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Hegel's Concept of Life: Self-Consciousness, Freedom, Logic
Karen Ng sheds new light on Hegel's famously impenetrable philosophy. She does so by offering a new interpretation of Hegel's idealism and by foregrounding Hegel's Science of Logic, revealing that Hegel's theory of reason revolves around the concept of organic life.
Beginning with the influence of Kant's Critique of Judgment on Hegel, Ng argues that Hegel's key philosophical contributions concerning self-consciousness, freedom, and logic all develop around the idea of internal purposiveness, which appealed to Hegel deeply. She charts the development of the purposiveness theme in Kant's third Critique, and argues that the most important innovation from that text is the claim that the purposiveness of nature opens up and enables the operation of the power of judgment. This innovation is essential for understanding Hegel's philosophical method in the Differenzschrift (1801) and Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), where Hegel, developing lines of thought from Fichte and Schelling, argues against Kant that internal purposiveness constitutes cognition's activity, shaping its essential relation to both self and world.
From there, Ng defends a new and detailed interpretation of Hegel's Science of Logic, arguing that Hegel's Subjective Logic can be understood as Hegel's version of a critique of judgment, in which life comes to be understood as opening up the possibility of intelligibility. She makes the case that Hegel's theory of judgment is modelled on reflective and teleological judgments, in which something's species or kind provides the objective context for predication. The Subjective Logic culminates in the argument that life is a primitive or original activity of judgment, one that is the necessary presupposition for the actualization of self-conscious cognition.
Through bold and ambitious new arguments, Ng demonstrates the ongoing dialectic between life and self-conscious cognition, providing ground-breaking ways of understanding Hegel's philosophical system.
Beginning with the influence of Kant's Critique of Judgment on Hegel, Ng argues that Hegel's key philosophical contributions concerning self-consciousness, freedom, and logic all develop around the idea of internal purposiveness, which appealed to Hegel deeply. She charts the development of the purposiveness theme in Kant's third Critique, and argues that the most important innovation from that text is the claim that the purposiveness of nature opens up and enables the operation of the power of judgment. This innovation is essential for understanding Hegel's philosophical method in the Differenzschrift (1801) and Phenomenology of Spirit (1807), where Hegel, developing lines of thought from Fichte and Schelling, argues against Kant that internal purposiveness constitutes cognition's activity, shaping its essential relation to both self and world.
From there, Ng defends a new and detailed interpretation of Hegel's Science of Logic, arguing that Hegel's Subjective Logic can be understood as Hegel's version of a critique of judgment, in which life comes to be understood as opening up the possibility of intelligibility. She makes the case that Hegel's theory of judgment is modelled on reflective and teleological judgments, in which something's species or kind provides the objective context for predication. The Subjective Logic culminates in the argument that life is a primitive or original activity of judgment, one that is the necessary presupposition for the actualization of self-conscious cognition.
Through bold and ambitious new arguments, Ng demonstrates the ongoing dialectic between life and self-conscious cognition, providing ground-breaking ways of understanding Hegel's philosophical system.
- GenresPhilosophyTheory
336 pages, Hardcover
Published February 3, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 31, 2022
Allais, Lucy. 2015. Manifest Reality: Kant's Idealism and his Realism. Oxford: OUP.
Allison, Henry. 2001. Kant's Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. Cambridge: CUP.
Beiser, Frederick C. 2003. The Romantic Imperative: The Concept of Early German Romanticism. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Burbidge, John. 1996. Real Process: How Logic and Chemistry Combine in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Chaouli, Michel. 2017. Thinking with Kant's 'Critique of Judgment.' Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Förster, Eckart. 2012. The Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy: A Systematic Reconstruction. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Gaukroger, Stephen. 2010. The Collapse of Mechanism and the Rise of Sensibility: Science and the Shaping of Modernity 1680-1760. Oxford: OUP.
Hahn, Songsuk Susan. 2007. Contradiction in Motion: Hegel's Organic Concept of Life and Value. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Honneth Axel. 2014. Freedom's Right. Translated by Joseph Ganal. New York: Columbia University Press.
Khurana, Thomas, 2017. Das Leven der Freiheit: Form und Wirklichkeit der Autonomie. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Kreines, James. 2015. Reason in the World: Hegel's Metaphysics and Its Philosophical Appeal. Oxford: OUP.
Lauer, Quentin. 1982. Hegel's Concept of God. Albany: SUNY Press.
Lenoir, Timothy. 1982. The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Ninenteenth-Century German Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Malabou, Catherine. 2005. The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, and Dialectic. Translated by Lisabeth During. New York: Routledge.
McDowell, John. 1996. Mind and World. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Mensch, Jennifer. 2013. Kant's Organicism: Epigenesis and the Development of Critical Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Moyar, Dean. 2011. Hegel's Conscience. Oxford: OUP.
Novakovic, Andreja. 2017. Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life. Cambridge: CUP.
Pinkard, Terry. 2012. Hegel's Naturalism: Mind, Nature, and the Final Ends of Life. Oxford: OUP.
Redding, Paul. 2007. Analytic Philosophy and the Return of Hegelian Thought. Cambridge: CUP.
Reill, Peter Hanns. 2005. Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Thompson, Michael. 2008. Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Yeomans, Christopher. 2021. Freedom and Reflection: Hegel and the Logic of Agency. Oxford: OUP.
Zucket, Rachel. 2007. Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment. Cambridge: CUP.
Allison, Henry. 2001. Kant's Theory of Taste: A Reading of the Critique of Aesthetic Judgment. Cambridge: CUP.
Beiser, Frederick C. 2003. The Romantic Imperative: The Concept of Early German Romanticism. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Burbidge, John. 1996. Real Process: How Logic and Chemistry Combine in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Chaouli, Michel. 2017. Thinking with Kant's 'Critique of Judgment.' Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Förster, Eckart. 2012. The Twenty-Five Years of Philosophy: A Systematic Reconstruction. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Gaukroger, Stephen. 2010. The Collapse of Mechanism and the Rise of Sensibility: Science and the Shaping of Modernity 1680-1760. Oxford: OUP.
Hahn, Songsuk Susan. 2007. Contradiction in Motion: Hegel's Organic Concept of Life and Value. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Honneth Axel. 2014. Freedom's Right. Translated by Joseph Ganal. New York: Columbia University Press.
Khurana, Thomas, 2017. Das Leven der Freiheit: Form und Wirklichkeit der Autonomie. Berlin: Suhrkamp.
Kreines, James. 2015. Reason in the World: Hegel's Metaphysics and Its Philosophical Appeal. Oxford: OUP.
Lauer, Quentin. 1982. Hegel's Concept of God. Albany: SUNY Press.
Lenoir, Timothy. 1982. The Strategy of Life: Teleology and Mechanics in Ninenteenth-Century German Biology. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Malabou, Catherine. 2005. The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, and Dialectic. Translated by Lisabeth During. New York: Routledge.
McDowell, John. 1996. Mind and World. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Mensch, Jennifer. 2013. Kant's Organicism: Epigenesis and the Development of Critical Philosophy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Moyar, Dean. 2011. Hegel's Conscience. Oxford: OUP.
Novakovic, Andreja. 2017. Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life. Cambridge: CUP.
Pinkard, Terry. 2012. Hegel's Naturalism: Mind, Nature, and the Final Ends of Life. Oxford: OUP.
Redding, Paul. 2007. Analytic Philosophy and the Return of Hegelian Thought. Cambridge: CUP.
Reill, Peter Hanns. 2005. Vitalizing Nature in the Enlightenment. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Thompson, Michael. 2008. Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought. Cambridge, MA: HUP.
Yeomans, Christopher. 2021. Freedom and Reflection: Hegel and the Logic of Agency. Oxford: OUP.
Zucket, Rachel. 2007. Kant on Beauty and Biology: An Interpretation of the Critique of Judgment. Cambridge: CUP.
November 14, 2021
Truly a high time in Hegel scholarship—A Spirit of Trust, Hegel’s Realm of Shadows, and this, all in the span of a few years. All three are masterpieces, worth studying many times over.
There is much to be thought about in this book—for me, the intersection between Hegel and 20th century Aristotelian, especially Anscombe and Thompson (and also Wittgenstein) and their invoking of ‘life’, ‘life-forms’ and ‘forms of life’.
As well, there is much to be thought about with regards to the overlap of Ng’s and Pippin’s Hegel—Ng, rightly, emphasizes ‘Life’ as Hegel’s master concept, having him much in debt to Kant’s third critique. Pippin, also rightly, emphasizes the role of judgement and the synthetic unity of apperception, having Hegel in debt to the first Critique. These approaches, to me, seem compatible, although there is work to be done in drawing out the relevant connections.
There is much to be thought about in this book—for me, the intersection between Hegel and 20th century Aristotelian, especially Anscombe and Thompson (and also Wittgenstein) and their invoking of ‘life’, ‘life-forms’ and ‘forms of life’.
As well, there is much to be thought about with regards to the overlap of Ng’s and Pippin’s Hegel—Ng, rightly, emphasizes ‘Life’ as Hegel’s master concept, having him much in debt to Kant’s third critique. Pippin, also rightly, emphasizes the role of judgement and the synthetic unity of apperception, having Hegel in debt to the first Critique. These approaches, to me, seem compatible, although there is work to be done in drawing out the relevant connections.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews