Bollettino Filosofico

Call for papers

XLII/2027

Hegel Reloaded: Genealogies, Ruptures, and Reactivations in

Contemporary Thought

Stefania Achella, Francesca Iannelli, Federica Pitillo (Eds.)

Hegel has never been a “monolithic” thinker. Precisely for this reason, he has long occupied a paradoxical position in philosophy: on the one hand, he has been regarded as a “classical” thinker, often confined within the systematic tradition; on the other, his philosophy has continually re- emerged as a critical resource capable of traversing and destabilizing disciplinary boundaries. This ambivalence has given rise to a persistentquestion: in what ways can Hegelian thought be reactivated, transformed, or even contradicted?

In recent decades, the reception of Hegel has undergone a significant transformation, increasingly moving away from his image from the systematic and totalizing readings of twentieth-century philosophy, and restoring him as a thinker deeply relevant to contemporary debates. In the Anglo- American context, the so-called “post-metaphysical” interpretation has reached a turning point in the works of Robert B. Brandom (ASpirit of Trust, 2019) and Terry Pinkard (Hegel’s Naturalism, 2012), who read Hegel as a theorist of social normativity and discursive practices. At the same time, in the European context, an interpretive line has developed that emphasizes negativity and transformation, as in the studies of Catherine Malabou (L’avenir de Hegel, 1996), who foregrounds the concept of plasticity, and Slavoj Žižek (Less Than Nothing, 2012), who reinterprets Hegel in a materialist and psychoanalytic key.

These perspectives have been complemented by research critically interrogating Hegelian universalism, as in Susan Buck-Morss (Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History, 2009), opening the debate to include global andpostcolonial reinterpretations within Cultural Studies and, in some cases, Black Theory, thereby revealing the critical potential of Hegel’s idealism. In early twenty-first- century art history, it is also worth noting that – from Danto to Belting, from Global Art History to Visual Studies – scholars have undertaken an ambitious project of “re-engagement” with Idealism (Hammam Aldouri, Search for a Method: A Reassessment of Hegel’sDialectic in Art History, 2018), in search of new hermeneutic principles to rethink the controversial theory ofthe “end of art,” as well as to foster possible synergies with the contemporary art world and currentmuseological challenges.A decisive contribution has also come from feminist thought, where the reception of Hegel has become increasingly radical, emerging not merely as a critique of the system, but as a theoretical practice of disarticulation and reactivation of its fundamentalcategories. While the positions of Luce Irigaray (Speculum of the Other Woman, 1974) and Carla Lonzi (Let’s Spit on Hegel, 1970)identified in Hegel a speculative matrix for the exclusion of the feminine and its subordination to the universal, more recent readings—from Judith Butler (Subjects of Desire, 1987) to Catherine Malabou (Changing Difference, 2009)—have brought out its intrinsically unstable character, showing how dialectic can be reinterpreted as a device of transformation, excess, and disidentification. From this perspective, Hegel is not simply “recovered,” but subjected to a critical reworking that questions his anthropological, gendered, and normative assumptions, opening a space for reconfiguring subjectivity as a non-identitarian,relational, and embodied process. Hegel is thus rehabilitated, albeit only diffractively (see, for example, Kimberly Hutchings and Tuija Pulkkinen, Hegel’s Philosophy and Feminist Thought: Beyond Antigone?, 2010; Jean-Baptiste Vuillerod, Hegel féministe, 2020).

More recently, Hegelian thought has also been mobilized to address emerging issues such as artificial intelligence and the ecological crisis. Studies such as Ermylos Plevrakis Can AI Be a Subject Like Us? A Hegelian Speculative Approach (2024), have directly explored the possibility of artificial subjectivity, considering the philosophy of spirit. At the same time, works like Rocco Gangle’s Backpropagation of Spirit: Hegelian Recollection and Human-A.I. Abductive Communities (2022) have drawn connections between Hegelian logic of memory and machine learning models, highlighting both analogies and structural differences between algorithmic inference and historical rationality. From a more critical standpoint, authorssuch as Richard Dean Winfield have emphasized the impossibility of attributing genuine subjectivity or consciousness to machines. Finally, more theoretical studies (Sjoerd van Tuinen, Philosophy in the Light of AI. Hegel or Leibniz, 2020) have reread Hegelian philosophy as one of the first major models of the “artificial production of intelligence,” initiating a dialogue with cybernetics and contemporary cognitive sciences—anaspect that, for Yuk Hui (Recursivity and Contingency, 2019), represents a problematic feature of current AI discourse and must therefore be critically reconsidered.

At the same time, ecological reinterpretations of Hegel have gained renewed interest in discussions on the relationship between spirit and nature. Studies such as Karen Ng (Hegel’s Concept of Life, 2020) and Alison Stone (Petrified Intelligence: Nature in Hegel’s Philosophy, 2005) have demonstrated how Hegel’s philosophy of nature can be reinterpreted beyond accusations of anthropocentrism, emphasizing the dynamic and relational dimension of life. From this perspective, Hegel can be read as a theoretical resource for thinking theinterdependence between the human and the non-human, as well as for developing a critique of the forms of domination over nature that characterize modernity.

Anyone who wishes today to engage with Hegel’s thought cannot ignore these emerging lines of inquiry,alongside more established approaches, especially those addressing the challenges posed by intelligent technologies and the environmental crisis. Hegel thus becomes a field of interpretative tension in which questions of normativity, subjectivity, historicity, and power intersect.

Considering this complex and multifaceted debate—encompassing analytical, continental, and postcolonial approaches—this issue of Bollettino Filosofico aims to explore the resonances of Hegelian thought in contemporary philosophy. The goal is to show that Hegel is not a closed theoretical system, but a fertile ground for dialogue between tradition and innovation, between historical rigor and conceptual experimentation. In this sense, Hegel can be read as a multi-layered thinker, capable of intersectingdisciplines, approaches, and theoretical contexts that are often highly heterogeneous. His philosophy does not survive as a fixed identity, but rather as a trace, a field of reactivation, and sometimes even a site of theoretical conflict. Hegelian thought is thus understood as a matrix that exceeds itself, producing unexpected effects in contemporary contexts, from critical theory to emerging philosophical practices.

Scholars are invited to submit contributions that combine historical rigor, conceptual originality, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Contributions may range from philological readings of classical texts to contemporary interpretations and innovative applications of Hegel in current philosophical, political, and social debates. They may also employ diverse methodologies, from comparative approaches to theoretical translations and interdisciplinary crossings.We particularly welcome contributions that investigate the historical reconstruction of interpretations of Hegel; focus on internal ruptures within the Hegelian system; analyze contemporary reappropriations of Hegel, including critical or “anti-Hegelian” perspectives; explore Hegelian genealogies incontemporary thought; and highlight tensions between Hegel and critical theory, post- structuralism, feminism, queer studies, and postcolonial studies.