Reason in the World: Hegel's Metaphysics and Its Philosophical Appeal

305 Pages·2015·2.35 MB·English

by  James Kreines

Reason in the World

Reason in the World
Hegel’s Metaphysics and Its Philosophical Appeal
JAMES KREINES
1
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Kreines, James.
Reason in the world : Hegel’s metaphysics and its philosophical appeal / James Kreines.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978–0–19–020430–3 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831. 2. Metaphysics. I. Title.
B2949.M4K74 2015
193—dc23
2014035884
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments vii
Abbreviations ix
Introduction: The Fundamentality of the Metaphysics of Reason 1
PART I PRIMITIVE AND MEDIATE
REASONS: IMMANENT CONCEPTS FROM
MECHANISM TO TELEOLOGY
1. The Dialectic of Mechanism 35
2. Against Empiricist Metaphysics and for the Concept Thesis
and the Metaphysics of Reason 57
3. Kant’s Challenge and Hegel’s Defense of Natural Teleology: The
Concept as the Substance of Life 77
PART II THE INESCAPABLE PROBLEM
OF COMPLETE REASONS: KANT’S DIALECTIC
CRITIQUE OF METAPHYSICS
4. Kant’s Dialectic Argument and the Restriction of
Knowledge 113
5. The Opening for Hegel’s Response to Kant’s Dialectic 136
vi Contents
PART III COMPLETE REASONS: FROM THE IDEA
TO THE ABSOLUTE IDEA
6. Against the Metaphysics of the Understanding and the Final
Subject or Substratum 155
7. Insubstantial Holism and the Real Contradiction of the
Lawful: Chemism 181
8. The Idea: Complete Reason as Process 199
9. Free Kind for Itself: From the Metaphysics of the Absolute Idea
to Epistemological Monism and Idealism 219
10. Method and Conclusion of the Logic: Dialectic, Contradiction,
and Absolute Knowledge 240
Works Cited 273
Index 279
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
A portion of chapter 3 appears as “Kant and Hegel on Teleology and Life from
the Perspective of Debates about Free Will” in The Freedom of Life: Hegelian
Perspectives; I thank Walther König for permission to reprint these parts. I also
thank the American Philosophical Society for a generous fellowship at the
beginning of this project, and Claremont McKenna College for support and
a research sabbatical.
I am tremendously indebted to those who read the whole of the manuscript
at various stages, and provided incredibly generous and insightful commen-
tary: Rolf-Peter Horstmann, Paul Hurley, Dean Moyar, Robert Pippin, Paul
Redding, Peter Thielke, and Christopher Yeomans. My colleagues in the phi-
losophy departments of Claremont have been a source of support and phil-
osophical stimulation throughout. And many others have helped me with
chapters or earlier work, or have otherwise been of great assistance; they
include: Mark Alznauer, Ivan Boldyrev, Luca Illetterati, Erick Jiménez, Franz
Knappik, Daniel Moerner, Terry Pinkard, Tobias Rosefeldt, and Robert Stern.
My heartfelt thanks to all those above; many of them have helped over many
years, and have taught me by example whatever I know about the virtues of the
collective practice of philosophy. Of course, any errors are my own. I thank
my parents, especially for their indefatigable love and encouragement over the
very long term. Finally, and yet before all, I thank Jen, Zack, and Cassandra for
their love and support; to them, my deepest love and gratitude.
J.K.
vii

ABBREVIATIONS
In the body of this work and in footnotes, I provide page references, first to
the German and then to the English editions of primary texts, and I separate
pages of the two editions with a slash (/). Below, I indicate the abbreviations
I use for the works of Kant and Hegel. I list the translations I have used, which
are sparingly modified by removing capitalization of Hegel’s terminology in
the English, bringing the translations of key terms elsewhere into line with
the Cambridge translations of my main texts, and handling some terms (e.g.,
Gattung or kind) in a manner consistent with the interpretation of them
I defend in the text.
Hegel
References to Hegel’s works in German are to the Werke in zwanzig Bänden, ed.
Eva Moldenhauer and Karl Markus Michel (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp
Verlag, 1970). The Encyclopedia is cited by section (§) number, followed, where
relevant, by “R” to indicate a “remark” (Anmerkung) of Hegel’s, or “Z” to indi-
cate an “addition” (Zusatz) from Hegel’s lectures.
EG Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind. 1971. Translated by W. Wallace and A. V.
Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Werke volume 10.
EL Encyclopaedia Logic. 2010. Translated by K. Binkmann and D. O.
Dahlstrom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Werke
volume 8.
EN Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature. 1970. Translated by W. Wallace and
A. V. Miller. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Werke volume 9.
ix