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Hegel, Alienation, and the Phenomenological Development of Consciousness

2012; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 20; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/09672559.2011.631147

1466-4542

Gavin Rae,

Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations

Abstract While it has long been recognized that the concept 'alienation' plays a crucial role in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit and indeed his overall philosophical project, too often commentators simply note its importance without providing an in-depth discussion of this important concept. I aim to remedy this by providing an extended discussion of the role that alienation plays in the phenomenological development of consciousness. To do so, I first, briefly, outline the project that Hegel undertakes in the Phenomenology of Spirit, before undertaking an analytic of the concept 'alienation' to show that: (a) Hegel distinguishes between 'alienation as estrangement' (Entfremdung) and 'alienation as externalisation' (Entaüsserung); and (b) the two senses of the term are intimately, if differently, related to concepts such as objectivity and objectification. I then show that, while he recognizes that the experience of alienation may be an undesirable aspect of consciousness's existence, Hegel maintains that experiencing a particular combination of the two senses of alienation allows consciousness to overcome its alienation. The conclusion drawn is that properly understanding Hegel's subtle and multi-dimensional account of alienation provides us with insight into this concept, Hegel's conception of consciousness, and his wider philosophical project. Keywords: Hegelalienationconsciousnessobjectificationphenomenology Notes 1 Jean Hyppolite, Logic and Existence, trans. L. Lawlor and A. Sen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997), p.178. 2 Hans-Georg Gadamer, Hegel's Dialectic: Five Hermeneutical Studies, trans. C. P. Smith (London: Yale University Press, 1976), p.106. 3 Georg Lukacs, The Young Hegel: Studies in the Relation between Dialectics and Economics, trans. R. Livingstone (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1975), p. 538. 4 Richard Schacht, Alienation (New York: Anchor Books, 1970), p. 3. 5 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. A. V. Miller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977). [Hereafter cited in the text as PS]. 6 Philip J. Kain, Hegel and the Other: A Study of the Phenomenology of Spirit (New York: State University of New York, 2005), pp. 10–13. 7 For a detailed discussion of the issues surrounding the various transitions between the various shapes of consciousness see: Robert Pippin, 'You Can't Get There from Here: Transition Problems in Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit', in Frederick C. Beiser (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), pp. 52–85. 8 Stephen Houlgate, An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History (Oxford: Blackwell, 2005), p. 51. 9 Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Introduction to the Lectures on the History of Philosophy, trans. T. Knox and A. V. Miller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), p. 82. [Hereafter cited in the text as HP]. 10 Hyppolite, Logic and Existence, p. 103. 11 Daniel Berthold-Bond, Hegel's Grand Synthesis: A Study of Being, Thought, and History (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1989), p. 104. 12 For a more detailed discussion of the relationship between spirit, subjectivity, and objectivity in Absolute Knowing see: Walter D. Ludwig, 'Hegel's Conception of Absolute Knowing', The Owl of Minerva, 21(1) (1989), pp.5–19. 13 On this point see: Stephen Houlgate, 'Power, Egoism and the "Open" Self in Nietzsche and Hegel', Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology, 22(3) (October 1991), pp. 120–38. 14 Stanley Rosen, G. W. F. Hegel: An Introduction to the Science of Wisdom (London: Yale University Press, 1974), p. 173. 15 Kain, Hegel and the Other, pp.156–69. 16 Louis Dupré, 'Hegel's Concept of Alienation and Marx's Re-Interpretation of It', Hegel-Studien, 7 (1972), pp. 217–36. 17 Eric von der Luft, 'An Early Interpretation of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit', Hegel-Studien, 24 (1989), pp. 183–94. 18 Abigail L. Rosenthal, 'A Hegelian Key to Hegel's Method', Journal of the History of Philosophy, 9 (1971), pp. 205–12. 19 Murray Greene, 'Alienation within a Problematic of Substance and Subject', Social Research, 33 (1966), pp. 355–74; 367–8. 20 Karl Marx, 'Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844)', in Early Writings, trans. R. Livingstone and G. Benton (London: Penguin, 1992), pp. 279–400; 386–7.