The concept of narrativity and narrative identity has two birth certificates: it is linked to the phenomenological tradition—beginning with Arendt’s “political phenomenology” —and to the tradition of German Idealism gradually slipping into existentialism. In this article, the author focuses on the latter tradition that helped to pave the way of the concept of narrative self. Key among the thinkers of Classical German Idealism has been Hegel, often considered the philosophical storyteller. Yet the author argues that Hegel’s concept of narrativity is (...) not exclusively applied to the self and has hardly any role in the constitution of consciousness. This is the reason why Hegel has the means to formulate a more convincing concept of the self and personal identity. The author does not deny that narrativity is seminal, both for leading a life as a human being and as a concrete person; however, originally consciousness and self-hood are born out of negativity. One enacts one’s selfhood, once one realizes that one has to interrupt narrativity, step in, refuse to live by it, or just ordinarily rephrase it consciously and by this appropriate it. (shrink)

The series publishes monographs and essay collections devoted to the history of philosophy as well as studies in the theory of writing the history of philosophy. A special emphasis is placed on the contextualization of philosophical historiography into the areas of the history of science, culture, and the wider scope of intellectual history.

The death of God and the death of eternity stand at the portals of modernity. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, which Kojève called the modern counterpart to the Bible, concludes with the death of G...

Since the early modern age, labor has gained centrality in both the social order and the conception of man. This study undertakes an attempt to evaluate this ascent by comparing the concept of labor in Hegel’s thought, as presented mainly in the Phenomenology of Spirit, with the conception of labor in the thought of Hannah Arendt. While Hegel linked labor closely to spirituality, Arendt argued that in the process of labor assimilating all human activities, man in fact forfeits spirituality. The (...) peculiar destructiveness of labor seemed to be confirmed by twentieth-century totalitarian regimes elevating labor to a unique source of values. In addition to comparing Hegel and Arendt’s conceptions, the aim of this study is to ask whether Hegel’s concept of labor is susceptible to the dangers inherent in the ideological conceptions of totalitarian regimes. (shrink)

How does the concept of personal identity relate to the subject of the Phenomenology of Spirit? Throughout this “Bildungsroman,” the intersubjective, social, and institutional layers essential for the self become apparent. Tereza Matějčková proposes that the identity of the self rests in the person's ability to reappropriate norms, rituals, and intersubjective settings that he or she is a part of. However, identity is not essential at the level of consciousness since substantially, consciousness is negativity. As a person, the human being (...) is a consciousness of the self, where the self relates to the social and intersubjective realm and to consciousness as the negativity that makes meaning possible. Consequently, personal identity is conceived of as “personal difference,” which is the active relating of self and consciousness. Matějčková argues that Hegel's Phenomenology is not exclusively a Bildungsroman and that on the margins of the Bildungsroman, a “Kollapsgeschichte” evolves, which is a story where the protagonist learns that an essential part of one's personality is the ability to break with one's environment, occasionally even with one's self. (shrink)

This study focuses on the interrelation of freedom, finitude, and reconciliation in Hegel?s understanding of religion. These three moments are found at central stages of Hegel?s treatment of the religious, from Hegel?s early fragments to his mature work. Finitude taking shape in the religious phenomena of a tragic fate, sin, or more generally, failing, is central to Hegel?s philosophical understanding of one-sidedness. As finite, man needs to reconcile with the other, and only as reconciled does he achieve freedom. Hegel credits (...) Christianity with the discovery of the primary essences of spirituality: freedom and forgiveness. Freedom is intensified with the death of God: man realizes that there is no God-given, only man-made, legislation. This deepening of freedom does not overcome man?s finitude but instead intensifies it along with a heightened sense for responsibility, and an increased potential for guilt. In this context, forgiveness is the highest spiritual capacity of modern man, whose fate is to bear the freedom of oneself and the other. nema. (shrink)

Name der Zeitschrift: Neue Zeitschrift für Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie Jahrgang: 59 Heft: 1 Seiten: 165-181.

Autorka v pojednání odpovídá na čtyři reflexe své knihy Hegelova fenomenologie světa. V první části se věnuje základním pojmům, tak jak je komentuje Pirmin Stekeler, který vyzdvihuje především vztah pojmu světa ke svému vlastnímu pojmu životních forem. Vypořádává se rovněž s odlišnými interpretacemi vztahu sebevědomí na straně jedné a boje na život a na smrt na straně druhé. V závěru tohoto oddílu se zaměřuje na Stekelerovu koncepci Fenomenologie ducha jako mundiceje. V této souvislosti se autorka obrací k tématu náboženství, které (...) je stěžejní pro příspěvek Olgy Navrátilové. Autorka odmítá návrh Olgy Navrátilové chápat Hegelovu řeč o konci náboženství jako anticipaci zániku náboženství. Zdůrazňuje, že Hegel usiluje o podržení všech tří momentů ducha, které jsou na symbolické rovině vyjádřeny jako Otec – Syn – Duch Svatý. Přestože vychyluje dynamiku směrem k Duchu, netvrdí, že by pojem transcendence, tak jak jej na úrovni náboženství ztělesňuje Bůh, měl být překonán ve smyslu jeho zničení. V reakci na pojednání od Josefa Vojvodíka zdůrazňuje autorka důležitost děl romantiků pro Hegelovu filosofii, především ironie a humoru, avšak vždy v jejich objektivních, nikoliv subjektivních podobách. Ironie není vlastností subjektivního ducha, ale objektivní skutečnosti. V poslední části se autorka věnuje reflexi Tomáše Kordy, který vznáší nárok radikální aktualizace: podle autora by bylo záhodno domyslet Fenomenologii a promítnout její tezi, resp. Hegelovu filosofii vůbec do naší současnosti, a tak sledovat, do jaké míry se duch vzdělával i po Hegelově době. Tento typ aktualizace autorka odmítá a navrhuje, že aktualizovat je možné Hegelův styl, méně již jeho pojem dějin. (shrink)

The aim of this article is to present the work of Emil Utitz, the Czech-German Jewish philosopher and psychologist, who was also a survivor of Theresienstadt. The power of the imagination and its i...