Abstract
This chapter addresses the contemporary reception of Hegel’s thought in Syria and Lebanon. It focuses on the presence of works of Hegel and on his thought, translated or written in Arabic, in the major libraries (and bookshops) of Damascus and Beirut (according to the author’s research conducted in Syria and Lebanon in 2009–2010). This information is presented and discussed, to better understand the characteristics of Hegel’s reception.
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- 1.
Mohamed Turki (2008) tries to explain this delay for example by pointing out that Hegel’s thought could not enter the Arab world through foreign universities, since Hegel was considered to be the philosopher of the Prussian state and hence excluded from university curricula of other countries. Moreover, the status of Western philosophy in general in the universities in the Arab world is also a consideration, because philosophy faculties were founded only during the twentieth century and still remain few in number (see p. 182). A third reason is Hegel’s eurocentrism, exemplified in the exclusion of Oriental philosophy from the course of philosophy in his Lectures on the History of Philosophy, since for Hegel philosophy properly begins in Greece, along with free self-consciousness (pp. 183–184). Hegel, however, tends to distinguish between the Orient and Islam, and for him only Chinese and Indian philosophies are properly “Oriental” (see Hegel [1840] 1963, I, p. 119), while Arab philosophy is fully included in the development of the history of philosophy.
- 2.
Here I am presenting and discussing the results of research I have conducted in Syria and Lebanon in 2009 and 2010. The main libraries I visited are: the “al-Asad” National Library; the Library of Higher Studies at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Damascus; the Library of the French Institute for the Near East (IFPO) in Syria; and the libraries of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. At the time of this research Syria was only slowly providing online telematic catalogues, so search on site was necessary; while Lebanese university library catalogues were already available on the Internet.
- 3.
A look at the catalogue of the “al-Asad” National Library shows that some works by Hegel are present both in English and French: the Philosophy of Right (1940, 1952a); the Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1945, 1952b); and separately, The Reason in History (Introduction to the Lectures on the Philosophy of History) (1953, 1965). Other works are only in French: the Aesthetics (1979); the Lectures on the History of Philosophy (1954), Jena’s Logic and Metaphysics (1980); Philosophical Propaedeutic (1963); the article on Natural Law (1972); and anthology of selected writings (1939), which consists of a selection of very short texts, organized so as to illustrate Hegel’s thought. It should be noted that in general I am not considering translations into Russian and other Eastern European languages.
- 4.
Yūsuf Karam (1886–1959) studied philosophy in France with Jacques Maritain and is a representative of “moderate rationalism.” In his book he considers the visions of the various thinkers, and adds his point of view.
- 5.
Aesthetics or the Lectures on Fine Art has been divided into different parts, translated separately between 1978 and 1981. All translations are edited by Jūrj Tarābīshī and published by Dār al-talīʿa, Beirut.
- 6.
This work pre-dates the establishment of the University of Damascus and is available in the “al-Asad” National Library.
- 7.
This book (Imām 1984, pp. 386–405) includes a German–English–Arabic glossary of the main terms used by Hegel.
- 8.
Salāma is of Palestinian origin, but for years he has lived and worked in Syria. During this research he was teaching at Damascus Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO).
- 9.
Nāzlī, studied at the Sorbonne and taught in Cairo. Starting from Hegel’s positions on world history, his work comes to outline the traits of the “Egyptian spirit (rūh).”
- 10.
This is an unpublished work, kindly granted from the author. Al-Naqshbandī is Syrian, and her thesis is recorded in the archives of the University of Damascus, despite being officially held at the University of Baghdad.
- 11.
This is the degree thesis by al-Nisr, held in Damascus University 1997, under the supervision of Salāma, who wrote the Introduction.
- 12.
It is also worth mentioning the article by Fathi al-Maskīn “The Philosophy of the Last God: Heidegger in Front of Hegel” (2003), issued in the Lebanese periodical Al-fikr al-ʿarabī al-muʿāsir (Contemporary Arabic Thought).
- 13.
- 14.
These theses are less important than Masters theses, and for this reason in some cases the author’s name is even omitted. There are those for CAPES (Certificate of Professional Aptitude for Secondary Teaching), for the DES (Diplôme d’Études Supérieures), for the DEA (Diplôme d’Études Approfondies) or for the Licence. At the Lebanese University: E. Dbeis, La conception de l’Etat chez Hegel et sa critique par Marx (1961); S. Aouad, La mort: sa signification chez Hegel et Heidegger (1971); A. Chehade, L’idéalisme allemand et la révolution française (1971). At the Université Saint-Esprit-Kaslik (USEK): E. H. Khalil, Conscience et aliénation. Etudes Hégéliennes (1977); the other studies are listed without author’s name: La réalisation de la liberté dans le droit Hegelien (1985); La philosophie de l’Histoire chez Hegel (1987); La liberté dans la pensée politique de Hegel (1992); Violence et reconnaissance dans la pensée de Hegel (1997).
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Ventura, L. (2018). The Direct Reception of Hegel as a Recent Phenomenon: Syria and Lebanon. In: Hegel in the Arab World. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78066-5_13
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