The Lectures
Across four lectures Professor Stephen Houlgate will provide a profound introduction into the opening of Hegel's Science of Logic. Where thought begins with pure being, passes through nothing, and unfolds into becoming. We shall see why this “presuppositionless” start matters, how the "dialectical method" really works, and what follows from this for ontology, logic, and metaphysics. Along the way, you’ll also be able to situate the passages within the legacies of Kant, Parmenides, and Heraclitus while practicing line-by-line interpretation.
Houlgate's Approach to Hegel
Houlgate's scholarly approach to Hegel can be described as a "revised-metaphysical" interpretation of Hegel, which underscores the immanent, presuppositionless development of speculative thought in Hegel's system. This reading challenges influential critiques by thinkers like Martin Heidegger, Jacques Derrida, and Gilles Deleuze, who accuse Hegel of adhering to a predetermined conception of being. Houlgate argues instead that Hegel's logic unfolds dynamically, free from foundational assumptions, and he extends this analysis to connections between Hegel, Heidegger, and Derrida on the deconstruction of "essence" or "ground."
Course Curriculum
Professor Stephen Houlgate
British philosopher Professor Stephen Houlgate is renowned the world over as one of the preeminent authorities on Hegel’s philosophy. It is Houlgate’s great lifetime achievement to have been able to translate Hegel’s thought into English, to teach Hegel to speak English, as it were. Beginning with his doctoral thesis, "Metaphysics and its criticism in the philosophies of Hegel and Nietzsche," supervised by Nicholas Boyle at Cambridge, Professor Houlgate has dedicated much of his philosophical life to bringing Hegel’s Science of Logic and thus Hegel’s new metaphysics to a broad academic and non-academic audience.
His current projects include a forthcoming book on the "doctrine of essence" in Hegel's Science of Logic, building on his recent two-volume work Hegel on Being (Bloomsbury, 2022), which provides a comprehensive examination of the Logic's opening "doctrine of being"—covering quality, quantity, measure, and Hegel's engagement with pre-Kantian metaphysics, Kantian critique, and even differential calculus.
Beyond Hegel, Houlgate's research encompasses the philosophies of Immanuel Kant, Friedrich Nietzsche, Baruch Spinoza, and Martin Heidegger, as well as the philosophy of religion, aesthetics, political thought, and the theory of tragedy from Aristotle to the present day.
Houlgate's prolific bibliography includes several influential monographs, such as Hegel, Nietzsche and the Criticism of Metaphysics (Cambridge University Press, 1986), An Introduction to Hegel: Freedom, Truth and History (Blackwell, 1991; 2nd ed., 2005), The Opening of Hegel's Logic: From Being to Infinity (Purdue University Press, 2006), and Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit: A Reader's Guide (Bloomsbury, 2013). He has also edited key anthologies, including Hegel and the Arts (Northwestern University Press, 2007) and, with Michael Baur, A Companion to Hegel (Blackwell, 2011). His extensive article output—spanning journals like The Owl of Minerva, Journal of the History of Philosophy, and European Journal of Philosophy—addresses topics from Hegel's critiques of foundationalism and the "end of art" to comparisons with contemporaries like John McDowell and Robert Brandom.