Table Of ContentHEGEL ON THE PROOFS AND
THE PERSONHOOD OF GOD
Hegel on the Proofs
and the Personhood
of God
’
Studies in Hegel s Logic and
Philosophy of Religion
ROBERT R. WILLIAMS
1
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,26/11/2016,SPi
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Acknowledgments
IacknowledgewithgratitudeEdwardFarley,whowasmyteacherwhenIwas
in college, and who subsequently became my semi-official “Doctor-Vater” in
graduate school, and thereafter a lifelong friend and dialog partner. In add-
itiontohisownresearchandsubstantialpublications,Farleyintroducedmeto
hiscolleaguePeterC. Hodgson,whowelcomedme totheHegel Renaissance
by generously sharing his work on Hegel with me, and introducing me to
WalterJaeschkeattheHegel-ArchivinBochumGermany.Myfirstexposure
to Hegel’sthoughtwasa tutorialwithRobertL.Horn, whohad studiedwith
Richard Kroner, on Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. This enabled me to
appreciatemorefullyJohnE.Smith’slecturesatColumbia-UniononHegel’s
CritiqueofKant,whichhaddecisivesignificanceforme.Theseearlierexpos-
ures prepared me to grasp the importance of the ‘new Hegel’ presented in
Ludwig Siep’s Anerkennung als Prinzip der praktische Philosophie (1979),
during a Fulbright year hosted by Klaus Hartmann in Tübingen, Germany.
Reading and studying Hegel auf Deutsch was a transforming intellectual
experience. My deepening interest in Hegel led me to the Hegel Society of
NorthAmericaforfurtherconversationsandexplorationsinHegel’sthought.
I became familiar with the work of H. S. Harris and Errol Harris’s work on
Hegel’s Logic and Whitehead’s indebtedness to Hegel, Stephen Houlgate’s
workontragedyinHegelandNietzsche,andonHegel’sLogic;JohnMcCum-
ber’sworkonHegelandLanguage;PhilipGrier’sworkonandtranslationof
Iwan Iljin’s The Philosophy of Hegel as a Doctrine of the Concreteness of God
and Humanity, and Ardis Collins, the editor of the Owl of Minerva, whose
bookonHegel’sPhenomenologyhelpedmetoappreciatethatHegel’sconcept
of ‘withdrawal into ground’ has profound implications for both the Logic of
the concept and for religious praxis. I also wish to acknowledge my wife of
nearly five decades, Irma Olmedo, whose encouragement, support, and sus-
taining love are for me the conditions of doing anything at all. This book is
dedicated to these teachers, scholars, colleagues, and my life-partner. Their
influencehelpedtomakeitabetterone.Errorsandlapsesinexecutionofthe
projectaremine.
I wish to acknowledge permission from Hackett Publishing Company to
citeG.W.F.Hegel:TheEncyclopediaLogic(1991),andfromTheUniversityof
Chicago Press to cite Stanley Rosen, The Idea of Hegel’s “Science of Logic”
(2013). I have generally relied upon two editions of Hegel’s works: (1) the
Suhrkamp edition (Hegels Werke: Theorie Werkausgabe (20 vols; Frankfurt:
SuhrkampVerlag,1970–1))forthebookspublishedbyHegelhimselfduring
vi Acknowledgments
hislifetime(PhenomenologyofSpirit,ScienceofLogic,PhilosophyofRight,and
Encyclopedia (1830), and (2) the modern historical-critical editions of his
Berlin Lectures, i.e., Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Lectures on the
Proofs for the Existence of God, Lectures on the Philosophy of Spirit 1827–8
(part III of the Encyclopedia), published in the Gesammelte Werke, ed.
Academy of Sciences of North Rhineland-Westphalia in association with the
DeutscheForschungs-gemeinschaft(Hamburg:FelixMeinerVerlag,1968ff.).
ForHegel’sLecturesontheHistoryofPhilosophyandhisLecturesonAesthetics,
I have made use of both the Suhrkamp edition and the Gesammelte Werke
criticaledition.
RobertR.Williams
Chicago,2016
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,26/11/2016,SPi
Contents
DetailedContents ix
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction:Hegel’sDiagnosisofhisCulturalSituation 1
PART ONE: HEGEL ON THE PROOFS OF GOD
1. Kant’sAttackonandHegel’sRenewalofOntotheology 21
2. RecastingtheProofsasElevationtoGod 45
3. TheOntologicalProof 96
PART TWO: HEGEL ON THE PERSONHOOD OF GOD
4. HegelonPersonsandPersonhood 149
5. ThePersonhoodoftheAbsoluteintheLogic 189
6. TheRecognitivePersonhoodofAbsoluteSpirit 232
SelectBibliography 309
Index 315
OUPCORRECTEDPROOF–FINAL,26/11/2016,SPi
Detailed Contents
Abbreviations xiii
Introduction:Hegel’sDiagnosisofhisCulturalSituation 1
1. TheDeathofGodandtheEndofPhilosophy 1
2. Hegel’sResponsetoNihilism:Philosophicaland
TheologicalTrinitarianism 8
3. ThePersonhoodofGodandtheBreak-upofthe
HegelianSchool 14
PART ONE: HEGEL ON THE PROOFS OF GOD
1. Kant’sAttackonandHegel’sRenewalofOntotheology 21
1. Introduction 21
2. Kant’sUnresolvedTranscendentalDialectic 25
3. CriticalIdealismasMetaphysicalSkepticismandCovert
Nihilism 30
4. Hegel’sCritiqueofKantintheLogic 37
5. BeyondSkepticismandDogmatism:MediatedImmediacy 41
2. RecastingtheProofsasElevationtoGod 45
1. Introduction:ElevationastheFactofReligion 45
2. PhilosophyofReligionDisplacesNaturalTheology 49
3. Kant’sAttackontheProofs 53
4. Hegel’sCritiqueofKant’sUnderstandingofReligion 55
5. Kant’sInfluenceonHegel:TheFactofReason 61
6. Hegel’sFactofReligionasElevationofSpirittoGod 62
7. TheCosmologicalProof 68
8. TheDefectintheCosmologicalProof 71
9. DifferentiatingElevationofSpiritfromtheCosmological
Proof 75
10. TheEndthatElevates:AbsoluteNecessity 81
11. NoteonTeleologyandTeleologicalProof 87
12. Conclusion:TheSpeculativeReconstructionof
InstinctualReason 91
3. TheOntologicalProof 96
1. Kant’sAttackontheOntologicalProof 96
2. HegelonAnselm’sProof:ItsDistortionbyClassical
Metaphysics 100
3. Hegel’sDoctrineoftheConcept 111
