O problema da relação todo-partes na lógica da essência de Hegel

Abstract

The goal of my article is to present the whole-part relationship in the context of Hegel’s Doctrine of Essence (1813). After a short overview of the variety of contexts in which the whole-parts relationship is debated nowadays, both within and without the domain of Hegelian studies, I will focus on the logic of essence in order to analyze the first division (A.) of the third chapter (“the essential relationship”) of the second section (“The appearance”) of the book. As a result, my essay is expected to clarify a conceptual pair that is often used as a hermeneutical passe-partout in order to either defend or reject Hegel’s philosophy, based on the alleged Hegelian primacy of the whole over the parts. I will argue that the negative thesis of the logic of essence is that both the primacy of the parts over the whole and the primacy of the whole over the parts are unsustainable. Finally, the argument for this conclusion will entail a close examination of the Remark, which is devoted to a dialectical diagnosis of the second antinomy of the Critique of Pure Reason.