Philosophical Labour: the Critical Role of Hegel's Logics Giovanna
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Philosophical Labour: The Critical Role of Hegel’s Logics Giovanna Luciano Doctor of Philosophy Dual Award Western Sydney University School of Humanities and Communication Arts/ Università degli Studi di Padova Dipartimento di Filosofia, Sociologia, Pedagogia, e Psicologia Applicata 2019 In loving memory of Fiore, an Argonaut. There was no ineffable world that leapt out from inspired words, as if by magic, and she would never write except from inside her language, which is everyone’s language, the only tool she’s ever intended on using to act upon the things that outraged her. (Annie Ernaux, The Years) 2 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This thesis has been greatly enriched by many dialogues, exchanges of views, and discussions that I have been fortunate enough to have on many occasions, in many places, with many people. First of all, I want to thank my supervisors Professor Paolo Diego Bubbio, Professor Luca Illetterati and Professor Dennis J. Schmidt for the precious advice they gave me during the writing of my thesis and for constantly reminding me to make my ideas more explicit. I want to thank Professor Jennifer Mensch for her availability, encouragement and empathy, which went well beyond her role as HDR Director of the School of Humanities and Communication Arts at Western Sydney University. I thank Professor Francesca Menegoni, director of the Scuola di Dottorato in Filosofia at the Università di Padova, for her support and the help she has given me during these years. I am then grateful to Professor Angelica Nuzzo for inviting me to the Graduate Center of the City University of New York as a visiting scholar and for giving me the opportunity to engage with a vibrant academic environment. My discussions with Professor Angelica Nuzzo were decisive in determining the aims of this thesis. Moreover, I want to thank Professor Richard J. Bernstein for giving me the opportunity to attend his seminar on Hegel’s Science of Logic at The New School. It was a stimulating and unique experience. I want to thank Professor Alfredo Ferrarin for initiating me into the study of Kant’s philosophy, at the beginning of my education as undergraduate student. My special thanks go out to everyone from the research groups Hegelpd and the Australian Hegel Society. Hegelpd is an incredible, tireless and contagious hotbed of ideas carried on by wonderful people who have been my friends for many years. The Australian Hegel Society has become my second home in Sydney. I want to express my gratitude to Professor Simon Lumsden, Professor Heikki Ikäheimo and Professor Paul Redding for their enthusiasm and their extreme kindness towards me. I think that I have received from these research groups more than I have given them: they have been precious for my research and for helping me to find meaning in my work. I would not have been able to complete this thesis without the constant support and encouragement that, during these years, I have received from many people. My heartfelt 3 thanks to Guglielmo Califano, Andrea T. W. Pollio, Daniele Fulvi, Elena Tripaldi and James Banwell. 4 STATEMENT OF AUTHENTICATION The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in part, for a degree at this or any other institution. ………………………………… (Signature) 5 DECLARATIONS I acknowledge the professional editorial assistance in the form of copyediting, but not proofreading, provided by Christopher Brennan, STB, AE (Accredited Editor, Institute of Professional Editors, Australia – IPEd), according to Standards D and E of the Australian Standards for Editing Practice, 2nd ed. (IPEd, 2013). This assistance related to the main text of the thesis (Abstract, Introduction, Chapters 1 to 5, and Conclusions and Future Prospects). 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 9 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................. 11 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 16 CHAPTER 1 ............................................................................................................................... 23 The Task and Limits of Philosophy ........................................................................................ 23 1.1 A Contradictory Task .......................................................................................................... 23 1.1.a Human Needs and the Political Role of Kantian Philosophy .................................... 23 1.1.b To Know a Limit .............................................................................................................. 27 1.1.c The Teleology of the Kantian System............................................................................ 30 1.1.d The Reflective Form and Need of Philosophy ............................................................ 33 1.2 Philosophy, Reason and Subjectivity ................................................................................ 36 CHAPTER 2 ............................................................................................................................... 46 Logic and an Introduction to Philosophy .............................................................................. 46 2.1 Logic Qua Introduction ...................................................................................................... 46 2.2 The Kantian Turn ................................................................................................................ 54 2.2.a The New Method of Thought and Metaphysics in the Critique of Pure Reason ......... 54 2.2.b New and Old Metaphysics .............................................................................................. 63 2.3 Scepticism and Dialectics .................................................................................................... 65 2.3.a Sceptical Method in the Transcendental Perspective of the Critique of Pure Reason . 65 2.3.b Sceptical Method in the Hegelian Dialectical–Speculative Perspective: Rethinking the Role of Logic and Metaphysics ......................................................................................... 73 CHAPTER 3 ............................................................................................................................... 76 Towards a Dialectical Meaning of Logic: Logic and Metaphysics in Jena (1804–05) ...... 76 3.1 A Methodological Discomfort ........................................................................................... 76 3.2 Redefinition of the Speculative .......................................................................................... 81 3.3 Limit: The First Dialectical Category within the Logic of Understanding .................. 85 3.4 The Paradoxical Nature of Quantum: Bad and True Infinity ....................................... 92 7 CHAPTER 4 .............................................................................................................................. 97 The Conceptual Labour of Philosophy................................................................................... 97 4.1 The Anstrengung des Begriffs ................................................................................................... 97 4.1.a Arbeit and Begriff: Kant and Hegel against Prophets in Philosophy ........................... 99 4.1.b A Struggle between Worlds ........................................................................................... 104 4.2 The Arbeit des Begriffs as Mediation ................................................................................... 110 4.2 a A Matter of Eating and Digestion ................................................................................ 110 4.2.b The Process of Labour .................................................................................................. 118 CHAPTER 5 ............................................................................................................................. 121 Speculative Thinking as Logic of the Entzweiung ................................................................. 121 5.1 Philosophy in the Encyclopaedic System: The Self-Reference of the Wissenschaft der Vernunft ...................................................................................................................................... 121 5.1.a Philosophy’s Only Knowledge ...................................................................................... 121 5.1.b The Division of Philosophy in Hegel’s Lectures on Logic and Metaphysics at the University of Heidelberg and in the Encyclopedia (1817) ..................................................... 130 5.2 Self-Critique and Self-Knowledge of Reason ................................................................ 139 5.2.a A Limitless and Dialectical Reason .............................................................................. 139 5.2.b Which I? The einfach Begriff of the I as Aufgehoben-Beginning of Philosophy ......... 143 CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS ............................................................. 150 BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................... 154 8 ABSTRACT English: The object