Hegel, Love and Forgiveness

Positive Recognition in German Idealism

Liz Disley

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9781848935204
• eBook ISBN: 9781317317319
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Philosophy History & Theory

This study offers a new interpretation of Hegelian recognition focusing on positive ethical behaviours, such as love and forgiveness. Building on the work of Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre, Disley reassesses Hegel's work on the subject/object dialectic and explores the previously neglected theological dimensions of his work.

PICKERING STUDIES IN PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

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Hegel, Love and Forgiveness: Positive Recognition in German Idealism

By

Liz Disley

First published 2015 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

Published 2016 by Routledge

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© Liz Disley 2015

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BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION DATA

Disley, Liz, author.

Hegel, love and forgiveness: positive recognition in German idealism. – (Pickering studies in philosophy of religion)

1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831 2. Recognition (Philosophy)

3. Intersubjectivity – Moral and ethical aspects. 4. Ethics, Modern – 19th century.

I. Title II. Series

193-dc23

ISBN 13: 978-1-84893-520-4 (hbk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315653853

Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited

Contents

• Acknowlegements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 The Social Self and the Master–Slave Dialectic
• 2 The Self of Self-Consciousness: Ethical Concepts, Metaphysical Frameworks
• 3 Intersubjectivity, Monistic Ontology and the Social World
• 4 Ambiguity and the Ontologically Split Self
• 5 Forgiveness: Confrontation, Metanoia and the Freedom of the Other
• 6 Love: Ethical Partnership and the Self in the Other
• Conclusion
• Works Cited
• Notes
• Index

Acknowledgements

This monograph is a substantially revised and expanded version of my PhD thesis, submitted to the University of Cambridge, awarded in 2009. I would particularly like to thank Douglas Hedley, who supervised the writing of this, for his enormously valuable guidance at all stages of the process. I would also like to thank the examiners, George Pattison and Russell Re Manning, for their extremely useful reports on the original thesis.

Part of the revisions and transformation of this work from thesis to monograph took place whilst I was employed as Project Manager and Research Assistant on the Impact of Idealism International network, funded by the Leverhulme and Newton trusts. I, and this work in general, benefitted greatly from observing and participating in scholarly exchange about the legacy and contemporary relevance of German Idealism. This work crosses boundaries between philosophy, particularly philosophical anthropology, and theology, and this interdisciplinarity has been greatly enhanced by my participation in the network. I am therefore grateful to all of the participants, and particularly the Principal Investigator, Nicholas Boyle, for their support at all stages.

During this period, I held a Fellow-Commonership at Magdalene College, Cambridge, which also, through the Leslie Wilson studentship, funded the PhD research that formed the original basis for this monograph. I am immensely grateful for the financial support, and for the membership of this scholarly community.

I would also like to thank the University of St Andrews, where I am an Honorary Fellow in the Departments of Philosophy. My research in general has benefitted greatly from seminars, reading groups and the intellectual community in general.

I am also grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their extremely helpful comments at the review stage, and Sophie Rudland at Pickering & Chatto for her valuable practical assistance.

Without my husband Andrew, no part of the writing of this work, as thesis or as monograph, would have been possible. He has supported, encouraged and assisted in more ways than can be counted. It is to him that this work is dedicated.

Liz Disley

St Andrews, September 2014

Abbreviations

EN

G. W. F. Hegel, Enzyklopedie der philosophischen Wissenschaften, ed. F. Nicolin and O. Poggeler (Hamburg: F. Meiner, 1959)

FL

G. W. F Hegel, ‘Fragment on Love’, Early Theological Writings, trans. T. M. Knox, with introduction and fragments trans. R. Koner (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1948)

GPR

G. W. F. Hegel, ‘Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts’, Werke in 20 Bänden, ed. E. Moldenhauer and K. M. Michel, 20 vols (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main 1969–71), vol. 7

PhG

G. W. F. Hegel, ‘Phenomenologie des Geistes’, Werke in 20 Bänden, ed. E. Moldenhauer and K. M. Michel, 20 vols (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main 1969–71), vol. 3

Werke

G. W. F. Hegel, Werke in 20 Bänden, ed. E. Moldenhauer and K. M. Michel, 20 vols (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt am Main 1969–71)

Introduction

I begin by outlining briefly the main thesis of the monograph: love and forgiveness are both examples of positive recognition that can serve as ethical norms of human interaction, grounded in a monistic ontological framework that succeeds in allowing for the intersubjectivity necessary to make an ethics of the social world meaningful. This argument is important for Hegel studies, the study of German Idealism more generally, in areas of ethics and politics concerned with recognition and the social world, in the emergent field of social ontology and in metaphilosophical/meta-ethical discussions about the relationship between metaphysics and ethics. It is also particularly relevant to the philosophy of religion, since both the concepts of love and of recognition have theological aspects – particularly in the con...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowlegements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 The Social Self and the Master–Slave Dialectic
• 2 The Self of Self-Consciousness: Ethical Concepts, Metaphysical Frameworks
• 3 Intersubjectivity, Monistic Ontology and the Social World
• 4 Ambiguity and the Ontologically Split Self
• 5 Forgiveness: Confrontation, Metanoia and the Freedom of the Other
• 6 Love: Ethical Partnership and the Self in the Other
• Conclusion
• Works Cited
• Notes
• Index