Notes on Hegel's "Lordship and Bondage" Author(s): George Armstrong Kelly Reviewed work(s): Source: The Review of Metaphysics,

Vol. 19, No. 4 (Jun., 1966), pp. 780-802 Published by: Philosophy Education Society Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20124139 . Accessed: 11/03/2012 09:49
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EXPLORATION

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND BONDAGE" KELLY GEORGE ARMSTRONG

in Hegel? The mid-twentieth century is prone sense of the collective, his notion of a politically his grounding structured people as the unit of historical meaning, his of of right in intersubjective purpose, penetrating explorations and conflict. Both admirers and hostile sociological psychological critics fasten on these categories, because, as issues of debate, they hat is living his to answer: are not only living in Hegel, but living in our time. did not, as it were, Thus Hegel's philosophy
"gray on gray." Not surprisingly, however,

merely

paint
in

contemporary

is due chiefly to the suggestive in this "ultimate philosophy" of its insights, rather than to any desire for systematic expansion In a discretionary and reconstruction. way, Hegelian problems patterns have gained a new lease in the fields of social and religious terest and among classical political those for whom theory is thought not a dead exercise. One might say that Hegel remains vital be a giant cause he continues to raise polemical When questions. some fate which is superseded?a structure of human speculation for his own I think, that Hegel tacitly acknowledged feel, wrongly tend to survives in membris disjectis, anthologies philosophy?but Karl L?with reminds us that for partisan purposes. be compiled balance in the hands of this was the destiny of the fragile Hegelian immediate has The last generation the philosopher's disciples.1 but now on the far side of seen a renewal of this Kulturkampf, of "What The opposition total war, Marxism, and religious crisis. mean "What does for and is posed us?" did Hegel mean?" Hegel a some of feel?as historian ideas?that I personally and reposed. is caused by the failure to raise the two intellectual mischief questions
1 (New

in mutual

rapport.
From 65-135. to Nietzsche, trans, by David E. Green

See Karl

L?with, pp.

Hegel

York,

1964),

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND

BONDAGE" 781

An important case in point would be the characteristic modern famous scenario of "Lordship and Bondage," treatment of Hegel's so deeply affected the account of liberation through work which This tableau is the young Karl Marx in his 1844 manuscripts.2 most in des the Geistes of 1807, Ph?nomenologie fully developed in the but is also covered more (1808-1816) tersely Prop?deutik der philosophischen and the Enzyklop?die (editions Wissenschaften form in 1817, 1827, 1830, and 1840-1845), essayed in rudimentary of spirit (1803-1804 both series of Jena lectures on the philosophy der Philosophie and 1805-1806), alluded to in the Grundlinien des some to Rechts foreshadowed and, according (1821), interpreters, in the discussion of Hebrew religion in the so-called early theologi cal essays.3 As a form of consciousness, lordship and bondage was to Hegel's dialectical deduction of the indispensable continuously of subjective mind and had occupied him from his a system. to construct Since there can be no attempts of this philosophical it "moment," quarrel about the centrality to grasp its precise meaning essential becomes and content. A full pr?cis of this much admired passage will be dispensed I have no particular with here. for example, dispute with, earliest
Hyppolite's treatment, as far as it goes.4 However, many modern

formation

by Koj?ve's readings?inspired ? la lecture de Hegel5?tend to distort

The Economic Karl Marx, J. Struik (New York, by Dirk and Philosophy Dialectic Hegelian ed. 2

artful

exegesis lordship

in his Introduction and bondage in the

Manuscripts of 18M, 170-193 of the ("Critique Marx writes (p. 177): of Hegel's "The outstanding achievement and of its final Phenomenology ... outcome is thus first that Hegel conceives as a the self-creation of man as loss of the object, as alienation conceives and as process, objectification that he transcendence of this alienation; thus grasps the essence of labor ... man as the outcome own and comprehends of man's labor." objective It would particular "servitude." be appropriate also here of nuance chosen to mention to the that, like Hegel, significance I have synonyms to avoid taxing "slavery," the patience no I assign and "bondage," of the reader

and Philosophical 1964), esp. pp. as a Whole").

with

unnecessary 3 Cf. Jean de Hegel

dialectical Hyppolite, (Paris,

vocabulary. et Structure Gen?se 1946), I, p. 166; and

l'Esprit Early

Theological 1948), Writings (Chicago, 4 I, pp. 161-171. Hyppolite, 5 This remarkable is a compilation study the Phenomenology (ed. by Raymond

de la Ph?nom?nologie de T. M. Knox (trans.), HegeVs intro. by R. Kr?ner, p. 13. of Alexandre [Paris, Koj?ve's 1947]), courses given at

on

Queneau

782

KELLY GEORGE ARMSTRONG

structure. total Hegelian Though every student of Hegel is deeply is not without enriched by Koj?ve, this experience its dangers. In seems to me the present case, the difficulty the twofold: chiefly of the scenario is largely ignored, and the master-slave an unqualified is made for clarifying device the relationship one a The to of human leads uni progress history. tendency of the Phenomenology, "social" interpretation laterally partic ;6 the other easily gathers ularly the section on "Selbstbewusstsein" subjectivity
in anachronistic overtones of the Marxian class struggle.

The regulative idea of lorsdship and bondage runs like a golden thread through much of Koj?ve 's analysis. His general introduc "The Slave alone is able to transcend tion stresses the point: the as it is (in thrall to the Master) and not perish. World The Slave is able to transform the World that forms him and fixes of his own making where and to create aWorld in bondage, he will be free."7 In a later passage, Koj?ve asserts that he has and reading of the Phenomenology, given an "anthropological" as well, that Hegel intends a "metaphysical" the two dimension on in the final chapter currents being necessarily syncretized A footnote here seems to clarify Koj?ve's Absolute Knowledge.8 alone him resolve to treat equally
(as was

of the interior
surely Hegel's

and exterior
purpose)

relations
the

of the
anthro

consciousness

under

But, in fact, although both exterior (political) pological notion. are acknowledged, he and interior consequences (psychological)
sees the master-slave relationship purely as an external confron

the Sorbonne Sartre 6 and

in the years French

"Awareness"

with is "consciousness," each. I have reluctantly term because in Hegel's Bewusstsein is an chosen the traditional language as a condition or capacity. as well agent 7 p. 34. Koj?ve, 8 on the perspective and 308n. A comment of the Ibid., pp. 308-309 at this point. to agree with itself those I tend Phenomenology imposes are that the sequence who hold and development of the Phenomenology as juxtaposed, to the intention sui generis of the work, and related especially, to the conclude 1817. Encyclopedia. that Hegel In cases of Thus changed these his differences alone viewpoint "philosophy do not between allow us to philosophical a between of 1807 and a and of mind" advised. and This

which 1933-1939, in general. Hegelianism a better is conceivably are problems but there

exerted translation

a powerful

influence

on than

of Bewusstsein

"phenomenology does reservation

disagreement caution of mind," not seem applicable

is interpretation to the case of "lordship

bondage."

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND tation.

BONDAGE"

783

forms in various ascending For Koj?ve this motif persists Thus: Work end of time. and Struggle = the Hegelian In more Freedom = Time = History = Transience = Nothing = Man. to future the the once-terrorized humble pro belongs language, liberated by the spiritualized quality of his own ducer, progressively until consumer, who treats both labor, not to the seemingly omnipotent mere as dead the the servant and his product things. Effectively, is and it the slave's from satisfaction slave releases history nature, to a close. the that will bring history Thus, while retaining Hegelian primacy of ideas over things, Koj?ve, like Marx, tends to regard
production.

forms

of

servitude

as epiphenomena

of

the

relations

of

ideas know, Koj?ve's As students of the career of philosophical on Hegel have had an enormous To take a recent impact. in two volumes his John the British Plamenatz, scholar, example, lectures full acknowledgment, chapter on the Phe casts and He bondage entirely at the inter nomenology. lordship reflects the familiar line of argu his conclusion and level, personal is It is his destiny to create ment: slave. with the "... the future to everyone in which everyone accords recognition the community in his in which else, the community Spirit attains its end and achieves Plamenatz's But where did Hegel ever say this? satisfaction."9 are grounded in criticisms of Hegel (via the French commentaries)
the same analysis. How, he inquires, can one explore the possi

on European has, thought, political a Koj?ve-Hyppolite reading provided

with

in terms of one master and one slave, as Hegel of community toil is not appears to do? How can one refuse to see that manual the exclusively dignified form of labor; is there not also managerial no easier to vindicate is sometimes than toil?10 Although Hegel this type of question will not seem so pressing he is to understand, bilities if lordship and bondage is given By a more balanced, more nomenological"
9 1963), Karl 10 John II, p.

interpretation.
Man and

"phenomenological"
2 Vols. neither York-San

"phe I mean

Plamenatz, 155.

Society, However, second only

(New

Francisco,

190-192. II, pp. Ibid., ask Plamenatz's Marx would p. 177: mental "The labor."

op. cit., of 18i4, is abstractly nizes

question. labor which

nor, Koj?ve especially, Cf. Marx, Manuscripts knows and recog Hegel

784

KELLY GEORGE ARMSTRONG

that Hegel's ego must be seen here as an ideal type, collective only of exis in the sense of exemplary, subject to a genetic onslaught which will of but be cancelled also each tential moods (Gestalten), of eternal significance. retained as a moment some legerdemain I am not proposing that will take the true he that the ethical life "social" out of Hegel. argues Clearly man and is in "concrete" of "objective," grounded (Sittlichkeit) to the immanent of a harmonies according "The expe rational community where liberty and order coalesce. to the Phenomenology, is rience of what spirit is . . .", according "the Ego that is 'we,' a plurality of Ego, and 'we' that is a single 1X the pages that introduce the discussion of self Although Ego." announce this principle, collective mind does not be consciousness come a reality until reason in ter subjectivity achieves (Vernunft) is a and ,12 into spirit and passes (Geist) bondage Lordship collective experience that foreshadows of Selbstbewusstsein "moment" society and has that the the view ramifications. historical However, explicit a purely social phenomenon is one-sided and scenario represents
needs correction.

is I am about to argue is that lordship and bondage are seen inter valid and three that from angles equally properly the social, of which One of these angles is necessarily penetrable. a Another has such regards the dazzling reading. given Koj?ve servitude within and domination of shifting pattern psychological a of other then becomes fusion the third The individual the ego. What consequences wrought by the external the Other and the Self, of the Self and the Other, in the struggle for recognition which has commenced (Kampf des On the overtly social plane there are, at a given Anerkennens). In the interior of conscious slaves and masters. point in history, in his own ness, each man possesses faculties of slavery and mastery two processes confrontation the question arises regard that he struggles to bring into harmony; a resistant that goes "otherness" encounters the will whenever In mere its to turn, the social activity. beyond physical opposition
11 G. W. F. Hegel, Ph?nomenologie 140; p. Phenomenology furnished I have 1927), p. 227. 1952), Hoffmeister, pp. 313 ff.; des ed. by Geistes, trans, of Mind, Baillie's translation pp. 455 ff. J. Hoffmeister by J. Baillie

: the interior

(Hamburg, (London, 12

throughout.

Ibid.,

Baillie,

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND and personal oppositions capacity to enslave others are mediated

BONDAGE" 785

by the fact that man has the and be enslaved by them. Because of the continuum the is not broken of spirit omnipresence by the distinc and self. tion between world In brief, man remits the tensions of his being upon the world and is himself in the process. of fellow beings This changed it should be since furnishes the stressed, bridge be relationship Let it be added here also that and history. not ismoral, this is why experience Hegel's psychology analytical: causes it to shift its ground and why it is, in the continually a a Bildungs of sense, historical, psychology development, deepest psychology
r oman.

tween

On the one hand, Hegel is showing that mere political mastery or subjection cannot inaugurate the long adventure of history and freedom unless faculties of the subjective mind, necessarily present and condition the result. On the in all men, create the possibility in a solipsistic other hand, it is clear that none of this is conceivable "Es ist ein Selbstbewusstsein universe. f?r ein Selbstbewusst 13 to the struggle sein" for is the abrupt and dramatic prelude out which and will of arise. The pos mastery recognition slavery and right depends on the postula morality, sibility of philosophy, on the assumption of a tion of a second finite ego and, ultimately, a Much in the same way that Fichte produces plurality of egos. second ego in order to ground his doctrine of natural right,14 Hegel for a still more posits society at the dawn of self-consciousness to the analysis of the broken ego striving purpose: profound restore men, ciples other But if the Self and the Other are, to speak bluntly, dwell within also each man. they They are original prin of the ego, awakened of an to combat by the appearance are and thenceforward ego in which they reduplicated, itself. by history. Without this shock, there would be no

transformed

13 aus der Heidelberger und Schriften Zeit, S?mt Enzyklop?die Hegel, ed. by H. Glockner 352, 1927), VI, Werke, (Stuttgart, paragraph p. 253. 14 III Sammelte des Naturrechts, J. G. Fichte, Werke, Grundlage trans, 1845), (Berlin, pp. 30 ff.; The Science by A. E. Kroeger of Right, liche

(Philadelphia,

1869), pp. 48 ff.

786

GEORGE KELLY ARMSTRONG

link with the animal world, history, only desire (Begierde), man's and repetitive cycles of biological and the unproductive nature. to be much less the internal about sure, is, Hegel explicit of and than he is about the aspects bondage lordship interpersonal and historical dimensions. and other nomenology analysis of relations torical way communities denies Certain The most casual reading of the Phe texts makes clear that Hegel intends the a men on and reflection the rise of his among But my elucidation in no

through conquest. this obvious fact.

other contingencies obscure the reading I am suggest In the first place, the "social" implications of the tableau are ing. a scholar will even more emphatic in the Jena sketches, to which to understand of Hegel's refer if he wants the evolution wisely In of this and many passages thought. early experimental of the spirit" Hegel is deeply concerned with the con "philosophy crete formation of society, the nature of work and its elevation to a and the of creation of scheme dialectical spiritual substantiality, development. minologies?some original?are crete places
desire, labor,

and different ter sequences of unfolding and some derivative Schellingian) (mainly will in have dis these lectures. What later essayed in the treatment of subjective and objective spirit? Different
love, family, Volks g eist, etc.?are seen struggling for

systematic deployment. scenario the emphasis 1803-1804 gle lectures, for recognition,

"recognition" admittedly the concrete In the and social. the deduction of the family precedes the strug is here concerned with that Hegel indicating the presentation of in the 1805-1806 lectures, in a pas rather than

And is on

in

the

anthropohistorical development 15 But "facts of consciousness."

to what Hegel will later call "anthropology" sage corresponding of conscious (the forms of the human soul before the awakening as a "dark is Other evoked the ness), Schellingian principle": the subterranean "The Other [is] Evil, a being-in-itself, principle, how it and witnesses the thing which knows what lies in daylight or own in such active its is decline, [brings about] purposively on for its it the substitutes that, contrary, opposition negativity
15 1932),

pp.

Jenenser Hegel, 223 ff.

Realphilosophie,

I, ed.

by

J. Hoffmeister

(Leipzig,

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND own being,

BONDAGE" 787

will

for its own self-preservation."16 The Encyclopedia us even the for how pre-conscious being is bifurcated clarify before it gains awareness of its own selfhood, and how lordship and at the higher autoalienation bondage will display an analogous
conscious level.

mislead is the characteristic might that the of the mind insistence, against Kant, Hegelian properties are integral and not the derivations of separate faculties or prin and will),17 ciples, like theoretical and practical reason (cognition second of finite Ego and pure Ego resolved dichotomy Of course, this is the "standpoint of reason," cannot But one obviously the goal of the Hegelian philosophy. here to the that lower from conclusion forms of consciousness jump is true, In fact the opposite themselves monistically. apprehend a as as is felt the Other hostile stranger, or as a whether impulse, transcendent God. Since though its apotheosis or historical genetic, progress of the spirit. Mr. G. R. G. Mure, in his excellent study of Hegel's Logic, has to the dualistic tread of "higher" and attention called particular in Hegel and has doubted their effective resolu "lower" principles One cannot of course gather in the tion.19 I share this feeling. at it through the of post Phenomenology by looking depths In the alone. background always and Enlightenment spectacles with the prob at the surface much of the time Hegel is wrestling and to and seeking both to overcome lems of Greek antiquity The Platonic parallel between eternalize them in an alien climate. in the soul is never far in the state and the struggles the struggles I will permit myself the liberty of saying that the great distant.
16 p. 200. 17 Jenenser See will 18 19 368. for Realphilosophie, II, ed. by J. Hoffmeister (Leipzig, 1931),

factor which

or like the Fichtean only by an ought.1*

even is process, Hegelian philosophy to do with the logical, is unity, it has mostly come about in the have that oppositions

T. M. citation edition.

Knox

trans, and ed. by Philosophy of Right, example, Hegel, Zusatz to paragraph the paragraph 4, p. 227; 1945), (Oxford, to locate in the German the reader the passage enable readily in Glockner, VI, paragraph A Study of HegeVs Logic 332, p. 246. 1950), pp. 367

Enzyklop?die, G. R. G. Mure,

(Oxford,

788

GEORGE ARMSTRONG KELLY

the figures of Aristotle, Plato, and Sophocles bestride, respectively, sections on Bewusstsein, and Geist. The prob Selbstbewusstsein, lem of lordship and bondage is essentially Platonic in foundation, because the primal cleavage in both the history of society and the The two primordial egos in the history of the ego is at stake. that will and slavery are also locked in lead to mastery struggle battle with themselves. A third deterrent to a balanced of lordship and reading is to as an the treat the Phenomenology bondage temptation of history. Sometimes this is done so that its enigmatic philosophy can be favorably the "progressive" implications compared with
conclusions of Hegel's later lectures. But the schematic arrange

ment

system, given by the Encyclopedia, to away from this adventure: belongs history even to and the objective spirit phenomenology subjective, though experience of objective spirit is a fact of consciousness. Although must necessarily the Phenomenology utilize history to illustrate forms of consciousness, it is not to be inferred that the two are conscious avoidance Hegel's genealogies integrally parallel. of proper names is the best clue to his design. This point can become confused, since Hegel in both instances is dealing with and since historical time is the temporal process The evolution of mind runs along condition for human thought. the same time scale as the fate of nations. Thus, philosophical

of Hegel's should warn us

finished

analyses that are conceptually independent must be joined in com discourse and must of municative the same treasury plunder as Mind Geist materials. is the operator, empirical integrative the operation But the Phe just as temporality makes possible. on political philosophy; is not primarily a disquisition nomenology it is the record of the spirit's efforts to attain peace in the knowl outside itself. edge that there is nothing as I do, the prestidigitatory feats of Hegel One may question, these two lines of philosophical and in keeping inquiry discrete at the same time. than animus There is more in correlative famous "etwas Anderes ist die that Geschichte, complaint Haym's In fact, we all do read ist die Psychologie."20 und etwas Anderes
20 production, Rudolf Haym, Hildesheim, und seine Zeit Hegel 1962), p. 241. (orig. ed. 1857; photostatic re

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND

BONDAGE" 789

as historical the Phenomenology and political commentary quite is it with since concerned the external relations of legitimately, mind amid a plurality of egos. But the transformations of mind within Both destinies, itself are equally important. to according Hegel, be identical in the last analysis. if we hypothesize that mastery Finally, we shall not be greatly both developments, will and slavery contains disturbed by Hegel's in his deduction of Selbst

leaps between the social and the solitary as he delineates the forms of "otherness" bewusstsein, (Anders in and the "unhappy consciousness." sein) stoicism, scepticism, The clue to the whole matter is, I think, given in the following passage
The

from

the Phenomenology:

in its duplica of this its [of self-consciousness] conception unity itself in self-consciousness, has many sides tion, of infinitude realizing to it and encloses it elements within of varied Thus its significance. must on moments be strictly in detailed the one hand apart kept in this distinction at the same and, on the other, distinctiveness, must, or must also be taken as not distinguished, be accepted time, always . . .21 sense and understood in their opposite

us to draw the I think, he is encouraging what of associations from the Self-Other confrontation. Thus can be only Hegel conveyed imperfectly by static Self = Other; Self = Self + Other; Self (Other) <> Other (Self) ; and Self+ Other in Self = Self + Other in Other, etc. as most complete. I regard the final formulation In the following If Hegel plenitude although formulas: discussion,
This ness

means

Hegel

expands

this

idea:

of self-consciousness to another in relation self-conscious process . . . been as the action has of one alone. But this represented on the part of the one has itself the double action of being significance . . . The at once as well. its own action and the action of that other action not only has then a double entente in the sense that it is an act done to itself as well act as of is the simpliciter their distinction.22 to the other, but the one as well also as of in the the sense other that the act of regardless

A corresponding
21 22

passage

from

the Prop?deutik,
229. 230.

being

simpler

Hoffmeister, Hoffmeister,

p. p.

141; 142;

Baillie, Baillie,

p. p.

790
(prepared for the instruction haps greater clarity :
A

GEORGE KELLY ARMSTRONG

of pre-university students), has per

which is for another self-consciousness is not only self-consciousness it as a pure object, but as its other The ego is not an abstract self. no distinction as such, or determination. contains which, universality for the ego, it is for it, in this view, thus object like The ego being In the other, it itself is. it intuits the same ego which itself.23 for

One difficulty in following Hegel lies in the fact that he often tries of the consciousness both from its own to convey the experience from the An the of of view and high ground philosopher. point is the other is in the perpetual passage from inner to outer which in that will be dissolved of the consciousness's motor experience of opposed in faculties But the awakening ultimate knowledge. on which the ego proposed by the fact of society is the principle self-consciousness tion of desire will will be demanded
must contend

would create

to depend. First, the spiritualiza Then recognition for selfhood. The faculties of the ego for its authentication. the basis
to act, since a single comprehensive faculty,

seem

in order

render them either totally static or in however many egos, would amounts to the same thing). (which totally destructive in social life. The the unfolds pattern Correspondingly,
mutual awareness of two persons, their reciprocal need for recogni

it, and the final subjection of the one tion, their struggle sources of human to the other?these stages idealize the primitive but seen of still rooted in this time from the angle society history, Mr. Plamenatz consciousness. of the developing the problem the fact that there are only two should have no difficulty with to obtain the struggle concludes For, from this angle, when protagonists. and slavery, the master will perceive but a single slave in mastery that does his bidding and the slave but a single source of machine here establishes the mediating formulation Hegel's oppression. and society, serving somewhat the same link between consciousness purpose as the analogous device of the homo economicus. and Friday that Hegel it is to the famous tale of Robinson in the Prop?deutik.24
23 24 Philosophische Ibid., p. 35, p. Prop?deutik, 110. Glockner, III, paragraph 30,

Indeed, refers us

p.

108.

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND

BONDAGE" 791

the postulation of two Just as the Hegelian analysis demands or as no man be would would God, possess egos (one spirit so at its each of the must consciousness stages ascending spirit) ,25 its goal until itself as two estranged is principles apprehend where we This is most clearly seen in the Encyclopedia, reached. or "phenome can delve behind the stirrings of subjective mind which proper into "anthropology," nology" Here spirit notion of the "natural soul." to consciousness. nature but not yet awakened the soul of little-studied part Hegel's work, to what psychoanalysis will later label the are contained many perceptive insights into has has as its focus the out of emerged In this relatively corresponds roughly here "preconscious"; neurotic anxiety, un

and the based on the philosopher's personal experience doubtedly of his friend H?lderlin.26 tragic deterioration 318-319 In Encyclopedia, (1817) ,27 Hegel makes it paragraphs of consciousness, that it clear that the soul is life on the margin its antagonism with feels its bifurcation, otherness. primitively career and yet It is subjectively anchored to its future self-conscious of nature. On the other hand mired in the blind universality the is and necessary. 323) ,28 opposition productive (paragraph in the genesis internal opposition is the primary of the Here
human condition.

Consciousness instinct

against graph 327) ,29 The relationship self and natural soul (paragraph 329) .30 Self-conscious between on the other hand, will require the affirmation by the ego of ness, the immediate form of desire its own taking identity, (para "Selbstbewusstsein" .31 Here the section of the graphs 344-346)
25 Cf. Phenomenology, it a self-consciousness.

arises when can nature,

the natural affirm itself to otherness

its soul, by setting as an ego (para is now a dichotomy

for here actual fact; otherness." 26 See Johannes Hoffmeister, gen, 1931). 27 Glockner, 28 Ibid., p. 29 Ibid., p. 30 Ibid., p. 31 Ibid., pp. VI, 242. 244. 245. 251-252. pp.

Only first of

"A self-consciousness has before pp. 226-227: so and only in then is it self-consciousness to have in its all it comes the unity of itself H?lderlin und Hegel in Frankfurt (T?bin

236-237.

792

GEORGE KELLY ARMSTRONG

with the inadequacy of commences, Phenomenology properly the of to desire another the desire, ego, repetitive application and the dialectical resolution in lordship struggle for recognition, and bondage. The internal struggle which itself first expressed in the natural soul, then in the consciousness, has not been resolved or abandoned. can emerge only because of its Rather, personality a consequence for self-recognition, of ceasing to direct desire the of sheer natural upon objects merely appetition (para graph 351) ,32 A higher, resistant otherness has been encountered; it expresses itself externally as a second ego, internally as primitive reason or self-mastery, as the capacity for will and and reciprocally need like the original assertion of self-consciousness But, aware of itself, this new stage of the ego's becoming through in turn be authenticated. This will happen in the being must where appetition and spiritual self-regard struggle for recognition, contend. They can no more destroy each other than can the social is the proof. the career of man Thus mastery and antagonists: slavery dantly
The

freedom.

the ego and, as Hegel makes ensue, both within clear (paragraph 355), in the history of society.33
parallel explanations are necessary. For, taken

abun
from a

two there is no good reason why point of view, purely to a static identical egos, locked in combat, should not struggle To say that Hegel's stalemate. resolution is good dialectics answers nothing. Instead we should discern the idea that natural of internal imbalances, not through inequalities arise in consequence I in single individuals. the absence or presence of pure principles social shall return "Where originate?" to this point did Hegel's in connection with theories of history. ideas on the relation of lord and servant

inquires Dirk J. Struik in his edition of Marx's 1844 bear This interesting question has a considerable manuscripts.34 We can help to clarify the significance ing on the subject at hand. in which of Hegel's passage by referring to the intellectual milieu took shape. his philosophy to understand that this It is important as seen is normative dominating psychology
32 33 34 Glockner, Ibid., Marx, p. op. VI, 255. cit., p. p. 253. 232.

is still a world where the forms of society.

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND

BONDAGE"

793

stirrings of a social science, one still asks the Despite primitive is in order to understand man?" "what the social order question
man has created. The strife within man's nature is a common

... as Montesquieu is composed of the put it: "man place; of in its each flux and substances, which, reflux, imposes "35 suffers domination On the psychological [empire]. plane should recall Hume's striking dictum that "reason is the slave of consequent attempts passions" restore its content. of reason by enlarging the primacy should notice also that the reason-passion gathers relationship which is precisely that of mastery content, metaphorical and the of German idealism

two and we the to

We in a and

In essence, Kant's philosophy, in the ideal servitude. grounded of personal autonomy, is a theorization both of how the individual can acquire mastery over his content-directed interests through the or "pure practical reason" and of the condi exercise of morality a legitimate tions by which social order can make this possible. 36 The famous aphorism "man needs a master" carries both public to Kant, man ought to and private overtones. In fact, according words be his own master. in the of Richard But, Kroner, "because man to master he ought not is himself, really free but divided At half-free and half-slave. best, he is his own against himself,
slave, enslaved by his master, 3T reason."

Behind burst out of speculation this urgent question, which and into history with the coming of the French Revolution, lies the dual preoccupation of Rousseau: that there is no his assertion in society, and his profound research into the "right of conquest" the shock of social personality which man has induced. "A thinks he is master of others, whereas he is actually more of a slave than they," writes Rousseau in Contrat he social, I, i;38 in his eighth Lettre de la Montagne warring relations
35 Compl?tes 36 Point p. 17. 37 Kroner, introduction to Knox (trans.), Writings Hegel's of Early Theological Rousseau, p. 11. C. E. Vaughan, The Political (New York, II, p. 23. 1962), Charles, (Paris, Immanuel Baron 1949), de et de Montesquieu I, p. 1015. "Idea for a Universal ed. by la Br?de, Pens?es, uvres

sides of the human

of View,"

Kant, on History, Kant

from a Cosmopolitan History Beck L. W. (New York, 1963),

Writings, 38 2 Vols.

Jean-Jacques

794
repeats: "He who is a master cannot

KELLY GEORGE ARMSTRONG

be free."39 As we know

from ings,

the second discourse, a struggle of the

Emile, human

and the autobiographical underlies faculties the

writ social

dilemma.40

Not only for Hegel, but for his great predecessors and his age as a whole, mastery and slavery was a multi-dimensional problem a paradoxical one. ?and which The paradox is this. Antiquity, had sanctioned the institution of slavery, had nevertheless intensely researched the dilemma The of man's of himself. enslavement attacked social contrast, bondage Enlightenment, progressively by as abusive and immoral, while scratching only at the surface of its And the Enlightenment, taken gen dimensions. yet spiritual order from the individualistic viewed social erally, premisses. Descartes had founded the ego and, from the time of Hobbes on, a mechanistic the empirical school had constructed psychology to explain the nature of society by way of its which purported in substance as well as form, members. The revival of antiquity, on one the the hand and German idealists on the Rousseau by when and moderns had been the battle of ancients a won in to this per the latter?is response part seemingly by a sense of furnished The had progress; Enlightenment plexity. of harmony. Both the mind it had not restored the conviction If society was in process, and the social order were implicated. then the mind could not be explored statically as the rationalists other?even that both ele With had taught. Hegel there is the recognition are necessary and that they must be mediated. ments of explanation is seen to have a history of This becomes possible only when mind The tensions that propel social history are correspond its own. in to the development translated of the ego (a procedure ingly which Here the works of Rousseau and Kant are way-stations). the profundities of Greek thought find their place and their role. For of mastery and slavery lies along this axis. The problem or can the be resolution however, unbearably only tragic Hegel,
39 40 friend, C. E. Vaughan, ou Cf. Emile protector, and force me II, p. V?ducation my master to be my 234. "0 my Book IV, p. 404: (Paris, 1961), . . . me from being the slave of my prevent own master reason and not my by obeying

my

passions, senses." my

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND smug

freedom,

BONDAGE" the carrier of Geist

fate.

795
and

(one takes his pick)

is also the perfect

because
warrant

history,
of man's

A passage Public Opinion illustrates

from Fichte's

Contributions the French

Concerning the currency of the lordship-bondage Here metaphor. the youthful Fichte employs the figure of the warring personality in a coinage borrowed from the French historian Marmontel.41 rhetorizes : against

Revolution

to the Rectification of (1793) further

Reason

of the Revolution) (i.e., the principle conventional self-interest (hereditary privilege)

From where us, I will our us invited he birth, [reason] at stake. and slavery were I will slave. be a very your be a restless and as servant, always to

liberty I will be

in my throw Since to seek

I will defeat my master yoke, I will insult dishonor you down, you, I will you can be of no use to me, profit your total destruction.42

a long and duel terrible If you are stronger, he told servant but for you; useful soon as there slack is some once I and And conqueror. you, by my trample right you under. of conquest

We

tract read Fichte's know whether Hegel incendiary seems he German but it that the Burkeans, did, against likely since it was, to say the least, hot copy among young intellectuals. In any case, the contemporary associations of lordship and bondage are not to be understood without from across the the illustrations do not
when came to formulate his mature

Rhine. However, Hegel system,

as we know, not an unqualified he was, admirer of the French or of the autocracy of abstract reason with its "bad Revolution more new no The had of "right infinity." conquest" appeal than of the the old. Like all stages of human struggle, the oppositions new a to not in had be concluded unilateral reconciled, ego In the primitive scenario of the Phenomenology the domination.43 is in "stoicism," and it is prob resolution of lordship and bondage between this form of ably no accident that there are resemblances
to the Encyclop?die, contributor Marmontel, Jean-Fran?ois replaced in 1771 as historiographer to the Conseil of France. elected He was in 1797, but was des anciens retired d'Etat from public life by the coup of 18 Fructidor. Fichte cites one of his poems. 42 zur Berichtigung des Publikums der Urteile J. G. Fichte, Beitr?ge ?ber die Franz?sische ed. by Stecker 1922), Revolution, p. 51. (Leipzig, 43 See Enzyklop?die, Glockner, 393, pp. 276-278. VI, paragraph 41

Duelos

796
consciousness above and Kant's

KELLY GEORGE ARMSTRONG

transcendental

the idea posed idealism, I want to draw not do Though it out of not to context in be amiss may system, Hegel's parallels to the climate of ideas in which call attention his thoughts about the French Revolution.44 lordship sonality
much.

and view

the split-per bondage developed. Undoubtedly counts of contemporary for European philosophy excursion illustration. into German When dialectic, intellectual history Hegel was developing can the

Another brief provide a different rudiments not uncritically, more precocious

of the master-slave with

he was

Phenomenology of the split between In the meantime, the philosophies posture. to mediate himself and Fichte (which Hegel Schelling attempted of und Schelling'sehen in his Differenz des Fichte'sehen Systems ex to and led had had become irreconciliable 1801) vituperative
change. The same half-decade saw the rise of the Romantic move

the philosophical the friend Schelling. By the time he published in 1807 he had struck his own highly original

associated, though but ideas of his younger

ment, under rescence of

the aegis of Novalis and the Schlegels, and the efflo of history, had been which interest in philosophy heralded by Lessing and Herder in the previous century. which began from the premiss of the Schelling's philosophy, the of the Absolute, required a theory of history by which identity into the plurality of creation and the return descent of the Absolute The key to could be explained. of created things to the Absolute was in human free the of movement to discovered be this principle in the and traced the idea grandiosely dom. abstractly Schelling Vorlesun in the Idealismus (1800), System des transzendentalen
44 See especially 19-21, introduction, Philosophy paragraphs of Right, the Within attack on Kant Cf. Hegel's (re: Religion (1797) pp. 28-30. early des in his "Der Geist Limits IV, 2, paragraph Reason, essay 3) of Mere sein und Christentums Schicksal," Jugendschriften, Hegels theologische the ". . .between 265-266: Nohl ed. by Herman 1907), pp. (T?bingen, or and State, Church the European Shaman, prelate governing Tungusian to the commandment of duty or Puritan, obedient and the man the Mogul [the Kantian], self while the while slave. the ..." the other distinction is not is free, but that his master having him to be made that the one enslaves is dominated from without, the one own his that is by token within,

other,

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND

BONDAGE" 797

Studiums and in gen ?ber die Methode des akademischen (1802), some later writings. In reply to Schelling more and, especially, the Romantics, Fichte entered the lists with his public lectures, the Grundz?ge des gegenw?rtigen in 1804 and Zeitalters, delivered in 1806. Fichte's scheme of philosophical published history, built on purely deductive foundations and in some ways indebted to on a variety of issues that do not his opponents Kant, challenged concern this essay.45 What is of interest is a fundamental assump tion that Fichte and Schelling shared and which could scarcely have failed to draw Hegel's attention.46 speculative histories of Fichte and Schelling were phased and developmental; both in effect sought to deduce the pattern in nature, mounted original man, innocent but instinctual whereby to his goal of rationality in freedom, or achieved what Schelling In order to do this, the principle described as a "second nature." of reason had to be explained at its origin Schelling was the first to postulate that at the dawn of humanity there had been creatures reason instinctual and barbarians. Fichte pure simple this explanation not borrowed is its without in obvious (which to mythology): debtedness can ". . . out of nothing, nothing of
arise; and thus Unreason can never become Reason. Hence, in

The

one point of its existence at least, the Human Race must in its primitive either form, without purely Reasonable
or for freedom. them, one . . ,"47 day was However, like the this next, "Normalvolk" and "religion had alone

have been constraint

no history; adorned

see Xavier of these et Fichte issues, L?on, II, pp. 394-463. 1924), (Paris, excursus on philosophical that Hegel read Fichte's know history as of the "popular and thought little of it, as well in which philosophy" see Hegel's to Schelling, Fichte letter dated 3, Jena, indulged; January von und an Hegel, ed. by J. Hoffmeister 1807, No. 82, Briefe (Hamburg, was His of the Grundz?ge too late I, p. 131. 1952), knowledge probably to affect the Phenomenology; he was with familiar all however, perfectly For full clarification son temps, 46 We 3 Vols. Schelling's Jena. 47 ideas antecedent to 1804 because of their close collaboration at

45

J. G. Fichte, des gegenw?rtigen Lecture IX Zeitalters, Grundz?ge The Popular 1956), p. 138; Characteristics (Hamburg, of the Present Age, Works Gottlieb trans, by William Smith Fichte, of Johann (London, 1884), See also F. W. J. Schelling, S?mmtliche Werke II, p. 147. Vorlesungen, and Augsburg, 1854-1860), V, pp. 224-225. (Stuttgart

798
their existence."48 It was thus

GEORGE KELLY ARMSTRONG

necessary to postulate a race of

barbarians.

of the two races was what made history In the "Normalvolk" there was no tension to and society possible. on the other hand, they embodied activate the spring of progress; on their part, of human The savages, the principle destiny. The union lacked torical this principle utterly, but Consequently, propulsion. brutishness tesian paradise and Darwinian coexisted, presumably society took form with the dispersion of the races, the subjection of to "Normalvolk" and the the savages kings, intermarriage, man ascent of miscegenated to freedom. tortuous Apparently, the force of his they contained after an interlude when Car

Asia was
was a

the historical
of the normal

location

for this event;

the Old Testament

"myth

people."49

this historical of Schelling hypothesis parallel between more than is and much and Fichte and Hegel's bondage lordship Either the idea was in the air, or there was direct coincidental. cross-fertilization
this original solution.49* "rational"

The

from Schelling.
He nowhere men and original

However,
any "savage"

Hegel

does not accept

concerning Reason is

endorses

speculation men.

not a natural
Rousseau.

principle
In Hegel,

in his anthropology,
as we have seen, the

any more
appearance

than it is for
of self and

succeed the primitive efforts of the preconscious a its being from nature. although Consequently, from result necessarily and slavery will social event, mastery the ego and not from struggles of awareness and recognition within of racial principles embodied in discrete, his the absolute opposition a doctrine of original is defending torical individuals. Hegel self-awareness soul to wrest will is curiously and dangerously denied by Fichte.50 equality which and in Thus I believe that the passage in the Phenomenology inter alia, as an attempt other works can be justifiably interpreted,

Smith, p. 148. p. 139; Grundz?ge, Smith, p. 143; p. 152. Grundz?ge, in der Geschichte Die Vernunft 49aSee Hegel, 1955), p. 31. (Hamburg, 50 Fichte the German excellence, who, par is, of course, philosopher as a Jacobin. there is a and was often attacked stressed However, equality across nervous the "Normalvolk" all human between resemblance, history, 49 of the Grundz?ge and the "Urvolk" of the Addresses to the German Nation

48

(1808).

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND

BONDAGE" 799

to explain inequality at the foundation of society without resorting to the dual-nature hypothesis. is to explain it from The alternative is the "phenomenological" within the ego. Here, precisely, that we lack in Koj?ve. dimension The "master" who Let us attempt to restore this dimension. can the for be identified with from emerges recognition struggle the primitive notion of control or decision. Hegel fically that this act of victory is the birth of freedom paragraph 355) .51 Man is the only creature which, is willing to stake its life. "non-natural" pressures, tells us speci (Encyclopedia, under certain This is, so to

the slave will speak, the first creative act of the human personality: invent history, but only after the master has made humanity pos is without The master's sible. issue. solution, however, Hegel has already 323 and elsewhere)" (in Encyclopedia, paragraph out the danger of imbalance between and lower higher pointed
principles. One cannot abandon nature, nor should one drown

In the master-slave himself in it. situation, there is neither educa nor nor fulfilment the repetitive of tion, progress, history?only
the master's In this wants. impasse, the master-principle?courage, decisiveness,

as Koj?ve to pass into its opposite, becoming, a new can form of Begierde. points out,53 Higher development come only from the slave-principle, which trans itself has been idealism?is of subjection and terror into the the experience through of and memory: the conditions activities of labor, conservation, overtones which Here are manifold it human advance. historical I think, though, that two points must be is not difficult to exploit. argued
priate

seen

formed

against
only to

Koj?ve:
a certain

(1)
stage

the
of

slave-master
consciousness

dialectic
for

is appro
even

Hegel,

; succeeding though it is still cancelled and retained (aufgehoben) a more will be of forms of record subtle and comprehensive history are both the vital in progress estrangement; (2) principles equally of the spirit towards its destiny : if Marx developed one side of this dichotomy, Nietzsche seized upon the other.

51 52

VI, p. Glockner, Ibid., p. 242. 53 de Hegel, Lecture

254. p. 52.

800
This is decisively clarified

GEORGE KELLY ARMSTRONG

by Hegel himself in the Philosophy

of Right:
The position right begin, as a natural capable italics], is only of of of the free will, with which and right in advance of the false position is already the concept and only is entity implicit, This enslaved. false, being comparatively of of is one which befalls slavery consciousness. The dialectic of the freedom the science of at which man, for that reason [my mind and that and

phenomenon at the level

primitive mind when

the purely immediate consciousness the fight for recognition and point slave.54

of the concept at about brings of master relationship

In

corresponding

Zusatz

Hegel

adds:

".

. . if a man

is a

slave,

is responsible for his slavery, just as it is its will which if a people is subjugated. is responsible Hence the wrong of slavery lies at the door not simply of enslavers or conquerors but his
of the slaves and the conquered themselves."55

own will

to should be sufficient to show that "the future belongs the slave" is an unwarranted and romanticized refraction of Hegel's thought. Slavery cannot found the right of political communities than it can account for the free personality. But it is any more This for history as well as for the development of mind : both necessary not in and free do and appear repose above right personality history it. In the Encyclopedia of 1845 (paragraph 435, Zusatz) Hegel
describes the the subjection (Bildung) of of the servant as "a necessary "No man," moment he adds, in education every man."56

"can,
worthy

without
to

this will-breaking
As for nations,

discipline,
"bondage

become
and

free
tyranny

and
are

command."

This could be adapted necessary things in the history of peoples." to the Marxian view of the proletariat. But as we recall from the the dialectical outcome is not a trans-historical Phenomenology, class struggle but the temporary refuge of stoicism, where emperor and slave see the world with Even though the same eyes. "only the slave's becoming be completely free can the master through free,"57 the Hegelian future will unfold out of their joint

54 Knox 55 56 57 Ibid., Gl?ckner, Ibid.,

p.

(trans.), 239. X

paragraph der (System to paragraph

57,

p.

48. III), 290. p. 288.

Zusatz

Philosophie, 436, p.

NOTES ON HEGEL'S "LORDSHIP AND endeavors.

BONDAGE"

801

They can no more be incessantly opposed than can the of the ego itself. faculties organic is foreshadowed. conclusion inner and outer, Although My are reason and and intended to lower, higher passion undoubtedly be dissolved ego cannot
Selbstbewusstsein.

at the ultimate be disregarded

The social

apex, Hegelian in understanding

reading, taken

the internality of the the development of

alone, can encourage

Nor is history for Hegel simply a record of the sharp distortions. efforts of the slave to overthrow millenial the master, just as the a single of is the of not continuous attempt spirit development to in the the is In both cases, ego. faculty triumph aspiration sense and self-knowing of "being at home" harmony identity, the of the assimilation (zuhause sein) so frequently evoked in Hegel, texts (especially and fate. The failure to read Hegel's with close attention those leading up to "lordship and bondage") to levels of discourse can beget social hypotheses that do not square with Hegel's known conclusions. We can further profit by explor own time, and historical issues of Hegel's ing the philosophical instead of superimposing those of an industrial epoch which he freedom if shrewdly, glimpsed. That the character of the only narrowly, more is much Platonic than it is Marxian rational Hegelian society is already clear from the Jena lectures which antedate the Phe themes is exegesis of Hegelian nomenology.** Koj?ve 's original a profound work for our own times. But from the standpoint of a "Marxian" Phenomenology does not historical understanding make This view ignores the depth and passion of very good sense. Greek it ignores, too, the complicated attachments; range Hegel's of his struggle with the Kantian split vision. These are the two on the soil of Christian for the combatants Europe wrestling own whether of It to be is Hegel's ego.59 questioned possession

however,

not must We Jenenser 253-263. II, pp. ignore, Realphilosophie, that Hegel the Platonic between draws the distinction carefully and the modern (Lacedemonian) polity (p. 251). 59 as for Schiller, and others, The Greeks for Hegel, have H?lderlin, the perfect Kant's of humanity; and proportion moral developed harmony and is framed of striving not the infinity represents ity, on the other hand, but for "all rational In one of his most for man and beings." electrifying brilliant passages, Hegel describes the impact of the infinite and the finite,

58

802
he resolved Sittlichkeit
pictures."

GEORGE KELLY ARMSTRONG

this struggle of the old world and the new in his higher of the nation-state and in his "Christianity without Cambridge, Massachusetts.

in the same metaphor of struggle and comprehension: "I am the of infinity for this struggle the extremes and finitude], [between struggle not by the indifference is a conflict of the two sides in their distinc defined in one entity. bound I am not one of the tion, but by their being together and I am the struggle but both, locked in battle, I am fire itself. fighters . ." ?ber die Philosophie der Religion, and water. Glockner, (Vorlesungen always XV, p. 80).