Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T23:50:48.435Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Hegel on Purpose

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2019

Arto Laitinen  and
Constantine Sandis
Arto Laitinen
Affiliation:
Tampere University, Finland
Constantine Sandis
Affiliation:
University of Hertfordshire, [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

In this paper we propose a new interpretation of Hegel's views on action and responsibility, defending it against its most plausible exegetical competitors.1 Any exposition of Hegel will face both terminological and substantive challenges, and so we place, from the outset, some interpretative constraints. The paper divides into two parts. In part one, we point out that Hegel makes a number of distinctions which any sensible account of responsibility should indeed make. Our aim here is to show that Hegel at least has the materials for a sensible and nuanced account, whatever the precise details of how they hang together. Part two then turns to a hard question concerning the relation of two different aspects of our deeds to responsibility. We consider five alternate ways of relieving the tension in Hegel's text, before putting forth our own preferred solution.

Type
Articles
Information
Hegel Bulletin , Volume 40 , Special Issue 3: Hegel and the Philosophy of Action , December 2019 , pp. 444 - 463
Copyright
Copyright © The Hegel Society of Great Britain, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

There has been a flood of books and articles on Hegel's philosophy of action during recent decades; see, for example, Stepelevich & Lamb 1983, Quante 2004, and Laitinen & Sandis 2010.

References

Alznauer, M. (2008), ‘Hegel on Legal and Moral Responsibility’, Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 51:4: 365–89.10.1080/00201740802166676Google Scholar
Alznauer, M. (2015), Hegel's Theory of Responsibility. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9781139939614Google Scholar
Anscombe, G. E. M. (2000 [1957]), Intention. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Bowra, M. (1944), Sophoclean Tragedy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Dodds, E. R. (1951), The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Cargnello, D. P. (2014), ‘Beyond Morality: Intentional Action in Hegel's Philosophy of Mind’, Mind 123:491: 671–706.10.1093/mind/fzu079Google Scholar
Davidson, D. (2001a), ‘The Logical Form of Action Sentences’, in Davidson, D., Essays on Actions and Events. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.1093/0199246270.001.0001Google Scholar
Davidson, D. (2001b), ‘The Individuation of Events’, in Davidson, D., Essays on Actions and Events. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.1093/0199246270.001.0001Google Scholar
Denham, A. (2014), ‘Tragedy Without the Gods: Autonomy, Necessity and the Real Self’, British Journal of Aesthetics 54:2: 141–59.10.1093/aesthj/ayu007Google Scholar
Falkenstern, R. (2018), ‘Hegel on Sophocles’ Oedipus the King and the Moral Accountability of Ancient Tragic Heroes’, Hegel Bulletin doi:10.1017/hgl.2018.1: 1–18.Google Scholar
Hart, H. L. A. (1968), Punishment and Responsibility: Essays in the Philosophy of Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kenny, A. J. P. (2005), ‘The Philosopher's History and the History of Philosophy’, in Sorell, T. and Rogers, G. A. J., Analytic Philosophy and History of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Knobe, J. (2003), ‘Intentional Action and Side Effects in Ordinary Language’, Analysis 63: 190–93.10.1093/analys/63.3.190Google Scholar
Knowles, D. (2010), ‘Hegel on Actions, Reasons, and Causes’, in Laitinen, A. and Sandis, C. (eds.), Hegel on Action. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Knox, T. M. (1942), ‘Translator's Notes’, in Hegel, G. W. F., Philosophy of Right, trans. Knox, T. M.. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Laitinen, A. (forthcoming), ‘Hegel and the Guise of the Good’, Philosophical Explorations.Google Scholar
Laitinen, A., Mayr, E. and Sandis, C. (2018), ‘Kant and Hegel on Action in Ethics’, in Sandis, C. (ed.), Philosophy of Action from Suarez to Anscombe. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Nagel, T. (1976), ‘Moral Luck’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 50: 137–51.Google Scholar
Pippin, R. B. (2010), ‘Hegel's Social Theory of Agency: The “Inner-Outer” Problem’, in Laitinen, A. and Sandis, C., Hegel on Action. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Quante, M. (2004), Hegel's Concept of Action, trans. Moyar, D.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511498299Google Scholar
Sandis, C. (2009), ‘Contextualist vs. Analytic History of Philosophy: A Study in Socrates’, Think 8:22: 101–5.10.1017/S1477175609000128Google Scholar
Sandis, C. (2010), ‘The Man Who Mistook his Handlung for a Tat: Hegel on Oedipus and Other Tragic Thebans’, Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain 62: 35–60.10.1017/S0263523200000057Google Scholar
Sandis, C. (2012), ‘The Public Expression of Penitence’, Teorema 31:2: 141–52.Google Scholar
Sandis, C. (2015), ‘Motivated by the Gods: Compartmentalized Agency & Responsibility’, in Buckareff, A., Moya, C., and Rosell, S. (eds.), Agency and Responsibility. London: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Sandis, C. (forthcoming), ‘What Is It to Do Nothing?’ in Rodríguez-Blanco, V. and Pavlakos, G. (eds.), Negligence, Omissions and Responsibility: Reflecting on Philosophy of Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Scanlon, T. M. (2008), Moral Dimensions: Permissibility, Meaning, Blame. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.10.4159/9780674043145Google Scholar
Sher, G. (2009), Who Knew? Responsibility Without Awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195389197.001.0001Google Scholar
Sorell, T. and Rogers, G. A. J. (eds.) (2005), Analytic Philosophy and History of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Stepelevich, L. and Lamb, D. (eds.) (1983), Hegel's Philosophy of Action. Atlantic Highlands NJ: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Taylor, C. (1983), ‘Hegel and the Philosophy of Action’, in Stepelevitch, L. and Lamb, D. (eds.), Hegel's Philosophy of Action. Atlantic Highlands NJ: Humanities Press.Google Scholar
Vice, S. (2011), ‘Why My Opinions on Whiteness Touched a Nerve’, Mail & Guardian, 2 Sept. URL: https://mg.co.za/article/2011-09-02-why-my-opinions-on-whiteness-touched-a-nerveGoogle Scholar
Williams, G. (1961), Criminal Law: The General Part. London: Steven & Sons.Google Scholar
Williams, B. (1976), ‘Moral Luck’, Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, Supplementary Volume 50: 115–35.10.1093/aristoteliansupp/50.1.115Google Scholar
Williams, B. (1993), Shame and Necessity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wood, A. W. (2010), ‘Hegel on Responsibility for Actions and Consequences’, in Laitinen, A. and Sandis, C., Hegel on Action. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Yeomans, C. (2012), Freedom and Reflection: Hegel and the Logic of Agency. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Yeomans, C. (2015), The Expansion of Autonomy: Hegel's Pluralistic Philosophy of Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199394548.001.0001Google Scholar
Yeomans, C. (2017), ‘Hegel's Philosophy of Action’, in Moyar, D. (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of Hegel. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Zimmerman, M. J. (2009), ‘Responsibility and Awareness’, Philosophical Books 50:4: 248–61.10.1111/j.1468-0149.2010.00497.xGoogle Scholar