What Does It Mean to Say, of ‘Thoughts’, That They ‘ Used to Count as Expressing the Essentialities of Things’? Hegel and the Older Metaphysics
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21604185 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Dunphy (0000-0002-3512-2433, University of Sussex, corresponding author), Robb Dunphy (University of Sussex) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 34 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 70-87 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Journal of Philosophical Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0967-2559 • E-ISSN: 1466-4542 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09672559.2024.2444965 |
| OpenAlex | W4405910660 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 21 |
This essay is concerned with a passage from 24 of Hegel's Encyclopaedia, in which Hegel characterises the concepts or 'thoughts' developed in the discipline of metaphysics by saying that they 'used to count as expressing the essentialities of things'.I begin by drawing attention to Hegel's use of the past tense in this passage and suggest that it looks problematic for conceptual realist interpreters of Hegel's idealism, who want, roughly, to attribute to him the view that thoughts or 'thought-determinations' express the essentialities of things.I then develop this challenge with help from Robert Pippin, who takes Hegel, in this passage, to be rejecting the metaphysical projects of pre-Kantian European rationalism.If Pippin is right, then in this passage Hegel is in fact distancing himself from the view that conceptual realist accounts attribute to him.In the final part of the article, I re-examine some of Hegel's remarks concerning the history of European metaphysics and offer an alternative, better explanation of Hegel's use of the past tense in the passage in question, one which neutralises the objection to conceptual realist accounts of Hegel's idealism
Epistemology · Hegelianism · Idealism · Metaphysics · Rationalism · Philosophical Ethics and Theory · Philosophy · Political Philosophy and Ethics · Seventeenth-Century Political and Philosophical Thought
Hegel and the Problem of Beginning
Critique of Pure Reason
Hegel's Idealism
The Philosophy of Philosophy
The Role of Experience in Wolff’s General Cosmology
Hegel’s Realm of Shadows
The Palgrave Hegel Handbook
Hegelian Metaphysics
Reason in the World
Hegel's Essentialism. Natural Kinds and the Metaphysics of Explanation in Hegel's Theory of ‘the Concept
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |