Hegel: Family

Author: Erzsébet Rózsa. Translated by Fernanda Medina and Pedro Sepúlveda Zambrano. La mujer correcta es la protagonista en el pensamiento maduro de Hegel. A decir verdad, ella nunca lo atrajo tanto como Antígona. Con todo, lo cierto es que él rebajó a Antígona: vulneró la singularidad de la grandeza del carácter de Antígona en la Fenomenología, mezcló su imagen de Antígona con rasgos modernos burgueses, y transfirió con ello algunas características de su singularidad a la imagen de la mujer en (...) el marco de la pequeña familia de la incipiente sociedad burguesa. Esta imagen fusionada de la grandeza de Antígona la acaba dañando, y tampoco ayuda a una interpretación y auto-interpretación apropiada de la mujer, o bien a la elucidación de sus roles sociales y de género en la modernidad naciente. Apartándose estrictamente de esta imagen mezclada, en la Filosofía del derecho Hegel ha ofrecido una imagen comprensible hasta el día de hoy, y en muchos sentidos aún relevante, acerca de los diferenciados roles sociales y de género, adecuados a las expectativas de la incipiente sociedad moderna, o bien acerca de una correspondiente auto-interpretación y autodeterminación para la mujer de la modernidad naciente. La mujer comparte del mismo modo con el hombre la orientación subjetiva-normativa en la actitud práctica: ella debe apropiar y ejercitar correctamente sus roles sociales y de género. Pero todas estas expectativas se encuentran muy alejadas de la grandeza de Antígona. Con ello Hegel abrió una perspectiva a través de su comprensión de la fragilidad de la existencia humana en la modernidad, en medio de la cual mujeres y hombres cuestionamos cada vez el sentido de nuestra propia existencia. (shrink)

This essay discusses Hegel’s theory of “abstract” respect for “abstract” personhood and its relation to the fuller, concrete account of human personhood. Hegel defines (abstract) personhood as an abstract, formal category with the help of his account of free will. For Hegel, personhood is defined in terms of powers, relations to self and to others. After analyzing what according to the first part of Philosophy of Right it is to (abstractly) respect someone as a person, the essay discusses the implications (...) for private property and market. Then the paper turns to discuss pathologies of ideologies that stress these aspects only. Finally, the essay discusses the way inwhich Hegel’s full social theory aims to overcome such pathological tendencies; most notably in his theory of Family and the State. (shrink)

Feminist philosophers are right to criticize Hegel’s prejudices against women. In many of his works, Hegel reduces women to their physiology as means of explaining why they occupy a subordinate role in nature and in society. Such treatment seems arbitrary at best, for the gendering of roles disrupts Hegel’s dialectical approach to spirit without any meaningful gain. Despite this defect in Hegel’s work, what is positive in Hegelian social and political philosophy remains intact. In this paper I argue that the (...) sexist claims that Hegel makes about women are irrelevant to his theory of the family in the Philosophy of Right. Therein, Hegel outlines three components that are necessary for the completion of the family: marriage, property and assets, and the raising of children. Hegel also includes a description of the different roles occupied by family members and divides these roles along gender lines. Given the three components that are essential to the family, I argue that there is no necessary basis for familial roles to be divided by gender. (shrink)

Capitalismo e riconoscimento" presenta, in cinque saggi per la prima volta raccolti insieme e tradotti in italiano, una densa e pregnante analisi di taluni cruciali processi socio-strutturali, morali e normativi delle società capitalistiche contemporanee dalla prospettiva delle dinamiche del reciproco riconoscimento e del disrispetto concernenti la sfera del lavoro. Particolare attenzione è dedicata ai paradossali rovesciamenti delle istanze di autorealizzazione, autonomia e responsabilità personale registratisi negli ultimi decenni nel quadro di un mercato del lavoro sempre più deregolato.