Arts and Humanities Commons^™

A Mind Of One's Own: Hegel On Becoming Rational, Lucas Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

The `Self-Consciousness' chapter of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit has been interpreted in a variety of ways. Traditional readings, however, often do not emphasize Hegel's proclamation that the servile consciousness ``acquires a mind of its own'' and becomes ``thinking consciousness'' in the transition from `Self-Consciousness' A to B. Here, I show how to understand the end of part A and its transition to part B. In this transition, Hegel argues that the servant `comes to have a mind of their own' and becomes `thinking consciousness' or `stoic consciousness' in virtue of beginning to become rational. To this end, I argue that …

'The Mediator' And 'Reason's Forgetting': Two Questions On The Transition Of Self-Consciousness To Reason In Hegel's Phenomenology Of Spirit, Abhiraj Singh

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an attempt to provide a response to two questions that occur in the transition of the shape of Self-Consciousness to Reason in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: What justifies the sudden appearance of the ‘mediator’ and Why does the shape of Reason, in its initial appearance, “forget” the path through which it came to be. I deploy an original interpretive framework upon Hegel’s dialectic, which I call the ‘tracking’ approach, that tracks ‘movement’ and ‘emergence’ of the subject consciousness so that one may know its corresponding ‘cognitive level’ that develops for it. I argue that the mediator’s appearance …

On The Criticism Of Hegelian Necessity, Rosa Turrisi Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

According to Hegel, there are no intrinsic limitations on the extent of human knowledge and reason, and one of the prerequisites of overcoming their relative limits is a logic that is capable of grasping the intrinsic contradictions in things. Hegel claims that his Logic shows that these contradictions are immanently necessary. By means of a close reexamination of Hegel’s own texts, I defend this claim against two of his most prominent nineteenth century critics, Schelling and Trendelenburg, who hope to undermine Hegelian rationalism and defend the more modest Kantian outlook. I also show that a school of interpretation that I …

Taking The Other To Be Itself: The Struggling Self-Consciousness’S Motivations In Hegel’S Phenomenology Of Spirit, Jordon Kent Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Hegel develops an account of self-consciousness in the Phenomenology of Spirit in which a self-consciousness fights another in a life-and-death struggle. There are many readings of the motivations for self-consciousness’s risking of its own life and aiming at the life of the other in the struggle. I argue that Robert Stern’s account of these motivations is problematic because he attributes more rational self-awareness to self-consciousness than it possesses at this stage in the dialectic. John McDowell’s reading presents advantages over Stern’s, but still leaves us with the problem of how to understand that self-consciousness “in the other sees its own …

The Aesthetics Of Frank Lloyd Wright’S Organic Architecture: Hegel, Japanese Art, And Modernism, Kenneth Charles Dahlin

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE AESTHETICS OF FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT’S ORGANIC ARCHITECTURE: HEGEL, JAPANESE ART, AND MODERNISM

by

Kenneth C Dahlin

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018

Under the Supervision of Professor Robert Greenstreet, PhD

The goal of this dissertation is to write the theory of organic architecture which Wright himself did not write. This is done through a comparison with GWF Hegel’s philosophy of art to help position Wright’s theory of organic architecture and clarify his architectural aesthetic. Contemporary theories of organicism do not address the aesthetic basis of organic architecture as theorized and practiced by Wright, and the focus of this dissertation …

The Imagination In Reason: Reframing The Systematic Core Of Idealism In Kant And Hegel, Gerad Gentry

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that the point of transition between Kant and the Idealists is most aptly identified and comprehended when we bring into view a careful understanding of Kant’s principle of the free lawfulness of the Imagination. I argue that for Hegel, it was this principle that constituted Kant’s “greatest service to philosophy.” I contend that we are right to agree with Hegel that this principle is fundamental to Kant’s critical Idealism and is an important theoretical principle in its own right. More than this, though, Hegel adopts, modifies, and expands this notion and thereby turns it into …

Hegel Between Criticism And Romanticism: Love & Self-Consciousness In The Phenomenology, Scott Jonathan Cowan

Theses and Dissertations

Hegel’s formulation of self-consciousness has decisively influenced modern philosophy’s notion of selfhood. His famous discussion of it appears in Chapter IV of the Phenomenology of Spirit, and emphasizes that self-consciousness is a dynamic process involving social activity. However, philosophers have struggled to understand some of the central claims Hegel makes: that self-consciousness is (a) “desire itself” which (b) is “only satisfied in another self-consciousness”; and that (c) self-consciousness is “the concept of Spirit.” In this paper, I argue that Hegel’s early writings on love help make sense of the motivation behind these claims, and thereby aids in understanding their meaning. …

Solving The Problem Of Resultant Luck: Extrapolating From Hegel, Constance Sutter

Theses and Dissertations

The problem of resultant luck leaves us with a dilemma: Reject the intuition that agents should be blamed only to the extent that events depend on factors within their control, or reject the pre-theoretical intuition that agents should be blamed in cases of negligence. Although many potential solutions have been put forth, the problem remains unsolved. In this paper, I diagnose why the problem has been recalcitrant, and I describe what a genuine solution must explain. To illustrate what such a solution would look like, I defend an interpretation of Hegel's concept of action and moral responsibility, and I show …