"In this seminar, we will discuss Hegel’s ideas of ethical life and recognition and build from them an understanding of some of the challenges facing intercultural criticism. Three short readings will be distributed in advance: a selection from the Phenomenology of Spirit in which Hegel explains the idea of Sittlichkeit or “ethical life”; a selection from the Philosophy of Mind of the Encyclopaedia in which Hegel discusses the relation between religion and the state; and a selection from my own writing in which I draw on these ideas from Hegel to talk about the politics of intercultural communication (reading these selections in advance is recommended but not required). The seminar will begin with discussion of the passages from Hegel, after which I will present for discussion some of my own ideas about what these ideas imply for interpretation of contemporary political situations. In particular, I will argue that we cannot adequately recognize persons from other cultures if we presume the existence of culturally neutral values that can be applied to their cultural realities without initiation into the historically developed forms through which meaning appears in those cultures and in our own."
Shannon is Associate Professor of Social and Political Philosophy at ICS.
