Hegel's Energy: A Reading of The Phenomenology of Spirit

In his book, "The Phenomenology of Spirit and the Energy-Starved Condition of Our Contemporaneity," Michael Marder integrates Hegel's philosophy with the concept of energy to argue that the energy deficit of mere consciousness gives way to the energy surplus of self-consciousness and its self-delimitation in the domain of reason. He challenges the current understanding of energy as pure potentiality and links it to pollution, profit-driven economies, and environmental crises. The book provides a new understanding of Hegel's ideas and has significant contemporary implications.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 15 May 2021
Publisher: Northwestern University Press

Since the nineteenth century, Hegel's The Phenomenology of Spirit has been one of the most influential works of philosophy, while the issue of energy has become critical to life in the twenty-first century. In this book, Michael Marder combines the two, telling a story about the struggles and tribulations of energy entangled in Hegel's dialectics. Through an innovative interpretation of actuality (Wirklichkeit) as energy in the Hegelian corpus, the book offers an intriguing lens for understanding the dialectical project and the energy-starved condition of our contemporaneity. To elaborate on this theory, Marder undertakes a meticulous rereading of significant portions of the Phenomenology, where the energy deficit of mere consciousness gives way to the energy surplus of self-consciousness and its self-delimitation in the realm of reason. In so doing, he denounces the current understanding of energy as pure potentiality, linking this mindset to pollution, profit-driven economies, and environmental crises. Surprising and deeply engaged with its contemporary implications, this book doesn't simply illuminate aspects of The Phenomenology of Spirit—it provides an entirely new understanding of Hegel's ideas.

Weight: 392g
Dimension: 153 x 229 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780810143395