In Hegel, voluntary risk of death is what turns natural being into a subject.
Evidence
Significant for such a project is Hegel’s discussion of the relation between death and the “becoming subject.” Hegel’s account of death centers on a bipartite concept of negativity. First, the human negates nature (a negation exteriorized in the human’s effort to reduce nature to his or her own needs); and second, he or she transforms the negated element through work and struggle. In transforming nature, the human being creates a world; but in the process, he or she also is exposed to his or her own negativity. Within the Hegelian paradigm, human death is essentially voluntary. It is the result of risks consciously assumed by the subject. According to Hegel, in these risks the “animal” that constitutes the human subject’s natural being is defeated. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 21
Categorization
- DEFINE: Clearly frames the Hegelian bipartite negativity and voluntary death that Mbembe will deliberately invert in his necropolitics — a key scaffold concept.
- XREF: connects to: Sovereign power makes the subject’s very life and death depend on its will — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 255; For Bataille death is excess and self-consciousness, not Hegelian meaning. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 26; For Hegel the future is subjectivity’s relation to the accidental. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 248 (+1 more)
Related
- For Bataille death is excess and self-consciousness, not Hegelian meaning. (similarity 0.87)
- The soul becomes both substance and subject in Hegel’s analysis. (similarity 0.84)
- For Hegel the future is subjectivity’s relation to the accidental. (similarity 0.78)
Broader Connections
- Sovereign power makes the subject’s very life and death depend on its will
#expands(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 255 - For Bataille death is excess and self-consciousness, not Hegelian meaning.
#complicates(0.78) — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 26