Spiritualized Nature: Hegel on the Transformative Character of Work and History [Special Issue]
Issue: Issue 08 • Author/s: David Ciavatta
Topics: History of Analytic Philosophy, Metaphysics
It is argued that one of Hegel’s main strategies in overcoming the opposition between nature and spirit is to recognize a realm of “spiritualized nature” that has a distinctive ontological character of its own, one that, though it is rooted in nature, must be understood in essentially historical terms. It is argued that for Hegel the activity of work is premised upon a commitment to the independent standing of such spiritualized nature and its historical character, and a detailed reading of Hegel’s account of the slave’s work in the Phenomenology…