Simon Gros

Hegel’s The Phenomenology of Spirit has been one of the most important works of philosophy since the nineteenth century, while the question of energy has been crucial to life in the twenty-first century. In this book, Michael Marder integrates the two, narrating a story about the trials and tribulations of energy embedded in Hegel’s dialectics. Through an original interpretation of actuality (Wirklichkeit) as energy in the Hegelian corpus, the book provides an exciting lens for understanding the dialectical project and the energy‑starved condition of our contemporaneity. To elaborate this theory, Marder undertakes a meticulous rereading of major parts of the Phenomenology, where the energy deficit of mere consciousness gives way to the energy surplus of self‑consciousness and its self‑delimitation in the domain of reason. In so doing, he denounces the current understanding of energy as pure potentiality, linking this mindset to pollution, profit-driven economies, and environmental crises. Surprising and deeply engaged with its contemporary implications, this book doesn’t simply illuminate aspects of The Phenomenology of Spirit—it provides an entirely new understanding of Hegel’s ideas.

Table of Contents

Preface

Part I. Prolegomena to the Dialectics of Energy
Reading Hegel Energetically
Wirklichkeit−Actualitas−Energeia
Spirit, Actually
The Real Is (Not) the Actual
The Logics of Virtualization
A Case Study in Virtuality: The Energy of Thought
Speculative Energy
Energy Is (Not) Power
Synergy
Shapes of Spirit, Shapes of Energy
Two Energy Supplies, Three Energy Types
Absolute Energy
Dialectics against Extractivism

Part II. The Phenomenology of Spirit and the Question of Energy: An Exegesis
Introduction: The Energy of Cognition
A. “Mere” Consciousness and Its Energy Deficit
1. Sense-Certainty: “This Is,” “I Am” . . . but All “This” “Is” Not Energy
2. Perception: The Non-Actual Reality of Seeing without Seeing Oneself See
3. Force and Understanding: Literally Crystal-Clear and Unburdened by the Energy of Thinking
B. Self-Consciousness and Its Surplus Energy
4. The Truth of Self-Certainty: Beyond the Living Energy of Life
a. Mastery and Servitude: Self-Consciousness Actualized
b. The Freedom of Self-Consciousness: Three Manners of Virtualizing Thought
C. Reason and the Self-Limitation of Energy
5. The Certainty and Truth of Reason: Reality Rediscovered
a. Observing Reason: Becoming-Actual and/as Becoming-Rational
b. The Self-Actualization of Rational Self-Consciousness: Becoming-Rational and/as Becoming-Actual
c. Individuality Real in and for Itself: A Recircuiting of Energy

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