︎ Reading Hegel

May 28, 2021

The Hegelian Absolute continues to be one of the most, if not the most, monstrous philosophical concepts. One of the standard understandings of Hegelian dialectical process is that the subject appropriates the substance (with reference to the Preface of the Phenomenology of Spirit: not only as a substance, but also as a subject). The Hegel’s Absolute, which is both the substance and the subject, should not be read (like Althusser did, amongst others) as an Aufhebung: the reconciliation of all contingencies into one notion. However, for Hegel reconciliation is not a sublation of all tensions and contradictions, but the peaceful situation is impossible precisely because contradictions are part of the reconciliation itself. Hegel famously claimed: ‘the wounds of Spirit heal and leaves no scars behind.’ We can read this statement either as a sign of a totalizing unification (idealism) or as a sign of the very groundlessness of the dialectical movement. The movement of Spirit leaves no scars (leaves nothing behind) because it is the healing that produces the wound. In this talk, I will discuss the concept of religion in Marx and Hegel, Hegelian theory of the state, and the concept of dialectic in Hegel.

(Agon Hamza)