The twofold accident-essence interchange is constitutive for all three kinds of life
Evidence
Hegel already shows how the twofold tendency of the becoming essential of the accident and the becoming accidental of essence is constitutive for all life, in other words, for all the ‘three lives’, identified by him as logical life, natural life, and spiritual life. As the principle of the attributive synthesis, this twofold tendency grounds the relation which connects substance and its accidents, and constitutes the development of ‘Science’ (Wissenschaft). On the other hand, it governs the momentalization of the life of spirit, a momentalization as much logical as structural, historical or chronological in nature. Ultimately it is a tendency which operates at the level of living. It is automatically inscribed ‘right at the level’ of life. Without doubt, Hegel is the only philosopher of the tradition to overcome the traditional opposition of the natural and the artificial. — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1284
Categorization
- DEFINE: Names the core Hegelian dialectical relation — becoming-essential of accident and becoming-accidental of essence — as plasticity’s underlying logic across logical, natural, and spiritual life.
- XREF: This ‘automatically inscribed at the level of living’ claim bears on the reader’s interest in whether plasticity is a neurological fact or a philosophical concept — Malabou insists the automatism is simultaneously logical, natural, spiritual. — connects to: The accident-essence exchange operates identically across natural and artificial life — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1284; Philosophy reveals how accidents become essential and essence becomes accidental; Plasticity’s mechanism is the substance-subject seesaw between essence and accident — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel: Plasticity,…, 1256 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- The accident-essence exchange operates identically across natural and artificial life
#complicates(0.85) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1284 - Philosophy reveals how accidents become essential and essence becomes accidental
#expands(0.80) - Human plasticity gives the logical accident-becoming-essential process a sensuous face
#exemplifies(0.80) - Plasticity’s mechanism is the substance-subject seesaw between essence and accident
#corroborates(0.75) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 1256 - The concepts of accident and essence are themselves historically contingent.
#qualifies(0.70) — Catherine Malabou, The Future of Hegel, 173 - Life’s essence unifies will-to-life and will-to-power.
#expands(0.70) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 824