SKC Workshop Spring 2024

POSTPONED!

Michele Ferrando

(University of Pavia, Italy)

"The concept of “Repetition” between opposition and correction in relation to Hegel"

The paper will investigate the work Repetition, reconstructing its production context to better understand the theoretical core behind the concept of “repetition”, which gradually becomes clearer in subsequent productions. More specifically, my intention is to illustrate the correction – and not just the opposition – in relation to Hegelian “mediation” operated by Kierkegaard with the concept of “repetition”. On the one hand, I will analyze the epistemological groundwork of the notion exposed in the second part of the never published De omnibus dubitandum est. Indeed, in De omnibus the progressive definition of the consciousness directly faces the problematic relation between ideality and reality revealing the strict dependence to the “Introduction” and the “Sense-Certainty” of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. On the other hand, moving on to the “sphere of freedom” and considering the so called “first type” of repetition, I will tentatively show how Kierkegaard addresses the significant problem of movement in the field of human action and simultaneously proposes a "corrective" to Hegelian mediation. In this regard, the aim is to outline the connection between the figure of Judge Wilhelm in Either/Or and the concept of “becoming” presented in the “Interlude” of the Philosophical Fragments. Between the two instances - continuity and discontinuity with Hegel - the emphasis will be placed on the former aspect considering the formation of the concept of “repetition” as conceived from Hegel and from specific challenges he has posed for subsequent thinkers.