Content area
Full Text
Articles
The aim of this paper is to understand the claim that mind is an actualization of the Idea and argue that this claim provides us with a novel and defensible way of understanding Hegel's so-called naturalism.1For those interested in exploring the plausibility, extent, and exact character of Hegel's naturalism, the Philosophy of Subjective Spirit has been an especially important text, primarily due to two factors. The first concerns its particular placement within the context of Hegel's system: the forms of Subjective Spirit follow directly from Hegel's discussion of organics and the animal organism in the Philosophy of Nature, and in fact, the transition to Geist already takes place in the concluding paragraph of that text. This provides good evidence that Hegel meant for there to be a strong sense of continuity between nature and spirit, and perhaps even that nature lays the groundwork for the discussion of spirit which makes up the third part of his philosophical system. The second factor concerns the way in which the Philosophy of Mind begins with a discussion of anthropology, and specifically, with the determination of mind as the natural soul. The Anthropology, with its strong emphasis on the embodiment of mind, along with its famous discussion of habit (a determination that is also present in Hegel's discussion of the animal), also provides a strong case for understanding Hegel as some sort of naturalist, insofar as his account of human freedom appears to be grounded, in some sense, in our animal nature.
Although I am in general agreement with the above assessment, my strategy in this paper will be somewhat different. I will argue that understanding Hegel's naturalism requires us to turn to his Science of Logic, and specifically, that we need to understand the logical Idea presented therein as a method for the Philosophy of Mind. Far from venturing into a kind of rampant, indefensible idealism, understanding mind as an actualization of the Idea provides important insights into exactly what kind of naturalism Hegel is in fact committed to, given his often conflicting statements regarding the precise import of nature for spirit. I will suggest that far from attempting to reduce mind to something natural, Hegel's primary interest is in understanding the...