Publication details

"The Self-Determination of Force: Desire and Practical Self-Consciousness in Kant and Hegel", in: International Yearbook of German Idealism 13/2015, pp. 179-204

Article

Author(s): Khurana, Thomas
Year of publication: 2018

Abstract: In a broadly Kantian context, it is often assumed that practical self-consciousness and rational self-determination can only be understood in opposition to pleasure and desire. I argue instead that, already for Kant, rational self-determination is itself a determination of our faculty of desire. Drawing on resources from Kant and Hegel, the paper shows that sensible desire can be understood as a self-determination of our vital forces which is connected to a sensible awareness of our practical existence. In order to constitute what Kant calls a higher faculty of desire, we need to develop a practical self-consciousness of this sensible desire. As Hegel develops this idea, such self-consciousness involves grasp of the very form of desire that is occluded in its sensible form, as well as a reflexive redoubling of desire whereby desire becomes its own object.

Keywords: Kant; Hegel; Desire; Pleasure; Practical Self-Consciousness; Will; Freedom

Research area: Research Area 1: The Normativity of Normative Orders: Origins, Vanishing Points, Performativitiy
Research project: Normativity and Subjectivity: First Nature – Second Nature – Mind
Subject(s): philosophy

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110577877-009