Logic and History in Hegel

• Grant number: 25/04875-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: October 01, 2025
• End date: September 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy - History of Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Damon Santos Moutinho
• Grantee: Bruno Fernandes
• Supervisor: Julia Peters
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Heidelberg University, Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/12752-9 - The determinations of reality: the logical plane and the temporal plane in Marx's Capital, BP.DR

Abstract

In the Ökonomisch Manuskripte of 1857-58, Marx differentiates the categorial development from the temporal development of the capitalist mode of production, in the same way that, in the Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts, Hegel differentiates the conceptual development from the temporal development of legal determinations. This point of intersection between their approaches has led me to focus on two central research questions: first, considering Marx's proposal to invert Hegel's logic, how could he preserve a distinction essential to the speculative nature of Hegelian thought? and second, once preserved, what is the difference and relationship between these determinations in the logic applied to the critique of political economy? The progress of my investigation suggests that, since Marx himself retains key structures of Hegelian dialectics, adequately addressing these questions requires, at least in general terms, an examination of how Hegel confronted these challenges in his own thought. This is particularly relevant given that Hegel's contemporaries-such as Schelling, who argued for the impossibility of deducing existence from logic, and Feuerbach, who later defended the impotentia generandi of logic-raised similar concerns about the relationship between logic and reality. To engage with these issues, my research abroad will include a focused analysis of Hegel's work to uncover the origins of the distinction that Marx sought to preserve. My hypothesis is that, although this distinction is the expression of a critical philosophy in both cases, Hegel focuses on the positive intellection of dialectics, while Marx focuses on the negative intellection.