Differing Spirits—Reflections on Hegelian Inspiration in Feminist Theory

Abstract

Hegel’s central notion “spirit” (Geist) has been ascribed distinctly different meanings depending on how his philosophy has been interpreted. I see Hegel’s philosophy, first and foremost, as metaphysics and as an ontological doctrine in which he posits a substance in the form of a subject. The primary use for the term “spirit,” in this view, is that it is Hegel’s name for the all-inclusive ontological substance-subject. The rest of the spirit vocabulary, such as “the objective spirit,” which refers to social life, and the “subjective spirit” or “finite spirit,” which refer to human beings, repeats the self-reflexive structure of the absolute spirit.