Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T10:57:59.719Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Hegel on Reflection and Reflective Judgement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 March 2019

Elaine P. Miller*
Affiliation:
Miami University of Ohio, Oxford, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

I examine the relation between logic and nature in terms of ‘reflection’, the word that Hegel uses at the end of the Encyclopaedia Logic to describe the self-sundering or externalization of the idea into nature. Although nominally the term ‘reflection’ seems to denote a uniquely mental process and is often used so by Hegel in his early critique of Reflexionsphilosophie, in his later writings it also has an irreducibly ontological significance. Hegel describes logic's opening-out to nature as a movement of ‘reflection’ [Widerschein] and he follows Kant in describing the shift from the finite to the infinite in the relation between nature and thought as one of reflective judgement. Although Hegel generally considers reflection to be uniquely concerned with finite cognition and the constitution of finite things, I argue that in his embrace of reflective judgement he sees a key role for reflection in the relation of logic, nature and spirit.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Hegel Society of Great Britain, 2019

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abazari, A. (2017), “Opposition instead of recognition. The social significance of “determinations of reflection” in Hegel's Science of Logic”, Philosophy and Social Criticism 44:3: 253–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bowman, B. (n.d.), ‘The Systematic Context of Hegel's Transition to Self-Consciousness in the Phenomenology of Spirit’, https://philosophy.la.psu.edu/documents/Bowman-HegelsTransitiontoSelfconsciousnessinthePhenomenology.pdf.Google Scholar
Burbidge, J. W. (1992), Hegel on Logic and Religion: The Reasonableness of Christianity. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Carlson, D. (2003), ‘Essence and Reflection According to Hegel’, Cardozo Law School, Public Law Research Paper No. 77.Google Scholar
Dahlstrom, D. (1998), ‘Hegel's Appropriation of Kant's Account of Teleology’, in Houlgate, S. (ed.), Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Förster, E. (2009), ‘The Significance of §§76 and 77 of the Critique of Judgment for the Development of Post-Kantian Philosophy (Part 1)’, Graduate Faculty Journal 30:2: 197217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gasché, R. (1986), The Tain of the Mirror: Derrida and the Philosophy of Reflection. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hance, A. (1998), ‘The Art of Nature: Hegel and the Critique of Judgement’, International Journal of Philosophical Studies 6:1: 3765.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henrich, D. (1978), Hegel's Logik der Reflexion. Hegel-Studien Beiheft 18. Bonn: Bouvier.Google Scholar
Houlgate, S. (1999), “Hegel's Critique of Foundationalism in the ‘Doctrine of Essence’”, Hegel Bulletin 20:1–2 (Issue 39–40), 1834.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houlgate, S. (2011), ‘Essence, Reflexion, and Immediacy in Hegel's Science of Logic’, in Houlgate, S. (ed.), A Companion to Hegel's Logic. London: Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jaeschke, W. (1978), ‘Äusserliche Reflexion und Immanente Reflexion: Eine Skizze der systematischen Geschichte der Reflexionsbegriff in Hegels Logik-Entwürfen’, Hegel-Studien 13: 85117.Google Scholar
Johnston, A. (2012), ‘The Voiding of Weak Nature: The Transcendental Materialist Kernels of Hegel's Naturphilosophie’, Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal 33:1: 103–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Khurana, T. (ed). (2013), The Freedom of Life. Berlin: August.Google Scholar
Kosok, M. (1966), ‘The Formalization of Hegel's Dialectical Logic’, International Philosophical Quarterly 6:4: 596631.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Longuenesse, B. (2007), Hegel's Critique of Metaphysics, trans. Simek, N. J.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Malabou, C. (2005), The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, and Dialectic. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Marcuse, H. (1973), Reason and Revolution: Hegel and the Rise of Social Theory. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Marx, W. (1975), Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Miller, A. V. (1977), ‘Translator's Foreword’ in G. W. F., Hegel (1977), Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, trans. Miller, A. V.. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Miller, E. (2002), The Vegetative Soul: From Philosophy of Nature to Subjectivity in the Feminine. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Novakovic, A. (2017), Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng, K. (2013), ‘Life, Self-Consciousness, Negativity: Understanding Hegel's Speculative Identity Thesis’, in Khurana, T. (ed.), The Freedom of Life. Berlin: August Verlag.Google Scholar
Nuzzo, A. (2013), ‘Reflective Judgment, Determinative Judgment, and the Problem of Particularity’, Washington University Jurisprudence Review 6:1.Google Scholar
Schelling, F. W. J. (1994), Idealism and the Endgame of Theory: Three Essays by F.W.J. Schelling, trans. Pfau, T.. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Verene, D. P. (2007), Hegel's Absolute: An Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Zambrana, R. (2015), Hegel's Theory of Intelligibility. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar