HPhil Seminar: May 29, 2024

The HPhil (History of Philosophy) Research Group of the Centre of Philosophy of the University of Lisbon announces the 2023/24 edition of its permanent seminar on the history of philosophy, devoted to the presentation of conferences by renowned specialists while also creating opportunities to emerging scholars, aiming to promote advanced studies in groundbreaking debates and the permanent training of its academic community.

In this session of the seminar, Gregory Moss (Chinese University of Hong Kong) will present a paper, entitled “The Gap Between Conceptual and Sensual Singularity in Hegel’s Philosophy of the Absolute”, (abstract below)

The session will take place on May 29, 2024 at 5 p.m., in the Room C201.J (Room Mattos Romão, Department of Philosophy). Admission is free.

Abstract

Hegel famously proclaims that thinking the absolute is the one and only task of philosophy: “[…] the absolute idea alone is being, imperishable life, self-knowing truth, and is all truth. It is the sole subject matter and content of philosophy.”[1] In his Science of Logic, Hegel argues that the concept is the sole power in virtue of which the absolute exists. [2] In “The Gap Between Conceptual and Sensual Singularity in Hegel’s Philosophy” I argue that Hegel’s philosophy cannot successfully know the absolute. After reconstructing Hegel’s Doctrine of the Concept [Lehre von Begriff], I show that his logic of the concept cannot account for the very existence of sensual singularities. Because Hegel’s concept cannot account for the existence of non-conceptual particulars, there remains an insurmountable gap between conceptual and sensuous singularity in Hegel’s system of philosophy. Either the concept is neither absolute nor autonomous, for it depends upon non-conceptual particulars for its sensuous existence, or the concept is absolute, and no sensuous singularities can exist. I conclude with a call to think the absolute, and directly to confront the paradox that arises in any effort to think the absolute.

[1] Hegel, Science of Logic, 735.

[2] Hegel, Science of Logic, 522.