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Hegel in Motion: Adventures in (Mis)reading

All of Hegel’s philosophy is punctuated by a peculiar tension between the irresistible progression of thought, on the one hand, and the inertial resistance of contingencies, matter, and empirical existence, on the other. The movement of consciousness, as described in the Phenomenology of Spirit, is unaufhaltsam, unstoppable, cannot find satisfaction anywhere. And yet, the same consciousness is continuously held up by the need to delve into the world and to immerse itself in the concrete content of experience. There, it is likely to get stuck: thinking is impeded (aufgehalten) by the ‘weight of substance’.

As Adorno recalled in ‘Skoteinos, or How to Read Hegel’, this ‘fusion of the dynamic moment with the static’ in Hegel’s philosophy is rooted in the very texture of the concept. Therefore, the simultaneous implication of halting and haltlessness in the dialectic imposes a difficult practice of reading: the reader is faced both with the imperative to accelerate and keep up with the flow of thoughts as well as the need to slow down and pause, to tarry with the negative, as ‘each moment has to be lingered over.’

How should we read this intermittent rhythm of Hegel’s logic? How do we make sense of the relentless pace of the dialectic? Where should we stop, reading Hegel? What are the points of friction that interrupt the movement of thought?

This two-day symposium aims at exploring Hegel’s philosophy in motion, by focusing on its moves and arrests to investigate the fruitful (mis)readings it engenders.

Organisers: Ivan Boldyrev, Jamila Mascat and Bart Zantvoort

Hosted by the Leiden Centre for Continental Philosophy. With the support of the Leiden Institute for Philosophy, Leids Universiteitsfonds and Onderzoeksschool voor Wijsbegeerte (OZSW)