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Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason and Society Peter Osborne

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Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason and Society Peter Osborne Hegelian Phenomenology and the Critique of Reason and Society Peter Osborne Abhot Terrasson has rema~cked that if the size of a volume be measured not by the number of its pages but by the time required for mastering it, it can be said of many a book, that it would be much shorter if it were not so short. (Kant, Preface'to First Edition, Critique of Pure Reason) Gillian Qnse's Hegel Contra Sociology (Athlone Press, of Hegel's thought which focuses on the socio­ 1981, £6.95 pb, 26lpp) would be much shorter were it political significance of his idea of speculative not so short. It is unashamedly, and sadly, an experience. extremely difficult book; not just in terms of the The argument is that Marx's critique of Hegel is complexity and subtlety of the position it puts for­ based on a Fichtean reading of his system which fails ward, but, primarily, in terms of the way in which to grasp the true meaning of his concepts of actual­ this position is presented. But it is, nonetheless, ity and spirit, and that in fact these concepts pro­ in many ways an important book. For it challenges, vide the theoretical basis for the conceptualisation at a fundamental level, the generally accepted frame­ of the subjective mediations of objective social work within which Hegel has been interpreted; and, forms. Marx's own conception of practical material­ in so doing, it challenges accepted beliefs not only ism is seen as theoretically incapable of.conceptual­ about the relationship between Marx and Hegel, but ising such mediations, since it involv~s abstract also about the philosophical adequacy of Marxism and dichotomies between being and consciousness, and the redundancy of Hegelianism. It contains a densely theory and practice, which can only be unified argued and philosophically sophisticated piece of abstractly in an 'ought'. Without such mediations, Hegel scholarship which is mobilised against all the the relation between Capital and politics is seen to prevailing tendencies of contemporary social theory, be indeterminate. Capital gives an account of the and it will be of particular interest to 'the mater­ objective determinations of social relations, but ialist friends of the idealist dialectic' [1]. Marxism is seen to be theoretically incapable of In this essay my aim is two-fold: (i) to produce utilising this knowledge through a politics which an account of some central themes of the book, and, accounts for how these social relations may be prac­ in particular, of the reading of Hegel around which tically transformed on the basis of their objective it revolves; and (ii) to offer a provisional assess­ determinations, because it cannot develop adequate ment of the standpoint it adopts, not so much with concepts of subjectivity and culture [4]. regard to the textual credibility of the interpreta­ In what follows, I first give an account of Rose's tion of Hegel from which it derives, as with respect understanding of Hegel, contrasting it with that on to its immanent viability and more general implica­ which Critical Theory is based, since (i) this is a tions. For Rose treats the conception of Hegelian standard interpretation, and (ii) Rose's reading of phenomenology which she outlines as the only possible Hegel functions as a reformulation of the foundations coherent theoretical basis for the development of a of Critical Theory; then I discuss its implications critical theory of subjectivity, culture, and hence, for Marxism, and I discuss Rose's understanding politics. She wants to appropriate aspects of Hegel's of Harx. I conclude with a few comments of a general philosophy. The idea which the book develops is that nature on the overtly 'philosophical' character of the philosophical basis of Hegel's thought must be the project that Rose outlines. One of the most appropriated by Marxism if the latter is to be able interesting things about the book is that, while it to generate a critical politics. So it is the criticises existing formulations of Critical Theory, internal cogency of Rose's account of Hegel, rather it demonstrates and clearly endorses the explicitly than its historical veracity, which is important. 'philosophical' nature of its project. Hegel Contra Sociology announces itself as 'an attempt to retrieve Hegelian speculative experience Hegelian Phenomenology and the Radicalisation of Kant's for social theory' [2], and it concludes with a brief Critique of Reason outline of a projected Hegelian social theory (labelled 'critical Marxism' - I will come back to Hegel Contra Sociology is perhaps best understood as this) as 'the exposition of capitalism as culture', a response to Habermas's account of the development 'a presentation of the contradictory relations of German philosophy from Kant to Marx, which prepares between Capital and culture' [3] in the phenomeno­ the ground for his formulation of Critical Theory as logical (speculative) mode. In the meantime, it a theory of knowledge-constitutive interests, and to develops a philosophical critique of sociology and the understanding of the idea of metacritique, as the of Harxism, and a strikingly original interpretation radicalisation of Kant's critique of reason, on which 8 that theory is based [5]. It is this interpretation Emphasising the specificity of Hegel's thought, of the idea of metacritique which determines the Rose restricts her usage of the term 'metacritique' meaning Habermas gives to the statement that 'a radi­ to refer to that particular form of reflection on cal critique of knowledge is possible only as social the presuppositions of theory developed by those who theory' [6]. As we shall see, Rose's reading of rejected Hegel's philosophy; that is, quasi-transcend­ Hegel involves a reinterpretation of this fundamental ental reflection - inquiry into the ontological or axiom of Critical Theory, which changes its orienta­ sociological preconditions of critique by transcend­ tion from an, at least formal, directedness towards ental argument. Habermas's theory of knowledge­ Harx back towards Hegel. constitutive interests is established by an argument Habermas's understanding of the idea of meta­ of this kind. This kind of argument is quasi-trans­ critique has recently been elaborated by Garbis cendental because its results are both a priori (as Kortian in his book Metacritique: The Philosophical the ground of critique) and seemingly naturalistic Argwnent of Jurgen Habermas (Cambridge University (as external to the mind). Consequently: Press, 1980). A brief examination of the different The status of the relation between the socio­ ways in which Kortian and Rose treat the concept of logical precondition and the conditioned becomes metacritique will serve to introduce Rose's position correspondingly ambiguous in all sociological and to situate it in relation to Critical Theory [7]. quasi-transcendental arguments. Kortian characterises 'metacritique' as an argument­ [14 ] ative strategy with reference to Hegel's Phenomenology In opposition to such an ambiguous form of argument, of Spirit, which is taken to provide its paradigm [7]. Hegelian phenomenology is presented as a form of He develops an account of the philosophical structure cognitive activity which successfully radicalises of Habermas's work in terms of the idea of meta­ the critique of reason, which presents its social pre­ critique, and he uses the difference in the form of conditions through a process of speculative self­ the arguments that Hegel and Habermas use to determine reflection in which the exposition of critique and the theoretical specificity of Habermas's work. the derivation of its ground are united: Critical Theory generally, and Habermas's work in The exposition of abstract thinking and the particular, are presented as a response to the failure derivation of the social institutions which of Hegel's attempt at metacritique: 'Critical Theory determine it are completely integrated in the is intended as the experience and expression of the tracing of the education of self-consciousness failure of the Hegelian concept [8]. at specific historical moments. In agreement with Kortian's acceptance of a distinc· [15 ] tion between the epistemological structures of pheno­ The reason that Kortian does not distinguish menological and other forms of metacritical argument, phenomenological and quasi-transcendental arguments but in opposition to his account of their difference, in this way is that his reconstruction of Habermas's Hegel Contra Sociology presents a reading of Hegel argument shares the presuppositions of Habermas's which is built upon a claim for the epistemological thought. In this sense, it is less a reconstruction superiority of the phenomenological form of Hegel's than a restatement. It presupposes the validity of argument. Hegel's thought is counter-posed to that the interpretation of Hegel from which Habermas of the advocates of Critical Theory, and of socio­ starts out. This interpretation (which is a standard logical thought generally (of which Critical Theory one) maintains that Hegel . is seen to be an instance, despite itself), as rep­ employs the radicalisation of critique, or this resentative of the only possible form of thought experience which he terms 'speculative', in the capable of superceding the dilemmas of Kantianism, service of an absolute system of knowledge which are taken to be reproduced within all socio­ governed by the presupposition of the identity logical thought (and most strikingly in Habermas) of thought and being. because of its reliance upon Kantian forms of argu­ [16 ] mentation [9]. So while Habermas claims that his own The Phenomenology of Spirit is taken to be grounded work is genuinely metacritical, and that Hegel's is in idealist metaphysics. Rejecting this metaphysic, metaphysical - in its failure to eliminate all Habermas separates the idea of the self-reflection 'absolute' presuppositions - Rose claims that only from the phenomenological form of its presentation. Hegel has achieved genuine metacritique, and that It is this abstraction which gives rise to the idea Habermas's work remains Kantian.
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