Realizing Freedom: Hegel, Sartre, and the Alienation of Human Being

262 Pages·2011·1.46 MB·English

by  Gavin Rae (auth.)

Realizing Freedom: Hegel, Sartre, and
the Alienation of Human Being

Realizing Freedom:
Hegel, Sartre, and
the Alienation of
Human Being
Gavin Rae
American University in Cairo, Egypt
© Gavin Rae 2011
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 ISBN 978-0-230-31435-1
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-33963-1 ISBN 978-0-230-34889-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230348899
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11
Contents
List of Abbreviations of Works Cited viii
Preface and Acknowledgements x
Introduction 1
The importance of alienation for Hegel and Sartre 3
Structure and method of the work 7
1 Sartre’s Existential Ontology 11
The purpose and status of Being and Nothingness 12
The ontological characteristics of being-for-itself 14
The ontological characteristics of being-in-itself 22
Facticity 25
Freedom 28
The universal value and the fundamental project 34
Conversion and the desire to be God 37
Conclusion 40
2 Fleeing from Freedom: Sartre and Bad Faith 43
Lying and bad faith 43
The structure and choice of bad faith 44
Disclosing bad faith through concrete examples 46
Sincerity 49
The failure of bad faith 53
Good faith and the faith of bad faith 55
Conversion and bad faith 56
3 Sartre, Alienation, and the Other 63
Sartre on Hegel’s theory of intersubjectivity 64
The other and the ontological structure of consciousness 66
The look as the primordial social relation 72
Reacting to the other’s look: shame and pride 74
Interacting with the other: the ‘we’ and the role of language 76
Conversion and social relations 78
Conversion, language, and the ‘we’ 83
Conclusion 87
v
vi Contents
4 Sartre, Group Formations, and Practical Freedom 91
The early and later Sartre: radical rupture or continuity? 92
The practico-inert and the other 93
Seriality 96
The group-in-fusion 98
The organized group 101
Institutions 106
5 Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit 110
Hegel and phenomenology 110
The method of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit 113
Consciousness and the objective world 122
The ontological development of consciousness 125
Spirit 131
Hegel and Sartre on freedom 136
6 Alienation and the Phenomenology of Spirit 143
Alienation as estrangement 146
Degrees of estrangement 148
Alienation as externalization 149
Consciousness’s reaction to its self-externalization 153
Concluding remarks 156
7 Hegel’s Social Philosophy: Abstract Right and Morality 165
The sociality of individual freedom 168
Abstract right and private property 171
Contract and its violation 173
Morality 177
Morality and the problem of evil 179
8 Realizing Freedom: Hegel and Ethical Life 183
The ontological and ethical importance of family 188
Familial property and the ethical role of children 194
Civil society and individual need 198
Civil society and the problem of poverty 204
Cultures of poverty: honour and the rabble 207
Breaking the rabble mentality 211
Poverty and the community-orientated culture/ethic 213
Culture and the public authority 216
Culture, poverty, and the role of the corporation 219
Culture, poverty, and consumerism 221
Freedom and the state 224
Contents vii
The constitution of Hegel’s rational state 226
Concluding remarks 230
Notes 233
Bibliography 234
Index 239
Abbreviations of Works Cited
The following is a list of abbreviations for the various texts written by
Hegel and Sartre used throughout the text. Other works cited can be
found by comparing the in-text citation with the bibliography at the
end of the book.
Hegel
PN Hegel, G.W.F. (2007), Philosophy of Nature, (trans. Miller, A.V.),
Oxford University Press: Oxford. [The number refers to the
paragraph, R to ‘Remarks,’ and A to ‘Additions’.]
PH H egel, G.W.F. (2004), Philosophy of History, (trans. Sibree, J.), Dover:
New York.
LA H egel, G.W.F. (2004), Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics, (trans.
Bosanquet, B; ed. Inwood, M.), Penguin: London.
HP Hegel, G.W.F. (2003), Introduction to the Lectures on the History of
Philosophy, (trans. Knox, T., & Miller, A.V.), Oxford University
Press: Oxford.
PR Hegel, G.W.F. (1991), Philosophy of Right, (trans. Nisbet, H.B.),
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. [The number refers to
the paragraph, R to ‘Remarks,’ and A to ‘Additions’.]
EL Hegel, G.W.F. (1991), The Encyclopaedia Logic, (trans. Gereats,
T.F., Suchting, W.A., & Harris, H.S.), Hackett: Cambridge.
[The number refers to the paragraph, R to ‘Remarks,’ and A to
‘Additions’.]
PM Hegel, G.W.F. (1988), Philosophy of Mind, (trans. Miller, A.V.),
Clarendon Press: Oxford. [The number refers to the paragraph,
R to ‘Remarks,’ and A to ‘Additions’.]
PS H egel, G.W.F. (1977), Phenomenology of Spirit, (trans. Miller, A.V.),
Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Sartre
BEM Sartre, J.P. (2008), Between Existentialism and Marxism, (trans.
Matthews, J.), Verso: London.
WL S artre, J.P. (2007), What Is Literature? (trans. Frechtman, B.),
Routledge: London.
viii
List of Abbreviations of Works Cited ix
CDR 1 Sartre, J.P. (2006), Critique of Dialectical Reason, vol.1, (trans.
Hoare, Q; ed. Elkaim-Sartre, A.), Verso: London.
CDR 2 Sartre, J.P. (2006), Critique of Dialectical Reason, vol. 2, (trans.
Hoare, Q; ed. Elkaim-Sartre, A.), Verso: London.
TOTE Sartre, J.P. (2004), The Transcendence of the Ego, (trans. Brown,
A.), Routledge: London.
BN S artre, J.P. (2003), Being and Nothingness: A Study in
Phenomenological Ontology, (trans. Barnes, H.), Routledge:
London.
WD S artre, J.P. (1999), War Diaries: Notebooks from a Phoney War
1939–1940, (trans. Hoare, Q.), Verso: London.
NE S artre, J.P. (1992), Notebooks for an Ethics, (trans. Pellauer, D.),
University of Chicago Press: London.
TE S artre, J.P. (1992), Truth and Existence, (trans. van den Hoven,
A.; ed. Aronson, R.), University of Chicago Press: London.
ASJ S artre, J.P. (1976), Anti-Semite and Jew: An Exploration of the
Etiology of Hate, (trans. Becker, G.J.), Schocken Books: New
York.
EH Sartre, J.P. (1973), Existentialism and Humanism, (trans.
Mairet, P.), Methuen: London.
I S artre, J.P. (1970), ‘Intentionality: A Fundamental Idea of
Husserl’s Phenomenology,’ (trans. Fell, J.P.), Journal of the
British Society for Phenomenology, vol.1, n.2, May, (pp. 4–5).
SM S artre, J.P. (1968), Search for a Method, (trans. Barnes, H.),
Vintage: London.
SG S artre, J.P. (1963), Saint Genet: Actor and Martyr, (trans.
Frechtman, B.), Pantheon: New York.