Philosophical labour : the critical role of Hegel's logics

Abstract

The object of this research is to examine Hegel's idea of philosophy insofar as it constitutes a systematic and presuppositionless conceptual knowledge. The questions underlying this study are: What kind of activity is philosophy for Hegel? How does philosophy work? How is it possible to reconcile the erosive and critical character of philosophy, which is focused on the given and the ordinary, with the pure logical and speculative principle that grounds the system of philosophy? By following the historical development of the role of logic within Hegel's system of philosophy from 1801 up to the Encyclopedia Logic of 1831, I show that logic, as determination of the form of the concept and method of philosophy, is a self-critique of abstract thought and a philosophical meta-critique of the Kantian ground of the modern philosophies of subjectivity. The main goal of my thesis is to demonstrate that philosophy is a labour, that is, an activity of mediation that is different from the instinctual assimilation of externality constituted by the abstract activity of thinking, but that necessarily posits itself as an immanent critique of that subjective activity.

Date of Award	2019
Original language	English