Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life, by Andreja Novakovic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017, ISBN 9781316809723, $103.99 Hbk

Bad Habits: Habit, Idleness, and Race in Hegel

Hegel Bulletin ◽

10.1017/hgl.2021.1 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-18

Author(s):

Rocío Zambrana

Keyword(s):

Ethical Life ◽

Second Nature ◽

Philosophy Of Right

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.

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Die Kunst der zweiten Natur und die andere Natur der Kunst

Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie ◽

10.1515/dzph-2018-0026 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 66 (3) ◽

pp. 339-361

Author(s):

Thomas Khurana

Keyword(s):

Ethical Life ◽

Work Of Art ◽

Self Reflection ◽

Second Nature ◽

The Aesthetic ◽

Aesthetic Understanding ◽

First Nature ◽

Point Of Reference

Abstract This contribution traces an aesthetic shift in the concept of second nature that occurs around 1800 and raises the question as to what role art might play in a culture that already conceives of itself in generally aesthetic terms. The paper recalls Kant’s rejection of habit as a proper realization of ethical life and shows that in his third critique, Kant proposes a second nature of a different kind. To realize ethical life as a “second (supersensible) nature”, we cannot confine ourselves to mere habituation but require a different type of second nature that is exemplified by the work of art. The paper asks what role art may adopt in an aestheticised culture arising from the success of such an aesthetic understanding in the wake of Kant, from Schiller through to Nietzsche. It argues that art redefines its role by taking not first nature but the second nature of ethical life as its main point of reference. Art thus reconceives itself as a self-reflection of our second nature. The paper discusses three models of such self-reflection: the aesthetic estrangement, the beautiful completion, and the dialectical renegotiation of our second nature.

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