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Bad Habits: Habit, Idleness, and Race in Hegel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 February 2021

Rocío Zambrana
Rocío Zambrana*
Affiliation:
Emory Universityrocio.zambrana@emory.edu
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Abstract

Recent discussions of Hegel's conception of second nature, specifically focused on Hegel's notion of habit (Gewohnheit), have greatly advanced our understanding of Hegel's views on embodied normativity. This essay examines Hegel's account of embodied normativity in relation to his assessment of good and bad habits. Engaging Hegel's account of the rabble (Pöbel) in the Philosophy of Right and Frank Ruda's assessment of Hegel's rabble, this essay traces the relation between ethicality, idleness and race in Hegel. In being a figure of refusal in its affirmation of idleness, the rabble disallows the progressive revision of the project of modernity central to Hegel's philosophy. Hegel's discussion of the rabble is thus key to assessing the production of race within Hegel's notion of ethical life.

Type
Research Article
Information
Hegel Bulletin , Volume 42 , Special Issue 1: Naturalism and Sociality , April 2021 , pp. 1 - 18
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Copyright
Copyright © The Hegel Society of Great Britain 2021

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