Hegel and the Doctrine of Expressivism

Abstract

Contemporary criticisms of modern thought and culture often invoke the concept of expressivism. Although variously construed, expressivism generally is a view of reason, humans and their world opposed to Enlightenment dichotomies. According to the expressivist doctrine, man and world are not abstractly juxtaposed but integrally interrelated: individuals exist as parts of a broader whole, just as the world is the place for their self-realization and self-discovery. Similarly, norms of rationality are not abstractly contraposed to particular forms of life but deemed to have meaning and reality only in expressing existing social practices.

I want to thank Willem de Vries for comments on an earlier version of this essays.