Hegel's Philosophy of Drives

James Muldoon

Hegel’s philosophy has often been understood through the language of dynamism, movement and force.However, the concept of the drives [die Triebe] has not yet received significant attention within Hegel scholarship. I aim to demonstrate the importance and centrality of the drives to Hegel’s thought. My claim is that a focus on this concept transforms our understanding of the Hegelian project and that a proper appreciation of the role of the drives is the key to grasping the significance of Hegel’s philosophy as a whole. Hegel comprehends that human beings live with drives that are not merely pathological distractions from the moral law or natural and fixed determinations of an inert human nature. Human drives are themselves plastic, malleable and susceptible to transformation through a process of education and cultural development.Within Hegel’s thought, the drives can be rendered intelligible in a double register: the moral and the metaphysical. In the first instance, the drives can be understood in the moral sphere, as the basic sensuous inclinations, impulses and desires of human beings. In the metaphysical domain, Hegel’s dialectical philosophy itself is moved by a certain drive that is internal to the structure of his thinking. This paper analyses the intersection and overlapping of these two concepts of drive throughout Hegel’s oeuvre and seeks to put forward a reading of Hegel on the basis of this analysis.