TY - CONF

T1 - Hegel, de Beauvoir and the critical methodology of 'concrete conceptuality'

AU - Ploug, Anna Cornelia

N1 - Conference code: III

PY - 2021/12/3

Y1 - 2021/12/3

N2 - In stark contrast to his renown as an abstract and outdated philosopher, Hegel underwent in 1930’s and 1940’s France a rehabilitating interpretation that celebrated him as a key figure in the turn towards the concrete. Together with the concurrent reception of existentialist and phenomenological thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger, the so-called ‘Hegel-renaissance’ promoted Hegel’s philosophy as committed to comprehending social reality and mindful of how all interventions are anchored in specific historical conjunctures. Typically, we associate this reception with Kojève’s anthropological readings and the ‘philosophy of experience’-side of what Foucault once identified as the ‘dividing line’ in French philosophy. I will instead engage with how its counterpart, the ‘philosophy of concept’, integrates Hegelian dialectical-speculative logic, and, I argue, there is in Hegel’s notion of concrete conceptuality significant resources apt for developing a critical methodology. In the first instalment, and drawing on Hyppolite’s work, I argue that Hegel’s ‘living and concrete’ logic (WdL) involves a conception of concreteness as an active and mediating process of determination. In the second, I argue that Beauvoir’s Hegelianism cannot be reduced to her thematic appropriation of the master/slave-dialectic, but encompasses methodological concept determination involving both tracing the logical genesis and incorporating extra-philosophical material.

AB - In stark contrast to his renown as an abstract and outdated philosopher, Hegel underwent in 1930’s and 1940’s France a rehabilitating interpretation that celebrated him as a key figure in the turn towards the concrete. Together with the concurrent reception of existentialist and phenomenological thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Husserl and Heidegger, the so-called ‘Hegel-renaissance’ promoted Hegel’s philosophy as committed to comprehending social reality and mindful of how all interventions are anchored in specific historical conjunctures. Typically, we associate this reception with Kojève’s anthropological readings and the ‘philosophy of experience’-side of what Foucault once identified as the ‘dividing line’ in French philosophy. I will instead engage with how its counterpart, the ‘philosophy of concept’, integrates Hegelian dialectical-speculative logic, and, I argue, there is in Hegel’s notion of concrete conceptuality significant resources apt for developing a critical methodology. In the first instalment, and drawing on Hyppolite’s work, I argue that Hegel’s ‘living and concrete’ logic (WdL) involves a conception of concreteness as an active and mediating process of determination. In the second, I argue that Beauvoir’s Hegelianism cannot be reduced to her thematic appropriation of the master/slave-dialectic, but encompasses methodological concept determination involving both tracing the logical genesis and incorporating extra-philosophical material.

M3 - Paper

T2 - Confronting Crisis

Y2 - 2 December 2021 through 3 December 2021

ER -