (ipg Verlag Fel

vn Meiner, 1928). [rns41 Ehrenberg's inductin t Hegels erses Ssem, and J. H

meister, Goehe ud der deusche Idealsms, pp. 102103.42 Reigin is the religin f a peple, r f a ci, as in the case f Greek

religin C G. W F. Hegel, Schre zur PoUk ud Rechsphloso

phie, edited by G. Lassn (Leipig, 1923), p. 4.43 "Ueber die wissenschafichen ehandlungsarten des Naturrechts, 1802

in Schrie zur Poliik ud Rechsphilosophe [rans44 Jeeser Realphlosophie, Vl. I 18031804 Jeeser Realphlosophe,

Vl. 1805180. [rans45 Schrie zur Plik ud Rechsphilsophie p. 392.4 J Hmeister, Goehe ud der deusche Idealsm us, p 10. e Ma

idea f class-cnsciusness has its rigin in Hegel inasmuch as


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Le and Consciousness o Lie in he ena Phiosoph 1

Mx he ppee o Issosiosess i osiive eeme he eveopme o hisoy

4 eeser Reaposope, Vo 18051806, p 2348 Hee Hege esmes his ey y o he evoio o eigio om

ok eigio o he eio o Chis, om he Sstem der Sttcketo he Asoe Spii B Hege's e sysem he poem emiso eig wo hisoy a he hisoy o os o Asoe Spii he oms o Reigio, Phosophy

4 J Hppoie, Les Tvx e eesse e Hege ps es ovgeses, Revue de mtapsue e de morae X (135, pp 426 pp 5458

5 O he Hegei iei, see N H, De Posope des deuce Ideasm us Vo (Bei We e ye 160, pp 32338

51 Hege i pyg po he wo dug (e) he henoeoog o d p 238

2 Ibd p 23 Hee we a see e oe sie o he Hegpipe o egv Hegels ysem a om beig logomhy ia loi o he le o ho


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2

The Concept of stence

i the Hegelin

Phenomenolog

Te term existence" was noduced into posophy by Kierkegaard. Kierkegaard criced Hegel o e ground that vastphlosopicl system he gave no place to existence I was a system at surveyed the various wold visions" but did ot dwellupon any of em Certly, Hegel ways gives the impression

of inoducng conict nto phlosophy, but it is always in orderto resolve it n a igher synthesis. Hegel deepens e various coicts that are present in fe and phlosophy, for example, those ofAr and Reigion, of the exteal and the ntel, of man dGod, but he anscends the coicts and reconcles the contrastsIt possible to as wheter Hegel had not forgote his ownexistenti natre, for it disappears witin system. But esystem lso reects the disappearance of the very noon of exi-ence whereas Kierkegard spent is whole lfe n reecon uponexistence nd the paradoxes that it creates Tus Kierkegaarddoes not consuct a system that excludes existence. On the conary, is thought is grounded existence and seeks only toluinate its originli and irreducibi. Furermore, a man'sexistence is unthinkable as the expression of an essence that isprior to it Indeed, it is not nkable as such but emergesgraduy n thought trough the nsurmountable conadictionswin thought itsef.

Te contrast between Kierkegaard and Hegel is too wel ownfor us to dwel upo it once more. Moreover, ere is i doubtat in generl Kierkegard right agast Hegel, nd it is not

our puose here to enter a defense of e Hegelia system


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The Concept o xistence in the Hegeian Phenoenog 3

ginst Kierkegards tck. Wht nteress us is to revea inHege, s we d in his eary works and in the Phenomenology phiosopher much coser o Kierkegard thn might seem credibe

e concree nd eisten charcter of Heges ery workshs been dmrby demonsted by Jen W in his work onThe Unhppy oncione in Hegel' Philoophy he earyworks ed up to the chper of the Phenomenology on heUnhppy Consciousness efore discovering the reconciionnd synhesis ht cuminte in the pce of ides in e Enclope Hege ws hmsef onscious of the gic opposiion be

tween te nite nd e, of mn nd e bsoute; in Judismnd romnicism he hd studied eisena fos of his conicte conusions of hese studies are o be found in the Phenome-nolo which Hege nished upon he eve of he be t JenaWe sha ignore the fct tht h Phenomenology which descrbesthe iinerry of consciousness, or e cura dventre of humnconsciousness in serch of n concor and reconcion,

cumintes in bsoue Knowedge, tht is o sy, in sysemwhich ranscends diverse wod visions Insed we sh inquirewhether here is not in work concepion of eistence which is o cerain conteporry eisentiais noons

e Phenmenology is the hisory of human consciousness nits progression to bsoute Knowedge his hisor is much more descpion hn consction of the eperiences of conscious

ness. Moreover, by he te eperience we mus understnd not oy heoreica owedge, but aso human noons of Reigion,

Ehics, and he phiosopher in is instance descibes theentire copss of huma eperience, and hough he never osessght of the goa of his work, which is to ebore system, he neveheess no aid to sop ech sge of his eperience nddescibe it for is own ske ech sge of is voyge ofdiscovery he seeks o gsp the eence of picur wodvsion; occasiony this mehod of nfoding n essence suggestsmode phenomenoogica descripions of essence When egespeaks of he Renaissnce or of he eror, when he evokesnigone or Creon, one fees ht his ought grsps their veryntre and h he peneres o he heart of epeience s ived

by man. It is mpossibe to nyze hese eperiences one by one


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The Concept o Lie and istence in Hegel

e Phnomnolo possesses such a wet, ad often such anobscur, tat we must cone ourselves to choosng certain -pects wch lusrate in a specil way what one could eady

describe a concept of exstence.We sl terefore consier e chapter on lfconcionad e coict wich Hegl found between sef-consciousnessor wat we would cl humn exstenceand fe in generl. is n tis coict tat e appy consciousness eerges, anit s te laer wch best lustrates e conception wich Hegelhad of 's eistence.

te nl pragraph of is nlysis of self-consciousnessHegel rites, Conscousness of fe, of its estence and acon,is merely pan and sorrow oer existence d acvi.2 ecosciousness of msef tat man rees, d wich, as we shlshow, is consciousness of le too, results n e uappy consciousness. To become conscious of uvers ife is necessily ooppose onesef to it and at te se e to rescover onesef n t.

In mn fe comes to te owlege of itsef, but s occurs precisely at te oent where man's existence erges om fe dsezes in ise the most ragic coct. Consciousness of lfe is, ofcourse, no longer a nve e. It is te knowlege of e Whol ofLif te negation of al its particulr forms, e owlege ofre ife, but it is simultneously te owlege of te absence of ue e. us n becong conscous of lfe an existson the argn of nave nd etered le. Hs esre aspires toa liber at is not open to a prticur mot; and seors to conceive msef in Jiber esult oy n falre.

e eergence of self-conscousness is hus somehg oer ne, pure d sple, d huan exstence, as owlege of ife,s a new oe of beg tat we are justed in cig exstence.eed, wat caracterzes n's sef-consciousness is te breakat it involves wih nave ad meiate lfe d its elevaion abovee stac eteraons of beg. is existence emerges ome wob of e world he perpeu negation of every parclr moali of beg To becoe conscious of fe n its to is to reect upon ea, to est in the face of ea, dat is ow auentc sef-consciousness experenced by us.

We sl peraps mprove our unerstanding of te conct be


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Th Concept o istence in the Hegeian Phenoenoo

een mmediate lfe and consciousness of life we look bacnto Hegel's works for example to his study of the Jewish peopleand their ancestor Abraham For Hegel the Jews are the unhappy

people of history and are to be conasted n respect with eGreek people hereas the Greeks understood how to harmonizeought and nite lfe Abraham ses for such a radical concepton-one might say a total conception-that he aienates himse om al particular forms of life He leaes the land of hisfaers he wanders in the desert and seeks to ie by himsef butthis thought dries him beyond mmediate lfe : Abraham no

longer ew how to loe" He was ncapable of an attachment toa ite and limited object Lfe was reected in him but as a totali the negation of its deteinate forms is is whyAbraham conceies God beyond detenate liing creatures ante God who can nd no expression in any concrete gure TeJewish people made representaons of their God (n the form ofan absolute transcendence) ; they sought to eate themseles to

hs leel ough ths was an mpossibi snce eery deteinateexpression of such a God or Unersal represents a form ofidolay Here Hegel attaches upon a coict beteen what wetoday would ca ital alues and intelectual or een spiritualalues ther reections upon life e Jews only succeeded inopposing emseles to fe as someng nae and imite Teydid not embrace that limited thou spontaneous enusiasm

which leads historical peoples to attach themseles to a particulaland and to lose themseles in a determinate enterise Te Jewconceies the Unersal e whole of life but at the same me conception remoes him om life We hae here a dislocaonthat Hegel hose to study in his early works which he ee toi his ]enener Sytem and to which he gae a phiosophical fomulation n the chapter of the Phenomenoloy on Seonsciousness"

One mght add that selfconsciosness of life is characterizedn some way by the ought of eath Tough this may seem asange connection it may easily be justied f one anyzes frtheHegel's conception of fe and of sefconsciousness We should notforget that each is simultaneously idencal and absoutely oppose

to the oer may be seen clearly om the folog text the


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6 The Concept o Lie and Existence in Hegel

omer [SelConsciousness], s the niy for whch the absoutity o ferences exsts, the latter [Le], however, only i itsel, so a the niy is not a the sme tme or itse."3

Hegelianism developed agains the backgrond o romancsm.Lke Scheg or H6ldern, Hegel wished to express in philosopicl' om e te le which expresses itsel thogh amultde o detenate living oms. With doubt, this lie isn sm a ni b its mestations ae diverse. Each particlliving beng is ndeed itsel the expression o the toti olie, the Uiversl, jst as e Spnozan mode is a modlity o the

te sbstance; bt i is only a particlr expression o tha le,and at i s why i dies n giving bth to other livng bengs. Themovemen o nivesal le maests itsel n this ceaseless ndmonotonos Death and Brth." Bu the particular livng bengwhen i dies is no yet conscios o te e, o the Sel, ori is oly a paal elizaon o it. The organism is not awae thai dies nd yet death s the negation o the deternatio and theiitation o eetn lves throgh wich e absolue power o leachieves nd ni. The ty o le is reected both ndeath and eproducon, but s negation o the negation (the inite negativity, te negation o the negation which ly nocese ave) is ignored by the lig prclr. Organic e snot extence becase it is no consciosness o death.

e sitation is no longer e sae when we advance towardseconsciosness or man. the animal sicess is the visibleace o negativi, tha is to say, it is e momen n which itnegates itse insoar as it is a parclar. As Hegel pts it in apassage om s Jenener Sytem man is the sick al he isaware o his death and to the degre tha he conscious o it hebecomes for hmelf what le is nlterably telf We see now

wha sense hman existence rses above anmal le. e amal uncoscios o !he te totli o e n its wholeness, whereas man becomes the oritsel o that toti nd intezesdea. That is why the basic expeience o humn seconsciousness is nseprable om the ndamental expeece o death.

Hmn selconsciousness is in the rst place Dere b thisdesire is never satised What i aspres to throgh the destrction

evey om o dempon is its own absolte selcomand.


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The Concept o xistence in the Hegeian Phenoenoo 7

Mn bgins by dsiring to li but lif in hm pprs t on somthing idntil nd lin to himslf H liv but his owf is lin to hm, nd to th xtnt tht h is onsious of it h

onnuly sngs himslf from it nd n som sns ngts it ngton of vry mod of dirmpion is lwys rvivd n thgv prinipl of dsr It is wht movs dsr, lthoughsr hs s its distnt limit th stt of bsolut slf-possssion suprm nd of dsr is to rdisovr itslf in hrt of liftht to sy, to nd itslf s th uni of unvrsl lif or thng-for-itslf of this lif whih strs itslf ndlssly ough

prulr living formsis gol is only nbl on th ondition tht th life beforee elf ononts it noter elf. slf only ds its xprssion in th hrt of lif whr lif pprs outsid of it in th foof slf us slf-onsiousnss, or mn's xstn, is possibloly whr two slf-onsiousnsss mt h othr thisnountr th slf gins n objiv owldg of itslf rough

th othr sl, whil th othr rmns itsl lov, for xmpl, thmg of on's whol lif pprs in th ohr who is lovd; ththr t slf nd th slf outsid itslf But Hgl dos notidlz th dili of lov; indd, h writs in Peonolo tht "h lf of God nd divn intllgn, thn, n, if wlk, b spokn of s lov disporng wi itslf; but id flls into don, nd vn sinks nto insipidi, f it lks th

sriousnss, th surng, th ptin, nd th lbour of gtiv4

t is why slf-onsiousnss or dsr of th slf oly mrgsom univrsl lf th nountr wi nor slf-onsiousnssLf pprs to it in th form of this othr onsiousnss, yt to nt t it n xtl mnifsttion of itslf it must ngth dirmption onpts of bingforitelf nd beingforn-oter r urrnt nowdys It is in th onit btwn ths twotht humn slf-onsiousnss ris On th on hn, it rtd in th othr in whom it nvrhlss ss islf s n xtlnd dtrmnd bing, bng-for-nothr On th othr hnd, tis how it pprs to th Ohr, nd ths is why onsiousnsstnds th dth of h Othr, whih mns smply t it tnds

to supprss nd ngt th strngd mod of xistn n whih it


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The Concep o istence in the Hegeian Phenomenoo 9

ence or supersession of every mited situatio. Yet he can evercompletely renounce his being-i-the-worl, or the moe of iremption without which he would lack the power of negation

general ad over himsef. at is why the struggle to the deathwhich is the source nd permanent founaon of histo ca olyresult n a mpasse. e renunciato of ie n order to prove tatone a pure being-for-itse smply results in beig removed omthe scene e an amal. It is ecessary at once to cosee lie andts dempon and yet to egate e latter. Aother ea thanbological eath must be discovered trough the tealization of

death. It be recaled how the dialectic of suggle is ansformed into the famous dialectic of e me le atbecame the nspiraon of Marxia philosophy. e slave is theoe who saves hmse by prefeg ie to liber but s anotherway to express hmsef as se-consciousess. He becomes themaster of his master in wg what it is to fear ea, by renderng a praccal service and shapig hmsef thrugh labor. ough

abor, in prcur, he shapes eg-as-oher, or e objective "worl, e fom of se-cosciousess. He maes out of it ahuman wod, hi wo, and, coversly, he gives the permanetnegavi of his own beig-for-itsel the cosistency and stabliof being-n-itself. e coict occasioay remarked betweenbeing-in-itsef ad beg-for-itsef is here resolve by an idividuaity that assumes its beg-as-other ad reconstitutes it in the

form of beg-for-itsef.We shl ot idulge e reecos upo a eoy of sprtal

individuali that are suggested y this cocrete ui of the foritsef ad he i-itself in the human prouct. We shal isteadre to the theme of the setimet of death that seizes the slaveand oers him the possibli of becomig coscious of the tesubstace of lfe by detachg hm om any e to a pacularbeig. It is tough vey cosciousess of at, throughaie i te face of eath, that huma existece becomes its onoigi. Let us take a few passages6 om Hegel hmsel: For thisconsciousness (of te slave) was not in pel ad fear for tiselement or that, nor for this or tat momet of time, it was aaidfo ts etie being; it felt the fear of eath, te sovereign master.


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The Concep o Lie and isence in Hegel

Death s ideed the principle of nega-as such it is not present aml life-at haunts man's beingforhief nd raises hsimited beig to e level of ee beig. e eect of this principle

of negavi is to dissolve completely e bonds wi animal ifeIt has ben at experience melted t its most soul, hasembled roughout its vry bre, and al at was xed andsteadfast has quaked win it" e sigcanc hat eh possesse for biolocal life has is counterpart n e meaning ofbeingfrielf human le is complete perturbaon of itsenre substnce, absolute dissoluon of a its stabili ito

uet connui, is, however, e simple, ulimate natre of sefcosciousess, absolute negativi"

is last text contains the noon of a eeom owr ehwhich i to be foud troughout the Phenomenolo us it shrough the Terror at a revolutoary populace reconstutesitself and is, so to speak, rebo It is in war, where eir wholedeteate life is at stake, that cies ad natos rise to e level

of spiritul life, or what Hegel cs re Liber, ad hereby avoidwlog in he uncoscious beade of private ecoomic andfmily ife In 1807 Hegel wrote-as oly a German could-Inorder not to let em get rooted ad settled in his isolation adthus break up e whole ito agments and let the common spirtevaporate, goveet has om me to me to shake em to every cee by War By mes it cofouds the order that hasbeen estabshed d arrnged, and isolates heir right to dependece"7 Oly in is maer ca a naion resist he cegforces at work to destroy it om wiin nd aspire to Liber

We have cited a suiet umber of passages to show how, inbecoming sefcoscousness in ma uiversl life becomes acoscious pricile of egaviy Isofar as man intees thinega

viwhch reves itself i fe hroughdeahad negates

every deteao of beig wi himsef and beyond himsef,human estece is o loger a give, lke aml fe However, wehave see at Hegel does ot stop wih this bery towrd deahMn srggles with himsef to me or take upon hmsef everydeterminatio, and alhough he negates em as death negatesevery livig particlar, he also conserves them ad edos hem


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32

4 Ibid p 81 as.]5 Ibid p 233. Ibid p 237 as.]

7 Ibid p 474.8 Ibid p 93

The Concept o Lie a istence in Hege


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PART

THE CNCEPT

F HITRY

IN HEGEL


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57/224

3

Te Signicance of

the French Revoluon

in Hegel Phenomenology

I the Peace to The Phenomenolo of Mind egel chacteizes his age as a peio o ansion to a new age As a spanial eali, spiit is, o cose, nee in a state o est; atheit is hee as n the case o the bith o a ch; ate a long peoo ntion in slence, the contini o the gal gowth nsize, o qntitatie change, is seny ct shot by the st beadawnthee is a bea n the pocess, a qtatie changeanthe chil bo I lie manne the spt o e me, gowngslowly an qietly ipe o the new o it to assme, isintegates one agment ate anothe o the scte o its peioswol That it totteng to its al is inicate only by symptomshee an thee. Fioi an agan enni, which ae speaing

n the estabishe oe o thngs, te nene oebong osomeng nownall these betoen that thee is somethingelse appoaching gal cmbing to pieces, which inot lte the genel loo an aspect o the whole, is intepteby the snise, which, in a ash an at a single soe, bngs toiew the om n scte o the ne wo" Fom Tbingenegel ha passionately olowe the stages leaing p to the

Fench Reoltion Une the ence o the Platonic ision heoght he ha seen the colapse o the ncient wol an entete geat hopes o the new spiit at was to emege om thens That is why he is ecely cical in the Phenomenolo othat niii who by his act taks lace n, o atheas, e geneal element o existent acta; an hs act is, een

n own ega intene to hae the e o a niesal35


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36 The Concep o Hiso in Hegel

rinane.2 He iself ad experiened bt systea isparageent is ppnents (fr exaple, s fater,w was a bureaurat in te Misy f Finne at Wrtteberg)

and te nave entusias f te prtagnists f ange fr te sakef ange, tse ultarevlutinries t w e allues in ePrefae f te Phenomenolo3

It wl be n surprise, ten, t n w u attenn givenin te Phenomenolo t te Fren Revlutin an e prfundansfrans wi it brugt abut Inee, in te Phenomenolo Hegel unertakes t investigate al e sures f e

ulture f is tie an t neptualize te n teir riginal fIn general te ieas f an age are nt nsiusly present t tsew live by te; tey are t failiar fr anyne t take tetruble f analyzing te. Hegel saw te nee fr reisveringte pa by wi te uan spiit a reaed its istrilpresent an t explain te latter in ters f its earier evelpent.Spirit is wat it is nly trug wat it as areay e t be4

n ter wrs, trug ts wn stryHwever, it by n ens easy t nteret relevant passages

n e Phenomenolo fr ey present an inextriable weavingf nrete and parular events alng wit general r universanns. Aring t ne's teperaent, Hegel igt be riizedequaly fr aving nsuted a lgay n wi every eventf istry is reue t a lay f lgial ppsites r fr avg

ntainate is lgi wit te aients f istry.5 But eiterrepra iplies a neglet f wat truly rigin n Hegel'swrk as ne f te greatest attepts t relate te sngular andte universal w in rinary nsiusness are juxtapsewitut renliatin Befre preeing t a textual exegesist ay be avantageus t nsier wat we w iretly Hegel's attues twar te Fren Revlutin

Hegel's vews pror o he Pheomeolo

In a reark is ena witngs Hegel speaks f te prate f reaing te newspapers as te g praye f tereist6 It ur infatin abut te wrl situatin at a

spei ent tat we apt a given rientan twar reali


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38 The Concept o Histo in Hege

destiny iout seeking beyond it. On e oer hnd, he sawn Csni a privte reigion hich oered e individu epossib of union w e Univers nd of risng himsef

eyond he level of socie e const may be med i temsof e problem of e relaon eteen urch nd State ''Heelghts he hurch he nme of e State nd e State n ename of he Church" But we should avoid ny h formulaons, for hen posed n tems of such neses e prolem assumes vst propoons Indeed, n view of e indecision of heerly Hegel and e mbigui of some of h proposion, it

likely at e shll smply d o ireconcable noons fiber According to one acon, e idividul is ly ee whenhe relizes imsef a Stte ich is hs on State such aStte ere is no nscendentl spiit but hat is immnent n eealy entese. Te individul is relzed e generl of e non, nd of picur naon becuse e lovewich untes e cizens is incpable of ude iout self

desucton.12 Here m s unquely a tze Accordng to heoer noion, e Stte is not e fest exression of mn nd eindividul must rserve for hmsef a pivte liber ouside ofthe Stte e st cse, Reigon tends to disappear in heely ci at is e cretion of me who re not in ightom e wod" ad do not seek to save wht is pivte toem" e laer cse, he Stte is only a mens to e indi

idus end nd he one is cpble of atnng e UniverslTese to concepons of Libey, e one commun, e oer

ndivdust, re not clerly distguished ese ely Hegeinwngs, and it is possible t e sh be open to he cricsmof hving read into em problems hich belong propey to ouron ge a e-on pssge om he peiod at Be, henhe s sudyg he nsion om he ncient to he modewod, Hegel des upon he libe of the ncient cien s alibe in the Stte Freedom to obey sef-gven las, tofoo sef-chosen leders, to cy out plns hose fomultionone hd ones she"13

Ten, e Absolute for e ciizen s hs teesil ci Byconst, e mode od he cizen has become a pvte

ndivd, hs God is no longer iin e o nd he dsplacs


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The FrenchRevolution inHegel's Phenomenology 39not oly acint gods but th acint Stat iself an habsolut ideal of a " peopl.14 Yet o he sameperio atB, n t Life of Jeu15 alhough not a uiqu xprssion of

Hgls ought at t ti, w n a quite iernt concepion ofliber. Now it is an who is th asur of State an who soitud nds w self h Univrsal. Ma's digni-awor us by cillr an Hgel to translat French Rightof Maconsists "resn to rever h stauts of the Churchor to obey th laws of Stat. Man is "reason whose laws arteal laws an to who no oher auhori on earth or

havn can provid a or raional standar of Jusic.16 Hegel'sCrist says, "I do not cal you pupls or discipls-th lattr foo of thir tachr oftn without understanding h rasonfor e acos; you hav rais youlvs to inpndenc frdo of Will.17 In tes arly igs o concponsof br are not larly snguish an tis i part explainsHgls ambivalent atud towar relgion. Bt he pracical con

sequncs so far as ctics of he contmporay sitaonwr hardly aecte. Hgel is a constant dfndr of he ri ofan an h ciizn.18

Hgl s no revoluonary. By tperamnt h was primly areforr, ough rfors at h demand undr iunc of vnts i Franc wr ssntialy radical. a lttr to en Schling, dated Apr 1, 15, Hgl denounces do

to h last tail h faigs of e sal stat of Be whr hewas livng.19 He gos bin its vrtous faad and xaminscritcally soci asrucur an jusics n it whichshoul be swpt away by the nw idas. Mode pilosophy s apilosophy of h ida, of what ought to be by opposing whatought to b (ollen) to what is, it awakns ose minds that havbco appe th prsnt: "by rvealing how vgought to b, it swp away ndolnce of hos who confrt upon veg as it is. owing how rcly Hegl latr crticiz h oon of ollen" an ideas of hutopians i genral, on cannot b anyng but amazed at Hgl'sraicalis at arr dat. sa bif librangpowr of ideas is vc n a anslaon Hgl ad of ltrs

o French lawyr Cart.20 Cart was a Gironi who ha been


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40 The Concep of Histo in Hegel

forced to ee o h couy after e victory of the Motagards Wi great eloquece he deouced the exacios eforcedby he upricipled olgrchy of the Beese paicias i e

regio of Vaud which they had coquered He describes wi whatcruel the patriots of Vaud are eated ad how er ost eleetary eedos are suppessed his passio for the ide,Hegel puts at the head of his aslao e phrase Die jcammonii.21 addio, Hegel writes a coetry upo eseletes i order to expose a

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Hyppolite Jean Studies on Marx and Hegel