Dimensionen der zweiten Natur : Hegels praktische Philosophie

There may be no theme that has a more consistent presence in Hegel’s thought than that of overcoming the rigid dichotomy between “nature” and “spirit”. In this dissertation I intend to investigate the dialectical relation between the two terms as a crucial problem of Hegel’s practical philosophy. My central concern can be formulated as an attempt to clarify the remarkable double feature of Hegel’s understanding of the passage from natural life to free self-consciousness, from natural to ethical will. On the one hand, this passage seems to imply a detachment from and a transformation of natural life. On the other hand, the genesis of free spirit cannot be understood as a mere subjection or overcoming of life: the forms of spirit are always somehow indebted to the form of life. Against this background I propose a reconstruction of the Hegelian notion of “second nature” that may be helpful to describe the opposition and the unity of natural life and spirit.