V International Congress of Hegel Society of Spain

Universidad de Salamanca
16 – 18 October 2013

“I am my desire”.
The notion of desire in Hegel’s philosophy and the legacy of Spinoza

Dr. Francesca Brencio

(University of Western Sydney – Australia)

Visiting Fellow at Albert-Ludwigs Universität in Freiburg im Breisgau (Germany)

(Comments are warmly welcome: brenciofrancesca@gmail.com)

Abstract:

The aim of my talk is to show two theses: 1. the centrality of the notion of desire in Spinoza
and Hegel and the legacy of Spinoza’s conatus in Hegel’s concept of Begierde; 2. The issue of
desire is a matter of subjectivity: in this sense, the desire is the ground of the “I”. So, the claim “I
am my desire” is the central point of self-consciousness in the Phenomenology of the Spirit. Hegel’s
claim is that consciousness is desire, not merely that it is accompanied by desire. He means that the
distinctive character of desire is the “self-consciousness”; the distinguished actions are merely the
natural expression of desire and a corresponding form of self-consciousness that is a mere sentiment
of self, from actions undertaken in order to satisfy a desire, the actions of a being that does not just
embody its self-sentiment but can be said to act on such a self-conception. The transition from
desire to recognition is the central point for the subjectivity and his social feature.
At last, I will underline the metamorphoses of Hegel’s dialectics in Lacan’s psychoanalysis
and the centrality of Hegel in the last Lacan’s work: both for the issue of desire and for the
subjectivity.

[Complete version of this talk will be published in the volume dedicated to the V International
Congress of Hegel Society of Spain, University of Salamanca, Spain - 2013]