Idealism Without Absolutes – Tilottama Rajan

Both are poten- tially viable approaches to the mathematical-materialist, or materialist- mathematical, Hegel. Here, however, I shall approach the problem of Hegel from the perspective of the Baroque, via Leibniz and Deleuze, specifically, on the Baroque, The Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque, and on philosophy and the concept, in (with Felix Guattari) What Is Philosophy?7 On the side of the Baroque, differential calculus, a Baroque invention par excellence, was as crucial to Hegel’s thought as it was to that of Deleuze.

Ultimately more significant for Hegel were the more fundamentally philo- sophical aspects of Leibniz’s thought that underlie the ideas of differential calculus. Leibniz was one of the very few thinkers in whose thought math- ematics and philosophy were working together, even more so than in Descartes and Pascal, two other (near contemporary) cases of equal achievements in mathematics and philosophy. These reciprocal workings of the mathematical and the philosophical in Leibniz were crucial to Hegel’s thought, as, and correlatively, were the concept and the practice of the fold, especially as the interfold of matter and spirit, joining “the pleats of matter” and “the fold in the soul” (F 29).

On the side of conceptuality, “Hegel” is perhaps the greatest name of the problem of concept. In What Is Philosophy? Deleuze and Guattari define philosophy as the creation of new concepts, indeed concepts that are forever new, thus also making it, in Friedrich Nietzsche’s phrase, always the philoso- phy of the future.

This understanding may be argued to be Hegelian, and is seen by Deleuze and Guattari as perhaps uniquely anticipated by Hegel (What Is Philosophy? 11–12). The term concept itself must be used in the specific sense given to it by Deleuze and Guattari rather than in any common sense of it, in particular that of an entity established by a generalization from particulars or from “any general or abstract idea” (11–12, 24).

A philosophi- cal concept has a complex multilayered structure and is, above all, always a multiplicity and a combination, as “there are not simple concepts” (16). It is a multicomponent conglomerate of concepts in their conventional sense, figures, metaphors, particular elements, and so forth. This concept of concept is, however, in turn reciprocal with the Ba- roque, to which Deleuze gives a conceptual, rather than only historical sense, thus extending the Baroque to our own time (F 33–34).

Hegel makes only a single but a singularly important appearance in The Fold, which is, equally importantly, a joint appearance with Joseph Louis Lagrange and his concep- tion (in either sense) of differential calculus. I shall speak of the Hegelian Baroque and the Hegelian fold. Leibniz and the Baroque give Hegel the fold Arkady Plotnitsky and the richness of the fold, including in its quasi-mathematical dimensions.

Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address the State University of New York Press, 90 State Street, Suite 700, Albany, NY 12207 Production by Diane Ganeles Marketing by Jennifer Giovani Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Idealism without absolutes : philosophy and romantic culture / edited by Tilottama Rajan and Arkady Plotnitsky.

p. cm. — (SUNY series, intersections—philosophy and critical theory) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7914-6001-0 (alk. paper). 1. Idealism, German. 2. Romanticism—Germany. 3. Absolute, The— History. I. Rajan, Tilottama. II. Plotnitsky, Arkady. III. Intersections (Albany, N.Y.) B2745.I34 2004 141′.0943—dc21 2003050602 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents
Acknowledgments vii Introduction Tilottama Rajan 1 Romanticism and the Invention of Literature Jan Plug 15 Allegories of Symbol: On Hegel’s Aesthetics Andrzej Warminski 39 Toward a Cultural Idealism: Negativity and Freedom in Hegel and Kant Tilottama Rajan 51 Mediality in Hegel: From Work to Text in the Phenomenology of Spirit Jochen Schulte-Sasse 73 Beyond Beginnings: Schlegel and Romantic Historiography Gary Handwerk 93 Curvatures: Hegel and the Baroque Arkady Plotnitsky 113 Three Ends of the Absolute: Schelling, Hölderlin, Novalis David Farrell Krell 135 v Schopenhauer’s Telling Body of Philosophy Joel Faflak 161 Sacrificial and Erotic Materialism in Kierkegaard and Adorno John Smyth 181 Absolute Failures: Hegel’s Bildung and the “Earliest System-Program of German Idealism” Rebecca Gagan 203 Futures of Spirit: Hegel, Nietzsche, and Beyond Richard Beardsworth 219 Conclusion: Without Absolutes Arkady Plotnitsky 241 Contributors 253 Index 257 vi Contents 1 Introduction
Tilottama Rajan In the past decade the philosophical tradition of German Idealism has come to be recognized as a rich and complex part of “Theory,” while this field itself has been associated with a fundamentally interdisciplinary way of thinking and range of practices.

Yet there has been little intensive consideration of either the disciplinary or interdisciplinary nature of Idealism itself. Nor has much attention been given to the ways in which philosophy—the discipline in which Idealism is anchored—is itself hybridized and de-idealized by its connections with other fields.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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