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Social Phenomenology, Mass-Society and the Individual in Hegel and Heidegger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2017

Matthew Rukgaber
Matthew Rukgaber*
Affiliation:
Eastern Connecticut State University and Gateway Community College, USAmatthew.rukgaber@gmail.com
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Abstract

This article argues that Hegel’s dialectic of wealth and power in the stage of social development called ‘culture’ (Bildung) reveals that even in moments of profound social alienation, Spirit (Geist)—the labour of constructing identity and freedom—remains. This stands in sharp contrast to Heidegger’s theory of alienation and Dasein’s ‘publicity’ (Offentlichkeit), which paints modern social existence as a profound threat to the very ‘Being’ and ‘possibilities’ of human life. The supposed threats of inauthenticity and mass existence are, from a Hegelian perspective, failures of adequate social phenomenology. The desiring, affective subject is not absorbed in the ‘they’ (das Man) but is, instead, the negativity that constantly transforms culture and the structure of social selfhood.

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Articles
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Hegel Bulletin , Volume 38 , Special Issue 1: Hegel and Phenomenology , May 2017 , pp. 129 - 149
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Copyright
© The Hegel Society of Great Britain 2017 

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