From Hegel to Institutionalism The Role of Work within the Processes of Recognition in Hegel’s Idealism

This chapter wants to revisit some of the classic themes of the master-slave dialectic in order to bring the fore aspects of Hegel's recognitive treatment of work that may still be significant. More generally, however, it also suggests that Hegel's treatment of work enables us to avoid misunderstandings about the nature of idealism. From the account of work in the master-slave dialectic can see that far from being an immaterialist doctrine, Hegel's idealism is premised on a radically embodied conception of the mind and its capacities. The struggle for recognition, for the recognition of having one's will regarded as authoritative, will have been resolved when one of the antagonists has accepted the role of being an effectively will-less instrument of the other's will. Hegel adopts an essentially Aristotelian approach to the categorical structure of objects of perception. Keywords:Aristotelian; Hegel; master-slave dialectic; Recognition