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Understanding Hegelianism UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page Ii UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page i understanding Hegelianism UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page ii Understanding Movements in Modern Thought Series Editor: Jack Reynolds This series provides short, accessible and lively introductions to the major schools, movements and traditions in philosophy and the his- tory of ideas since the beginning of the Enlightenment. All books in the series are written for undergraduates meeting the subject for the first time. Published Understanding Empiricism Understanding Phenomenology Robert G. Meyers David R. Cerbone Understanding Existentialism Understanding Poststructuralism Jack Reynolds James Williams Understanding Hegelianism Understanding Utilitarianism Robert Sinnerbrink Tim Mulgan Understanding Hermeneutics Understanding Virtue Ethics Lawrence K. Schmidt Stan van Hooft Forthcoming titles include Understanding Ethics Understanding Pragmatism Tim Chappell Axel Mueller Understanding Feminism Understanding Psychoanalysis Peta Bowden and Jane Mummery Joanne Faulkner and Matthew Sharpe Understanding German Idealism Will Dudley Understanding Rationalism Charlie Heunemann Understanding Naturalism Jack Ritchie UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page iii understanding Hegelianism Robert Sinnerbrink ACUMEN UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page iv For Eva and Mimi © Robert Sinnerbrink, 2007 This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. No reproduction without permission. All rights reserved. First published in 2007 by Acumen Acumen Publishing Limited Stocksfield Hall Stocksfield NE43 7TN www.acumenpublishing.co.uk ISBN: 978-1-84465-093-4 (hardcover) ISBN: 978-1-84465-094-1 (paperback) British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong. Printed and bound by Cromwell Press, Trowbridge. UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page v Contents Preface and acknowledgements vii Abbreviations xi Introduction: Hegel and the Enlightenment 1 part I The adventures of Hegelianism 13 1 Introducing Hegelian idealism 15 2 Adventures in Hegelianism 39 part II German Hegelianism 59 3 Reification and metaphysics: Lukács and Heidegger 61 4 Enlightenment, domination and non-identity: Adorno’s negative dialectics 83 5 Modernity, intersubjectivity and recognition: Habermas and Honneth 101 part III French Hegelianism 123 6 French Hegelianism and its discontents: Wahl, Hyppolite, Kojève 125 7 Between existentialism and Marxism: Sartre, de Beauvoir, Merleau-Ponty 147 contents v UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page vi 8 Deconstructing Hegelianism: Deleuze, Derrida and the question of difference 171 Conclusion: the future of Hegelianism 201 Questions for discussion and revision 207 Further reading 211 References 217 Index 221 vi understanding hegelianism UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page vii Preface and acknowledgements This book is intended to introduce one of the richest movements in modern philosophy. Hegelianism presents one possible path into modern European or “Continental” philosophy, which we can under- stand as a series of complex responses to Hegel. In what follows, I show how Hegelian and anti-Hegelian currents of thought shaped some of the most significant movements in twentieth-century European philosophy, from existentialism, Marxism and phenomenology to crit- ical theory and poststructuralism. I foreground the Hegelian themes of the unhappy consciousness, the master/slave dialectic and the struggle for recognition, which have proven very fertile for German critical theory as well as for postwar French philosophy. I also consider the problem of modernity, theories of recognition, and the deconstruction of dialectic, important themes that are all profoundly indebted to Hegelian thought. On the other hand, Hegel has had a largely negative impact on the development of analytic philosophy; fortunately, this has recently begun to change with the emergence of “analytic neo- Hegelianism” (see Rockmore 2005). While I deal primarily with what I loosely call “German” and “French” appropriations of Hegelian thought, I also make some brief remarks on analytic neo-Hegelianism in my concluding discussion. The book is structured into three parts. It begins with a brief introduction to key elements of Hegel’s philosophy, and an over- view of some of the main figures in the competing “Right” and “Left” Hegelian schools. I suggest that two of the most famous critiques of Hegelian thought – Kierkegaard’s existentialism and Marx’s materialism preface and acknowledgements vii UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page viii – represent the defining poles of subsequent Hegelian and anti-Hegelian movements. These existentialist and Marxist currents comprise a con- ceptual matrix that can help us understand developments in twentieth- century Hegelian and anti-Hegelian thought. The second part takes up these themes by looking at the contrasting critiques of Hegel presented by Marxist philosopher Georg Lukács and existential phenomenologist Martin Heidegger. Lukács’s theme of reification and Heidegger’s critique of Hegel as a Cartesian metaphysi- cian set the stage for the appropriation of Hegelian themes in German critical theory and for the critique of Hegelianism in French poststruc- turalism. I then consider various Hegelian critiques of modernity – of modern reason, society, culture and conceptions of subjectivity – in the critical theory tradition, focusing on Adorno and Horkheimer’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and on Adorno’s negative dialectics. This is followed by an examination of the role of Hegelian themes in the work of Jürgen Habermas and Axel Honneth, who strongly emphasize the Hegelian concept of recognition for developing a critical theory of intersubjectivity and of modern society. In the third part, I turn to the rich tradition of Hegelianism within twentieth-century French philosophy, beginning with the existentialist Hegelianism of Jean Wahl, Alexandre Kojève’s Heideggerian-Marxist reading, and Jean Hyppolite’s “hybrid” interpretation, which drew upon both existentialist and Marxist impulses. I then explore the ways in which French existentialism and phenomenology were both marked by a significant engagement with Hegelian thought. Here I focus upon Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialist critique of Hegel, Simone de Beauvoir’s ambiguous engagement with Hegelian themes in The Second Sex, and conclude with a discussion of Merleau-Ponty’s account of Hegelian existentialism and the question of a post-Hegelian “hyperdialectics”. Finally, I consider the radical critique of Hegelianism articulated by French poststructuralist thinkers Gilles Deleuze and Jacques Derrida, whose attempts to construct a post-Hegelian philosophy of difference involve a complex critical relationship with Hegel. Can Hegelianism be overcome through an anti-dialectical conception of difference? Or does it require a complex “deconstruction” of its scope and limits? Can the philosophy of difference construct an alternative to Hegelian dialectics? In conclusion, I gesture briefly towards contemporary thinkers (such as Judith Butler and Slavoj Zˇ izˇek), whose work productively appropriates Hegelian themes while also integrating the critiques of Hegel found in critical theory and in poststructuralism. Their work, viii understanding hegelianism UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page ix along with the Hegel renaissance in contemporary “post-analytic” phi- losophy, demonstrates the fertility of Hegelianism for contemporary thought. The argument developed in the book as a whole is that the conflict between much contemporary French and German thought derives from conflicting responses to Hegel: French Hegelianism emphasized the unhappy consciousness, the master/slave dialectic, and attempted to transform Hegelian dialectics into a philosophy of differ- ence; German Hegelianism underscored Hegel’s theory of modernity, his defence of an expanded theory of rationality, and his thematizing of recognition as part of a theory of social intersubjectivity. I suggest that a proper understanding of the plural and conflicting nature of Hegelianism might clear a path for a productive rapprochement between these two often conflicting perspectives defining modern European philosophy. There are many people I would like to thank for their contributions towards the genesis of this book. I am greatly indebted to György Márkus for inspiring me with a passion for Hegel and Hegelian thought, and for generously commenting on various chapter drafts; to Elisabeth During for giving me the opportunity as a postgraduate to teach her course on the “Heritage of Hegel”; and to my colleague Jean-Philippe Deranty for many discussions on neo-Hegelianism. I must acknowledge Paul Redding, Robert B. Pippin, Michael Theunissen, Rolf-Peter Horstmann and Stephen Houlgate, who all contributed to my Bildung as a reader of Hegelian thought. My stu- dents at Macquarie University should also be thanked for allowing me to sharpen my thinking through teaching topics central to this study. I would especially like to thank the Series Editor Jack Reynolds, and Tristan Palmer, Sue Hadden and Elizabeth Teague, for their admirable editorial support, for Jack’s excellent critical comments on various chapter drafts, and Tristan’s patience regarding the completion of my manuscript. Finally, I am deeply grateful to my wife, Louise D’Arcens, without whose loving support, sound advice and firm encouragement I would never have completed this book. preface and acknowledgements ix UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page x UHA01 30/04/2007 10:43 AM Page xi Abbreviations BN Jean-Paul Sartre, Being
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