Hegel's Discovery of the Philosophy of Spirit: Autonomy, Alienation, and the Ethical Life: The Jena Lectures 1802-1806

265 Pages·2014·1.7 MB·English

by  Pini Ifergan

Renewing Philosophy
General Editor: Gary Banham
Titles include:
Lou Agosta
EMPATHY IN THE CONTEXT OF PHILOSOPHY
Karin de Boer
ON HEGEL
The Sway of the Negative
Kyriaki Goudeli
CHALLENGES TO GERMAN IDEALISM
Schelling, Fichte and Kant
Pini Ifergan
HEGEL’S DISCOVERY OF THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPIRIT
Autonomy, Alienation, and the Ethical Life: The Jena Lectures 1802–1806
Keekok Lee
PHILOSOPHY AND REVOLUTIONS IN GENETICS
Deep Science and Deep Technology
Beth Lord
KANT AND SPINOZISM
Transcendental Idealism and Immanence from Jacobi to Deleuze
Vincent W. Lloyd
LAW AND TRANSCENDENCE
On the Unfinished Project of Gillian Rose
Jill Marsden
AFTER NIETZSCHE
Jean-Paul Martinon
ON FUTURITY
Malabou, Nancy and Derrida
Simon O’Sullivan
ART ENCOUNTERS DELEUZE AND GUATTARI
Thought Beyond Representation
Peg Rawes
SPACE, GEOMETRY AND AESTHETICS
Through Kant and Towards Deleuze
Celine Surprenant
FREUD’S MASS PSYCHOLOGY
Alberto Toscano
THE THEATRE OF PRODUCTION
Philosophy and Individuation Between Kant and Deleuze
Vasiliki Tsakiri
KIERKEGAARD
Anxiety, Repetition and Contemporaneity
Philip Walsh
SKEPTICISM, MODERNITY AND CRITICAL THEORY
Martin Weatherston
HEIDEGGER’S INTERPRETATION OF KANT
Categories, Imagination and Temporality
Forthcoming titles:
Diane Morgan
KANT, COSMOPOLITICS AND GLOBALITY
Renewing Philosophy
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Hegel’s Discovery of
the Philosophy of Spirit
Autonomy, Alienation, and the Ethical
Life: The Jena Lectures 1802–1806
Pini Ifergan
Bar Ilan University , Israel
Translated by
Nessa Olshansky-Ashtar
© Pini Ifergan 2014
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
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in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2014 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
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This book is dedicated to the memory of
Professor Werner Becker

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
List of Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
1 What Motivated Hegel’s Philosophical Project? 14
1 Introduction 14
2 Hölderlin and Hegel: on the break with Kant and
critique of the concept of reflection 1 9
2 .1 Schiller as a precursor to Hölderlin 21
2 .2 Hölderlin’s “Fragment of Hyperion” 25
2 .3 Fichte and Hölderlin 2 7
2 .4 Hölderlin’s “On Judgment and Being” 31
2 .5 Hölderlin’s Hyperion 3 6
2 .6 Hölderlin’s “Death of Empedocles” 4 3
2.7 H ölderlin, Hegel, and tragedy 4 4
3 Hegel’s critique of reflective philosophy in
Faith and Knowledge 4 8
4 Critique of Kant in Faith and Knowledge 5 4
5 Critique of Fichte in Faith and Knowledge and in
The Difference between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System
of Philosophy 56
2 The First Systematic Attempt to Conceptualize the
Critique of Culture 62
1 Introduction 62
2 Natural ethics: The System of Ethical Life (SEL) 6 8
3 T he first, negative, sublation in SEL 8 4
4 The second, positive, sublation in SEL 9 1
5 Essay on Natural Law (NL): critique of method 9 8
3 Jena Lectures 1803/1804 116
1 Introduction 116
2 Hegel’s embrace of the notion of Spirit as
self-consciousness 118
3 The 1803/1804 “Philosophy of Spirit” lectures 1 31
4 T hree readings of First Philosophy of Spirit 1 52
vii
viii Contents
4 Jena Lectures 1805/1806 157
1 I ntroduction: the rationale for the second series
of “Philosophy of Spirit” lectures 1 57
2 Intelligence and will 1 60
3 Will 169
4 Objective Spirit 186
5 C onstitution and absolute Spirit 1 97
6 Concluding remarks 218
Notes 227
References 246
Index 251
Acknowledgments
This book is the fruit of several years of intensive study of both the
Hegelian corpus and the vast interpretive literature, research that was
enriched by discussions with teachers and colleagues who often shifted
my arguments in unexpected directions. I would like to thank them for
their input.
First and foremost, I am grateful to my teacher Professor Yirmiyahu
Yovel, who guided me through the labyrinthine paths of Hegel’s philos-
ophy. Our many and very pleasurable discussions remain a source of
ongoing inspiration to me. The late Professor Werner Becker demon-
strated amazing willingness to help me work through the critical doubts
to which I was sometimes ready to surrender. His insight and perspi-
cacity contributed enormously to the arguments developed in this book.
I would also like to thank Professor Axel Honneth for edifying conver-
sations as well as for the inspiring example set by his own writings on
Hegel.
To my colleagues Ido Geiger, Dror Yinon, Assaf Sagiv, and Yakir Levin,
who either responded attentively as I voiced and rehashed my quan-
daries about Hegel’s arguments, or patiently read and commented on
sections of the book – comments that were effective in honing my argu-
ments – I am truly grateful for this help and support.
I would like to thank Nessa Olshansky-Ashtar, who translated the
manuscript from Hebrew, for her deft formulations, her dedication to
this project, and her persistence in seeking to clarify the sometimes
ambiguous or convoluted locutions and arguments in the original.
This book was published with the support of the Israel Science
Foundation (grant 52/13).
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