On Reading Hegel
On Reading Hegel
On reading Hegel
Abstract New readings have recently been offered by Frederick Beiser and
Robert Brandom of Hegel, a notoriously difficult writer. I believe that both
Beiser and Brandom go astray in reading Hegel otherwise than how he
reads others, that is, in terms of the internal development of their theories
in response to philosophical problems with which they were concerned as
opposed to other, external concerns. Beiser reads Hegel’s position in the
context of German idealism in order to refute it and Brandom reads it in
the context of analytic philosophy to learn from it. I will be recommend-
ing an alternative reading of Hegel’s position in the context of German
idealism in order to learn from it. I believe we cannot magically detach
Hegel from idealism in order to learn from, or even to understand, his
position. But I also believe we need to interpret German idealism differ-
ently in order to grasp Hegel’s contribution.
Key words Frederick Beiser · Robert Brandom · G. W. F. Hegel · idealism ·
Immanuel Kant · realism
I believe that both Beiser and Brandom go astray in reading Hegel other-
wise than how he reads others, that is, in terms of the internal develop-
ment of their theories in response to philosophical problems with which
they were concerned as opposed to other, external concerns. Beiser reads
Hegel’s position in the context of German idealism in order to refute it
and Brandom reads it in the context of analytic philosophy to learn from
it. I will be recommending an alternative reading of Hegel’s position in
the context of German idealism in order to learn from it. I believe we
cannot magically detach Hegel from idealism in order to learn from, or
even to understand, his position. But I also believe we need to interpret
German idealism differently in order to grasp Hegel’s contribution.
Like many observers, I believe that Kant’s critical philosophy offers
a theory of knowledge. Kant’s problem and solution to it can be focused
in terms of realism. Following Peirce, I will be calling ontological meta-
physics,34 or metaphysical realism, the familiar idea going back in the
PSC
Notes
1 See Frederick C. Beiser, German Idealism: The Struggle Against Subjec-
tivisim, 1781–1801 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002), p. 6.
2 ibid., p. 10.
3 Robert Brandom, Articulating Reasons (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 2000), pp. 22, 34.
4 ibid., p. 35.
5 See Friedrich Engels, Ludwig Feuerbach and the Outcome of Classical
German Philosophy, ed. C. P. Dutt (New York: International Publishers,
1941).
6 See ‘Reification and the Consciousness of the Proletariat’, in Georg Lukács,
History and Class Consciousness, trans. R. Livingstone (Cambridge, MA:
MIT Press, 1971), pp. 83–222.
7 Beiser, German Idealism, p. 467.
8 See Terry Pinkard, German Philosophy, 1760–1869: The Legacy of Idealism
(Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
9 See Beiser, German Idealism, p. 595.
10 ibid., p. 14.
11 ibid., p. 1.
12 ibid., p. 2.
13 ibid., p. 6.
14 ibid., p. 10.
15 ibid., p. 465.
16 ibid., p. 590.
17 ibid.
18 ibid., p. 593.
19 See letter to Herz dated 21 July 1772, in Immanuel Kant, Philosophical
Correspondence, 1759–99, ed. and trans. Arnulf Zweig (Chicago, IL:
University of Chicago Press, 1967), p. 71.
20 See Foundations of the Entire Science of Knowledge, in Fichte: Science of
Knowledge (Wissenschaftslehre), trans. P. Heath and J. Lachs (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 246.
21 Robert Brandom, Tales of the Mighty Dead: Historical Essays in the Meta-
physics of Intentionality (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003),
p. 34.
22 ibid., p. 46.
23 ibid., p. 47.