Hegel's Naturalism: Mind, Nature, and the Final Ends of Life

by Terry P. Pinkard

Terry Pinkard draws on Hegel's central works as well as his lectures on aesthetics, the history of philosophy, and the philosophy of history in this deeply informed and original exploration of Hegel's naturalism. As Pinkard explains, Hegel's version of naturalism was in fact drawn from Aristotelian Hegel fused Aristotle's conception of nature with his insistence that the origin and development of philosophy has empirical physics as its presupposition. As a result, Hegel found that, although modern nature must be understood as a whole to be non-purposive, there is nonetheless a place for Aristotelian purposiveness within such nature. Such a naturalism provides the framework for explaining how we are both natural organisms and also practically minded (self-determining, rationally responsive, reason-giving) beings. In arguing for this point, Hegel shows that the kind of self-division which is characteristic of human agency also provides human agents with an updated
version of an Aristotelian final end of life.
Pinkard treats this conception of the final end of "being at one with oneself" in two parts. The first part focuses on Hegel's account of agency in naturalist terms and how it is that agency requires such a self-division, while the second part explores how Hegel thinks a historical narration is essential for understanding what this kind of self-division has come to require of itself. In making his case, Hegel argues that both the antinomies of philosophical thought and the essential fragmentation of modern life are all not to be understood as overcome in a higher order unity in the "State." On the contrary, Hegel demonstrates that modern institutions do not resolve such tensions any more than a comprehensive philosophical account can resolve them theoretically. The job of modern practices and institutions (and at a reflective level the task of modern philosophy) is to help us understand and live with precisely the unresolvability of these oppositions. Therefore, Pinkard explains, Hegel
is not the totality theorist he has been taken to be, nor is he an "identity thinker," à la Adorno. He is an anti-totality thinker.

Genres: Philosophy

240 pages, Hardcover

First published December 26, 2011

Reviews

[Quentin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a paradigm of lucid, comprehensible philosophical writing. Although it is absurd to think that any one monograph can touch upon (let alone elucidate) all the elements in Hegel's philosophy, Pinkard usefully discusses in sufficient depth Hegel's metaphysics/ phil of mind (Chapters 1 and 2) and practical/ political philosophy (Chapters 3-6). I imagine my interests in Hegel are similar to many recent Hegel enthusiasts-- to better understand (among other things) what's going on in Pittsburgh. Although it would be unwise to think that Hegel's discussions of second nature or self-consciousness exactly map onto what, say, McDowell or Rödl take themselves to be claiming, I found Pinkard's work especially helpful in thinking through some of these protean concepts. Either way, Pinkard has written a wonderful book that invites the reader to further explore Hegelian thought. Coming from someone with little prior knowledge of Hegel's work, this book was a perfect introduction. I will certainly be picking up many more of Pinkard's books in the future.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starts very strong with the introduction and first few chapters explaining the role of consciousness in Hegel's thought and gestures towards his "idealism" being closer to Aristotelian naturalism, a view with which I concur but Pinkard doesn't explain as well as he should. The concluding chapters are strong with a spirited defense of Hegel's philosophy of history as teleological only in retrospect, and rejecting the more vulgar widely-held views of Hegel as the philosopher of simple stages or the "end-of-history."

I wish Marxist thinkers would pick up on this newer strain of Hegel scholarship alongside Lenin's writings on Hegel and reevaluate the outdated analysis many still hold to.

Sometimes the chapters go together very well, sometimes they read like disconnected articles.

[Jaakko · Rating 3 out of 5]

Noh ei tässä kyllä paljoa naturalismista puhuttu, mutta ihan hyvä kirja silti 👍