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Re-articulating Genealogy: Hegel on Kinship, Race and Reproduction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 March 2019

Susanne Lettow
Susanne Lettow*
Affiliation:
Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
*
[email protected]
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Abstract

In the decades around 1800, genealogical imaginaries, or the social, political, economic and cultural meanings of descent and kinship, underwent far-reaching change. Hegel was deeply concerned with these transformations in various respects and in different parts of his philosophy. By engaging with the issues of kinship and family, with the disputes over racial diversity as well as with the scientific debates about life, reproduction and the meaning of sexual difference, Hegel contributed to a philosophical re-articulation of genealogical relations, or to the shaping of a new vocabulary through which the political, social, cultural and epistemic transformations of the period were rendered intelligible in distinctive ways. Although Hegel did not draw explicit connections between his reflections on kinship, race and reproduction, my aim is to explore the semantic interrelations among his reflections on these issues.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hegel Bulletin , Volume 42 , Issue 2 , August 2021 , pp. 256 - 276
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Copyright
Copyright © The Hegel Society of Great Britain 2019

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