I explore the consequences that Hegel’s idea of God has for his understanding of an idealistically conceived metaphysics—that is, metaphysics considered as a discipline in which reason is concerned with its own products, and providing a fundamentally normative content. Such a conception of metaphysics can be regarded to be the central tenet of the qualified revisionist interpretation of Hegel, advanced by scholars such as Beatrice Longuenesse and Paul Redding. My own contribution to this interpretative stream—and one that, I contend, is crucial to clarify the status of God for Hegel—is the addition of a further qualification: metaphysical knowledge as mediated objectivity, by which I mean an objectivity that does not regard objects as distinct from and opposed to human consciousness, but takes into account the contribution of the self-conscious mind for the establishment of the content of that metaphysical object. Hegel wants to restore content to religion, but the objectivity of God is a mediated objectivity. If God is understood as mediately objective, it is possible, I argue, to think of God as the source of norms and to conceive of those norms as resulting from the recognitive activity of human beings without contradiction.

Not Just a Metaphor: Hegel's God and the Normativity of Metaphysics

Bubbio P
2019-01-01

Abstract

I explore the consequences that Hegel’s idea of God has for his understanding of an idealistically conceived metaphysics—that is, metaphysics considered as a discipline in which reason is concerned with its own products, and providing a fundamentally normative content. Such a conception of metaphysics can be regarded to be the central tenet of the qualified revisionist interpretation of Hegel, advanced by scholars such as Beatrice Longuenesse and Paul Redding. My own contribution to this interpretative stream—and one that, I contend, is crucial to clarify the status of God for Hegel—is the addition of a further qualification: metaphysical knowledge as mediated objectivity, by which I mean an objectivity that does not regard objects as distinct from and opposed to human consciousness, but takes into account the contribution of the self-conscious mind for the establishment of the content of that metaphysical object. Hegel wants to restore content to religion, but the objectivity of God is a mediated objectivity. If God is understood as mediately objective, it is possible, I argue, to think of God as the source of norms and to conceive of those norms as resulting from the recognitive activity of human beings without contradiction.
2019
63
2
561
565
https://www.pdcnet.org/philtoday/content/philtoday_2019_0063_0002_0561_0565
Hegel; God; Normativity
Bubbio P
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1883501
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