1. Introduction and Context(s) Matt Bennett mpb74@cam.ac.uk
Hegel
Introduction and Context(s)
Matt Bennett

2. Structure of the lectures
Introduction and context(s)
Sense certainty
Recognition I – self-consciousness and desire
Recognition II – the need for other people
Subjective freedom
Objective freedom
Dialectic
Absolute idealism

3. GWF Hegel
Born Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel in Stuttgart, 1770
Studied at a seminary school in Tübingen with Friedrich Hölderlin and Fredrich von Schelling
Joined Schelling in Jena 1801 – 1807, completed Phenomenology of Spirit
1807 – 1817 worked as headmaster of a school in Nuremburg, and published the Science of Logic and the Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences
1817 – 1831 Chair of Philosophy in Berlin
Published Elements of the Philosophy of Right and lectured broadly

4. Hegel’s Style
“I found by actual experience of Hegel that conversancy with him tends to deprave one’s intellect. The attempt to unwind an apparently infinite series of self–contradictions, …really if persisted in impairs the acquired delicacy of perception of false reasoning & false thinking which has been gained by years of careful mental discipline... For some time after I had finished the book all such words as reflexion, development, evolution, &c., gave me a sort of sickening feeling which I have not yet entirely got rid of.” JS Mill

5. Hegel’s Style
“…the height of audacity in serving up pure nonsense, in stringing together senseless and extravagant mazes of words, such as had previously been known only in madhouses, was finally reached in Hegel, and became the instrument of the most barefaced general mystification that has ever taken place, with a result which will appear fabulous to posterity, and will remain as a monument to German stupidity.” Arthur Schopenhauer

6. Hegel’s Influence

7. Historical context - Kant’s critical project
Transcendental Idealism
Analysis of the innate structures of the mind
Basic form and concepts that reason brings to experience include
Space
Time
Causality
Unity
Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind

8. Hegel’s objections to Kant

9. Hegel’s objections to Kant
1. You can’t swim without getting wet
Reply to 1: there is a difference between the exercise of reason as such, and metaphysics
2. Kant dogmatically assumes that reality cannot be structured in the same way as thought
3. The limits of Kant’s reason are contingent, not necessary
Reply to 2 and 3: Kant doesn’t simply assume that reason cannot do more

10. From dualism to freedom
Hegel resists Kant’s dualism in the name of freedom
But why think Kant’s philosophy restricts our freedom?
Freedom as liberty – not a problem for Kant
Freedom as autonomy – not a problem for Kant (arguably)
Freedom as non-alienation (Hegel’s concept of freedom) – a problem for all dualism
Hegel’s goal: a philosophy of absolute freedom