The concept is a formative power, not an empty receptacle
Evidence
Hegel repeatedly insists on this feature of the concept: although it is a logical form, the concept must not be considered like an empty receptacle, rather as a power that can fashion its own content. By giving plasticity a mediating position between ‘future’ and ‘temporality’, my title: ‘The Future of Hegel: Plasticity, Temporality, Dialectic’ – already indicates that plasticity will be envisaged as the ‘instance’ which gives form to the future and to time in Hegel’s philosophy. That is to say, their relationship is constructed in the mode of plasticity; time and the future are mutually involved in a dialogical process governed by plasticity. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 208
Categorization
- DEFINE: Hegel’s concept is defined negatively against the empty-receptacle view — it fashions its own content rather than holding pre-given content.
- XREF: This formative-power notion of concept parallels a constructivist view of brain plasticity where structure shapes rather than merely stores content. — connects to: Power operates as modalized possibility rather than actual force or capability — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 629; The individual is an effect of power, not its presupposed target — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 48; Power generates the will of the power-holder rather than serving it (+10 more)
Broader Connections
- Power operates as modalized possibility rather than actual force or capability
#expands(0.85) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 629 - Power rests on arrangements over what is possible
#expands(0.85) - Power generates the will of the power-holder rather than serving it
#expands(0.82) - The state is constituted by power, not merely an instrument that wields it
#expands(0.82) — David Theo Goldberg, The Racial State, 9 - Power is code-guided communication, not a property possessed by anyone
#expands(0.80) - Power operates as a communication medium of conditional alternative-pairs, not raw force
#expands(0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 624 - Power symbols express stabilized possibility, not resemblance to what is possible.
#expands(0.80) - Disciplinary power is a network function, not a possessed property
#expands(0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 273 - Symbolic generalization lets power operate without explicit orders being given
#expands(0.80) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 647 - The individual is an effect of power, not its presupposed target
#expands(0.78) — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 48 - Power produces the individual rather than merely repressing it
#expands(0.78) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 301 - Power can be analyzed as a symbolically generalized communication medium.
#expands(0.78) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 583