Hegel, Subjectivity, and Metaphysics: A Heideggerean Interpretation

The goal of this essay is to explicate Martin Heidegger’s metaphysical critique and interpretation of G. W. F. Hegel’s thought. This explication will include a discussion of Heidegger’s view on Hegel’s conceptions of subjectivity, dichotomy, and self-consciousness. For the sake of presenting a concise essay, I will present only a few of Heidegger’s major texts concerning Hegel. Two of the most essential texts analyzed in this essay are from Heidegger’s later years. These texts include the “Four Seminars” and “The Onto-theo-logical Constitution of Metaphysics”. The most important issue will be to demonstrate the fundamental dilemma that Heidegger finds in the thinking of Hegel. Though Hegel brings metaphysics to its highest achievement, Hegel still lacks the ability to demonstrate the grounds of metaphysics because of his own entanglement in the history of subjectivity.