Between Hegel and Spinoza by Sharp Hasana.;Smith Jason E.;

Author:Sharp, Hasana.;Smith, Jason E.;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781441166906
Publisher: Bloomsbury UK
Published: 2019-11-22T16:00:00+00:00

6

Hegel’s Reconciliation with Spinoza

John McCumber

Entre Hegel et Spinoza, il se passe quelque chose d’ essentiel.1

This quote from Pierre Macherey’s discussion of Hegel and Spinoza is, as I have given it, brief to the point of cryptic and decontextualized to the point of emptiness. It nonetheless introduces us at once to the depth of the problematic between Hegel and Spinoza. For what “happens between” them is not merely a number of agreements and disagreements, criticisms and rejoinders; it is nothing less than an establishment and exploration of the very notion of a philosophical “between.” Spinoza and Hegel show us, in other words, what it is for one philosopher to be related to another. Among the major lessons will be that the intellectual space between them is highly plastic. In some respects it almost disappears, so that they stand shoulder to shoulder. On other occasions, they are perhaps as widely separated as it is possible for two philosophers to be.

One thing Macherey establishes is that this “between” of Hegel and Spinoza is not well understood by Hegel himself, who not only misreads Spinoza on many points but also rejects the very notion of a philosophical “between,” in that he undertakes to incorporate Spinoza into his system. For Hegel, there is nothing “between” him and Spinoza, any more than there is anything “between” me and the sandwich I had for lunch. I will not, then, direct my attention here to the merits and demerits of Hegel’s criticisms of Spinoza. Rather, I will try to lay out just one specific area of agreement and disagreement and examine its plasticity. How, in this restricted field, does Hegel take up proximity to Spinoza? How does he lose it? If so, does he try to get it back?

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.