Distance and Engagement: Hegel’s Account of Critical Reflection

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2012-09-01
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Padgett-Walsh, Kate
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Padgett-Walsh, Kate
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Philosophy and Religious Studies
The Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies focuses on two areas of study. Its major in Philosophy seeks to examine human experience and reality through critical reflection and argument, developing skills in critical analysis and knowledge of ethics and philosophy. The major in Religious Studies seeks to investigate and reflect upon world religions in an objective, critical, and appreciative manner, providing students with knowledge of religion’s nature and its roles in social and individual life.
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Hegel famously argues that Kant’s account of critical distance depends upon an impoverished conception of freedom. In its place, Hegel introduces a richer conception of freedom, according to which the self who is capable of self-determination is multifaceted: wanting and thinking, social and individual. This richer conception gives rise to an account of critical reflection that emphasizes engagement with our motives and practices rather than radical detachment from them. But what is most distinctive about Hegel’s account is the idea that when we reflect upon motives and practices, we draw upon shared self-understandings that are neither universal nor just particular to individuals. There is, Hegel argues, no presocial identity or self that can be detached from our socially constituted contexts of thought and value. This has important implications for how we conceive of critical reflection.

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This is a manuscript of an article published as Walsh, Kate Padgett. "Distance and engagement: Hegel’s account of critical reflection." International Philosophical Quarterly 52, no. 3 (2012): 285-301. doi: 10.5840/ipq201252334. Posted with permission.

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Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 UTC 2012
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