Katargein and Aufheben

Hegel’s Jugendschriften represent a privileged way in the understanding of the whole Hegelian speculative system. This essay aims at illustrating the first development of the fundamental axis of Hegel’s thought, highlighting the traits of a significant presence of the theology of the apostle Paul in the philosopher’s early writings. From this recognition emerges that Hegel’s juvenile post-Kantian turn has a specific correlation with the background of the Pauline Letters, which the philosopher had studied during his education in Stuttgart, Tubingen and Frankfurt. The dialectic nucleus which appears in the Jugendschriften finds one of its most significant expressions in the abolishment of the spirit of the Law in the law of the Spirit and in its preserving. With regard to this hermeneutical assumption, this essay examines analytically the dialectical relationship between law and love in Paul and young Hegel, the pregnancy of which emblematically focuses on the Pauline formula of hos me-katargesis and on the first theorisation of Hegelian Aufhebung. These formulas express the dialectics of separation/reconciliation, of deactivation/fulfilment and of abolishment/preservation. Also considering that Luther translated katargein with aufheben, it is possible to show that the Pauline Letters represent a propulsive source of the young philosopher’s theoretical development

Dialectic · Epistemology · Hegelianism · Theology · Kantian Philosophy and Modern Interpretations · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Philosophy and Historical Thought