Hegel on the Soul A Speculative Anthropology
The present study seeks to treat in depth a relatively restricted portion of Hegel's thought but one that has not yet received intensive treatment by Hegel scholars in English. In the Hegelian system of philosophical sciences, the Anthropology directly fo
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HEGEL ON THE SOUL A SPECULATIVE ANTHROPOLOGY
by
MURRAY GREENE
• MARTINUS NIJHOFF/THE HAGUE/1972
@ 1972 by Martinus Nijhoff. The Hague. Netherlands All rights reserved. including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form ISBN-13: 978-90-247-1325-7 e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-2828-8 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-2828-8
Truth, aware of what it is, is Spirit. (PhM 178)
PREFACE
The present study seeks to treat in depth a relatively restricted portion of Hegel's thought but one that has not yet received intensive treatment by Hegel scholars in English. In the Hegelian system of philosophical sciences, the Anthropology directly follows the Philosophy of Nature and forms the first of the three sciences of Subjective Spirit: 1 Anthropology, Phenomenology, and Psychology. The section on Subjective Spirit is then followed by sections on Objective Spirit and Absolute Spirit. The three sections together comprise the Philosophy of Spirit (Philosophie des Geistes 2), which constitutes the third and concluding main division of Hegel's total system as presented in the Encyclopedia of Philosophic Sciences in Outline. a Hegel intended to write a separate full-scale work on the philosophy of Subjective Spirit as he had done on Objective Spirit (the Philosophy of Right), but died before he could do so.· Thus the focus of our study is quite concentrated. Its relatively narrow scope within the vast compass of the Hegelian system may be justified, 1 Iring Fetscher (HegeUt Lehre vom Menschen, Stuttgart, 1970, p. 11) notes the lack of a modem commentary to Hegel's Encyclopedia, and in particular to the section on Subjective Spirit. Brief accounts of this section in English may be found in: Hugh A. Reyburn, The Ethical Theory of Hegel (Oxford, 1921), Chapter V; and O. R. O. Mure, A Study of Hegers Logic (Oxford, 1950), pp. 2-22. • Translated as Hegel's Philosophy of Mind, hereafter referred to as PhM (see list of abbreviations, below, p. XVll). • See Table of Contents in Enzyklopiidie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse (1830), ed. FriedheIm Nicolin and Otto Poggeler (Felix Meiner, Hamburg, 1959). • For an account of Hegel's plans, see F. Nicolin, "Ein Hegelsches Fragment zur Philosophie des Geistes," Hegel-Studien, bd. I, 1961, pp. 9-15; also F. Nicolin, "Hegels Arbeiten zur Theorie des subjektiven Oeistes," in J. Derbolav and F. Nicolin, eds., Erkenntnis und Verantwortung. Festschrift fur Theodor Lilt (DUsseldorf, 1960), pp. 356-374.
VIII
PREFACE
I believe, by the proverbial complexity of Hegel's thought in general and the difficulty of the task to which the philosopher addresses himself in the Anthropology. This task is to show speculatively a necessary development of Spirit as pre-objective sUbjectivity or soul (Seele) to the ego of objective consciousness. The present study first of all seeks to elucidate the nature of this task within the wider Hegelian problematic, and secondly to follow step by step the course of the philosopher's demonstration in the Anthropology. In a concluding c
