In the Shadow of Hegel: Complementarity, History, and the Unconscious

by Arkady Plotnitsky

In the Shadow of Hegel develops a new understanding of history operating against, but in the shadow of, the Hegelian logic of history as the unfolding of the Absolutely Self-Conscious Spirit--Geist. In this context Plotnitsky examines Hegel's significance for Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Bataille, and, especially, Derrida, and exposes both the proximities and distances of the Hegelian and poststructuralist understanding of history.
 The book offers a general theoretical framework enabling the understanding of history it develops but with broader implications.  This framework is introduced in the wake of poststructuralist thinking, following Nietzsche, under the rubric of complementarity--a conceptual matrix drawn from Niels Bohr's interpretation of quantum mechanics, conjoined here with the matrix of general economy as developed, via Marx, Nietzsche, and Freud, in the works of Bataille and Derrida.
 Within this framework Plotnitsky relates history and the unconscious--Hegel and Freud--transforming both concepts.  He shows how history itself is complementary, specifically to the unconscious, which he sees as a central concept of post-Hegelian thought.
 Plotnitsky also explores the role of quantum mechanics and several other developments in modern mathematics and science, particularly those proceeding along the axis of general economy.  He reveals reciprocity and interpenetrations between these fields--from Newton to Riemann to Einstein and Bohr, on the one hand, and from Hegel to Nietzsche to Bataille to Lacan to Deleuze and Derrida, on the other--and by extensions new possibilities of conceptual and metaphorical traffic between different fields of intellectual inquiry.
Arkady Plotnitsky holds an M.Sc. in mathematics from the University of St. Petersburg, Russia, and a Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Pennsylvania, where he teaches English and comparative literature.  He is the author of   Critical Theory and General Economy (UPF, 1993).

536 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 1993

Reviews

[Alexander · Rating 2 out of 5]

On the face of it, I've every reason to want to like Arkady Plotnistsky's In The Shadow of Hegel. As a philosophical groupie of both Jacques Derrida and Georges Bataille, the attempt - made in this book - to rethink our understanding of history (or rather, the idea of history) in light of their philosophical contributions ought to be an inherently fascinating endeavor. It isn't. At least, not in the hands of Plotnitsky, who takes some of 20th century's most interesting philosophers and uses their work as an excuse to name drop, make sweeping allusive gestures, and speak in brush strokes so broad that if you didn't already subscribe to the ideas proffered within, you'd learn almost nothing other than how to refine an already acquired lingo.

Which is kind of the problem too: it's not that any of Plotnitsky's claims are really that egregious or anything, and in fact, if you already live and breathe the kind of philosophical atmosphere in which Shadow operates - and let's face it, there's precious little reason to read a book like this unless one does - there's simply very little to learn. Basically, Plotnitsky makes a great hash out of Derrida's famous reading of Bataille in Writing and Difference , in which Bataille is cast as a champion of 'general economy' over 'restricted economies', the latter being best represented by the figure of Hegel. To think history in the 'shadow of Hegel' then, is to think of it in terms of a general, rather than restricted economy.

The notions themselves are pretty complex, but the basic idea is that in restricted economies (recalling that economies roughly refer to the circulation of elements in a field), everything has a place, a value, or a index which would situate it among the Whole functioning of that economy. By contrast, general economies are marked by excesses, losses, and furtive elements which cannot neatly fit into the smooth functioning of a totalized economy. This is a brutally reductive way to talk about these things, but one might perhaps find solace in the fact that Plotnistky does in four hundred pages what I've attempted to do in two sentences: explain the significance of these ideas and their ramifications for our thinking about history (without, by the way, talking about any 'actual' history whatsoever).

This could be an interesting project, if Plotnitsky spent even a tenth of that space actually putting forward arguments for his position, rather than assuming it from the get-go and lazily skipping straight into the far-too-easy work of simply administering results, as it were. In place of that, In the Shadow of Hegel offers... inane name checking. A representative sample: "Einstein, Heidegger, and others maintain such positions, after Bohr, after Freud, after Nietzsche, after Darwin, after Marx. We do not know what kind of Logic Hegel would have written today. It could be similar to Heidegger's, or quite possibly to Derrida's. Derrida has crucial proximities to Hegel and Heidegger, and thus to philosophy, more so than Nietzsche and Bataille". Bleugh.

Not that it's all bad, to be fair. There are some bright spots, like Plotnitsky's discussion of Deleuze and his use of mathematics, or his questioning of Derrida's notion of 'metaphysical closure', or his incredibly close attention to the complexity of Hegel's 'Logic'. But all of these nonetheless lie 'in the shadow' of the book's shallow attempt to simply draw attention to similarities and dissonances without delving into what motivates many of the moves made by the numerous citations which adorn the book. Not even Bohr and Freud - to whom the 'complimentarity' and the 'unconscious' of the subtitle refer to - are given much, if any detailed treatment at all. In any case, one would do far better reading the source material than this overly long, ploddingly bland work.