Hegel, the Trinity, and the ‘I’

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 76 (2):129-150 (2014)
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Abstract

The main goal of this paper is to argue the relevance of Hegel’s notion of the Trinity with respect to two aspects of Hegel’s idealism: the overcoming of subjectivism and his conception of the ‘I’. I contend that these two aspects are interconnected and that the Trinity is important to Hegel’s strategy for addressing these questions. I first address the problem of subjectivism by considering Hegel’s thought against the background of modern philosophy. I argue that the recognitive structure of Hegel’s idealism led him to give the Trinity a decisive role in his philosophical account. Next, I discuss the Trinity by analysing the three divine persons. This analysis paves the way for the conclusion, where I argue that the Trinity represents a model for re-thinking the ‘I’ in a way that overcomes a ‘naïve realist’ and a ‘subjective’ account of the self. I suggest that Hegel’s absolute idealism can be conceived as an approach to the ‘I’ that considers the role of acts of mutual recognition for the genesis of self-conscious thought, and that the Trinity is the Darstellung of the relational and recognitive structure of the ‘I’

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Paolo Diego Bubbio
Università di Torino

Citations of this work

Hegel’s Account of Christianity and Religious Alienation.Jon Stewart - 2021 - European Journal for Philosophy of Religion 13 (1):129-152.
Hegel: Death of God and Recognition of the Self.Paolo Diego Bubbio - 2015 - International Journal of Philosophical Studies 23 (5):689-706.

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References found in this work

Critique of Pure Reason.I. Kant - 1787/1998 - Philosophy 59 (230):555-557.
Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason.Terry P. Pinkard - 1994 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
Hegel’s Ethics of Recognition.Robert R. Williams - 1997 - University of California Press.

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