La libertà che si realizza. Normatività immanente e seconda natura nella filosofia di Hegel

The main subject of my research is the relationship between the practical dimension and the logical dimension within Hegel’s philosophy. The general aim is to show that this relationship consists in a ‘de-essentialisation’ of the notion of essence as conceived in the ‘old metaphysic’. Such de- essentialisation, however, does not result into a mere constructivism and therefore a suspension of ethical judgment on what is ‘good’ and ‘free’. My claim is that the relationship between the practical dimension and the logical dimension of Hegel’s philosophy enables to investigate the process of realisation of the Spirit as a process of ‘becoming free’, determined by an essentially critical immanent normativity. Starting from the contemporary debate on the relationship between normativity and freedom (with particular reference to the notions of ‘second nature’ and ‘life’), I will first investigate the last paragraphs of Hegel’s Anthropology in the Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences and the figure of Selfconsciousness in the Phenomenology of the Spirit (Chapter I). I will highlight Hegel’s idea of a pre-reflexive emergence of the speculative identity in nature – in particular as a ‘second nature’ (Anthropology) – and the inherently relational dimension of this individual identity (Selfconsciousness): by so doing, I will I shed light onto the immanent normativity of speculative identity as something essentially relational, emphasizing the irreducibility of the human being to a ‘first nature’ or to some ‘pre-social’ dimension. This premise will lay the ground for my analysis of the socio-political sphere, as is it elaborated in particular in the shift from Psychology to the Objective Spirit in the Encyclopaedia, as well as in the passage from Moralität to Sittlichkeit in the Elements of the Philosophy of Right (Chapter II). 5 I will highlight above all how the will, as the last systematic determination of the Subjective Spirit, exhibits the maximum exteriorization of speculative identity, making objectivity an essential determination of Spirit. The determination immanent in exteriorization (i. e. the necessary determination of freedom to realize itself), however, is not to be conceived either as a form of determinism or as the acceptance that all reality is the necessary realization of freedom. Addressing the most significant positions of the debate between ‘social constructivists’ and ‘ethical realists’ regarding Hegel’s practical philosophy, I will show that Hegel’s offers a rather critical perspective. According to a correct Hegelian insight, the realization of freedom consists in an immanent critique of an extrinsic normativity that excludes finiteness and difference. Third, this results will be read in light of another Hegelian text, namely the Doctrine of Essence in Hegel’s Science of Logic and in particular the final section devoted to Wirklichkeit. Through a comparison with Kant’s third critique, I will highlight how Hegel exhibits the Wirklichkeit as a result of the dialectical process triggered by contradiction, as a category of life. Wirklichkeit exhibits therefore the necessary determination to manifest itself that is typical of ‘essence’. Freedom, as Hegel explains, consists precisely in manifesting itself within necessity (and not in its disappearance). The Wirklichkeit, the reality adequate to speculative thought, is therefore a reality that is charachterized as a manifestation of contradiction, that is, as a necessity of contingency. My investigation into the relationship between the idea of freedom and its realization opens up many new philosophical perspectives. I will particularly highlight the ones relating to the notion of ‘biopolitics’, ‘identity’ and ‘realization of freedom’.