University at Buffalo School of Law Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law Journal Articles Faculty Scholarship 1990 On Hegel, On Slavery, But not on my Head! Guyora Binder University at Buffalo School of Law Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles Part of the Civil Rights and Discrimination Commons Recommended Citation Guyora Binder, On Hegel, On Slavery, But not on my Head!, 11 Cardozo L. Rev. 563 (1990). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.buffalo.edu/journal_articles/290 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ University at Buffalo School of Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. ON HEGEL, ON SLAVERY, BUT NOT ON MY HEAD! Guyora Binder* With [Hegel the dialectic] is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again, if you would discover the rational ker- nel within the mystical shell.' In a comment on my essay Mastery, Slavery, and Emancipation,2 Professor Thomas offers an intriguing critique of the political culture of antebellum Southern whites.' Likening the political culture of the master class to the "inverted world" described in Chapter III of Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind,4 Professor Thomas sketches a boldly patterned portrait of Southern society that contrasts sharply with my own. Unfortunately, Professor Thomas