Hegel: Radical Materialist or Radical Mystic?

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Kings College London

Abstract

Hegel has been subjected to a variety of incompatible interpretations in recent times, from absolute

idealism to realism, from pro-metaphysical to sans-metaphysical. One of the more eccentric Hegelian

thinkers is Slavoj Žižek, who believes that Hegel must be read as a radical materialist to clear the path

to true human liberation. Žižek’s highly controversial interpretations of Hegel have gained a celebrity

level of exposure and popularity and are mixed with Freudian-Lacanian psychoanalytic themes and

post-Marxist anti-capitalist political-social ruminations.

This paper will traverse themes in Hegel’s early religious writings through to the Phenomenology of

Spirit to critically assess Žižek’s claims/ It will support his assertion that Hegel was not an absolute

idealist but will reject the claim that Hegel was a materialist. Not only was Hegel strongly opposed to

materialism and rejected its most basic assumptions, but his dialectic evolves beyond this into a form

of radical mysticism.

Hegel considered naÔve traditional empiricism, rationalism, and mysticism to be unfit for a new urban

landscape in which science and technology were flourishing at an accelerating rate. He also wanted to

defend philosophy and religion as independent fields which addressed truth, higher reality, and the

greatest consciousness that the human mind could reach in the journey to surpassing its limitations.

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Journal of Philosophical Investigations

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 13 July 2025

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