Hegel in Dialogue with Contemporary Metaphilosophy
26 Settembre 2024
Di Giovanna MiolliIn The Relevance of Hegel’s Concept of Philosophy: From Classical German Philosophy to Contemporary Metaphilosophy, pp. 477-496. A cura di Luca Illetterati e Giovanna Miolli. Londra-New York-Dublino: Bloomsbury, 2022.
The nature of philosophy is central to Hegel. While detaching himself from alternative accounts of how philosophy should be understood and conducted, Hegel builds his speculative system on the idea of philosophy’s scientificity and self-determination. It would thus seem obvious that he does develop a metaphilosophy, namely a conception of what philosophy is (or should be). However, to talk about Hegel’s metaphilosophy might sound anachronistic and possibly inappropriate. As it is currently understood, metaphilosophy – a specific research field that has only arisen in the second half of the twentieth century and which is strongly connected to philosophy as an institutionalized discipline – encompasses at first glance a completely different ground when compared to the Hegelian landscape. Against this backdrop, I shall attempt to elucidate in what sense Hegel does unfold a metaphilosophy, while also seeking to provide a preliminary account of the way his position may productively interact with contemporary metaphilosophy. In the first section, I will outline different meanings of the term ‘metaphilosophy’ as they emerge in the late 1960s. This will allow me to critically discuss in what sense Hegel’s thought offers new insights into conceptual strategies. In the second part, I will then focus on three representative responses to the question whether Hegel develops a metaphilosophy. Either the argument is made that (1) metaphilosophy denotes a propaedeutic to philosophy which Hegel rejects; (2) Hegel’s metaphilosophy regards the relationship between philosophy and its history; or (3) Hegel’s metaphilosophy coincides with the Phenomenology of Spirit as a justification enterprise external to the system. The third part will bring the results of the first two sections together by clarifying whether contemporary metaphilosophical categories are applicable to the late Hegel and by defining the main structural characteristics of his metaphilosophy. Subsequently, I will suggest that Hegel offers a sui generis metaphilosophical outlook, where the relationship between philosophy and metaphilosophy is one of self- containment. Furthermore, I will indicate some contemporary issues that Hegel’s metaphilosophy could help rediscuss, namely the distinction between descriptive and prescriptive metaphilosophy, the methodological question in philosophy, the justification of normative assumptions via their transformation from immediate presuppositions to mediated results, and philosophy’s rejection of neutrality and impartiality in favour of a commitment to thinking.
