Force and Power in Hegel’s Anthropology
Sebastian Rand
Owl of Minerva, October 31, 2024

This essay challenges Allegra de Laurentiis’s characterization of Hegel’s philosophy of nature as involving a polar, oppositional force-metaphysics. I begin by showing the centrality of such a force-metaphysics to de Laurentiis’s interpretation, and I go on to argue that Hegel thoroughly rejects force-metaphysics. I then consider some possible difficulties for my argument, including Hegel’s elaboration of attraction and repulsion, before turning to his distinction between “force [Kraft]” and “power [Macht].” I argue that the concept of power captures what Hegel endorses in force-metaphysics, and that power is central to Hegel’s view of both spirit and nature. I conclude by suggesting that we best understand the Anthropology not as resolving a tension between natural polarity and ensouled unity, but as continuing a process of elaborating and extending a form of unity shared by both nature and spirit.
https://doi.org/10.5840/owl202482747