Hegelian synthesis is recomposition, not original composition

Evidence

By equal right, the encyclopedic circle can be interpreted both as the final form in which the tradition is reassembled in all its purity and as the result of a process of recycling of that same tradition. By analysing dialectical simplification we discover that the movement of the singularities, in their auto-distribution, in fact proceeds from the energy produced in redistribution, in reprocessing and reclassifying the forms of spirit. It is as if Hegel did in fact anticipate one of the current connotations of the word ‘synthesis’, meaning less something that is composed than something recomposed. Indeed, we now speak of material, fabrics, forms that have been reconstituted chemically, as ‘synthetic’. Hegelianism, that fundamentally systematic business, brings thought to the point where the synthesis of all philosophy – its forms reassembled in the unity of the encyclopedic totality – proceeds, in its specular and speculative movement, to mirror its ‘other’ self, an other different as well as the same: namely, synthetic philosophy, engendered by an exegetical recomposition, by an interpretative audacity now released from its connection to the authenticity or the ‘objective’ validity of its referent. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1265

Categorization

Category: Contrarian or Surprising Claims

• DEFINE: Redefines ‘synthesis’ through its modern chemical sense of reconstituted materials, inverting the usual connotation of original composition.
• QUESTION: If synthesis means recomposition released from referential authenticity, how can such exegetical recomposition remain tethered to the Hegelian text’s own authority? This is a self-undermining moment worth chasing.

Related

• Hegel’s synthesis prefigures modern ‘synthetic’ meaning recomposed rather than composed (similarity 0.97)
• Philosophical synthesis means recomposition and recycling, like synthetic materials. (similarity 0.91)
• Stressing a philosopher’s originality can inadvertently confirm their conformity to tradition. (similarity 0.79)
• Hegelian synthesis uniquely requires mutual recognition of opposites, unlike Aristotle and Kant (similarity 0.79)
• Hegel’s theory of the event emerges where the System’s subject is examined. (similarity 0.79)
• Sublation has a pre-Hegelian history rather than being a idiosyncratic tic (similarity 0.78)