*Hegel's Critique of Spinoza*
Hegel’s aim is to interpret Spinoza’s thought through the concepts he takes to underlie it: namely, the absolute and substance, as they are conceived in his Logic. Yet Hegel’s account of these concepts shows that Spinoza fails to understand either one adequately. In my view, this problem remains even when we correct the errors in Hegel’s reading of Spinoza. Even in this case, from the standpoint of Hegel’s Logic Spinoza fails to understand fully what substance, attributes and modes are.
Stephen Houlgate is professor of philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is the author of Hegel, Nietzsche and the Criticism of Metaphysics (1986), An Introduction to Hegel. Freedom, Truth and History (1991, 2nd ed. 2005), The Opening of Hegel's Logic (2006), Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit (2013), and Hegel on Being, 2 vols. (2022). He served as Vice-president and President of the Hegel Society of America, and he was editor of the Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain from 1998 to 2006. He is currently President of the Hegel Society of Great Britain.
The international philosophical conference Between Substance & Subject. The Presence of Spinoza in Hegel (26–28 October 2023, AGRFT, Ljubljana) was organized by the University of Padua and the University of Ljubljana – Faculty of Arts & Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television. The conference was carried out as part of the project Hegel's Political Metaphysics (J6-2590), which is financed by the Slovenian Research Agency.
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