Master-slave Dialectic Research Articles

From the Margins to the Center: A Reading of 'Antarah Ibn Shaddad' through Hegel's Master-Slave Dialectic

This study analyzes the Al-Moallaqa, a poem traditionally hung on the walls of the Kaaba, the holiest shrine for Muslims, by the pre-Islamic poet Antara bin Shaddad, through the lens of Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic. It explores the status of marginal identity, focusing on the poet’s portrayal of the suffering endured due to slavery, humiliation, and deprivation of honor in a tribal society that devalues the enslaved. It also examines self-awareness and the desire for change, addressing the essential awakening of the 'Self', which drives a rejection of marginalization and a commitment to struggle and risk in pursuit of freedom. A qualitative textual analysis is employed, focusing on the thematic exploration of identity, self-awareness, and the struggle for recognition within the poem. Antara’s poetry illustrates this self-awareness through vivid depictions of bravery, heroism, and chivalry, emphasizing the idea of testing oneself and others in the existential struggle between life and death. The contribution of this manuscript lies in its application of Hegelian philosophy to classical Arabic poetry, offering a new interpretative framework for understanding the dynamics of identity and freedom in pre-Islamic literature.

The Philosophical Implications and Contemporary Value Insights of “Labor Creates Humanity” from Hegel's "Master-Slave Dialectic"

In Hegel's "Master-Slave Dialectic," labor is not only a means to achieve freedom but also a process of self-creation. Through labor, the slave negates their own nature, gradually surpassing their mere slave status to gain self-awareness and freedom. Meanwhile, the master, often reliant on the slave's labor is compelled to accept material provisions from the slave, creating a material dependency that forces the master to negate their own essence and be disciplined into a new form by the slave. This dependency of the master is not only material but also involves recognition of the slave's social status and their own value. Hegel's "Master-Slave Dialectic" provides a profound philosophical framework for contemplating the philosophical implications and contemporary value insights of "Labor Creates People." It offers a deeper understanding of issues facing contemporary society, particularly in rethinking the relationships between freedom, labor, and environment. This philosophical framework is crucial for seeking inclusive and sustainable solutions to contemporary challenges.

Fanon’s Postcolonial Critique of Hegelian Recognition and Buck-Morss’ Haiti Thesis

This philosophical investigation interrogates the relationship between G.F.W. Hegel’s concept of the master-slave dialectic in The Phenomenology of Spirit and the critique and reformulation of it by Frantz Fanon in Black Skin, White Masks. As a means of contextualization and expansion of Hegel’s original textual account, I consider Susan Buck-Morss’ seminal defense through grounding the dialectic in Hegel’s possible historical knowledge of the Haitian Revolution. I conclude that despite a compelling picture, Buck-Morss’ insights are unable to fully vindicate Hegel from the rebukes of Fanon, and as a result, Hegel’s phenomenology necessitates a concrete analysis of the actual conscious experiences of the racialized and colonized subject in order to realize its aims.

The Hegelian Master–Slave Dialectic in History and Class Consciousness

Abstract The central axis of the article is the argument that History and Class Consciousness adopts from the Hegelian dialectics not only the category of totality but also the master–slave dialectic, although it never refers explicitly to the latter. Hence, in this article, we aim to detect the subtle influence that the Hegelian master–slave dialectic exerts on History and Class Consciousness and, more specifically, on the constitution of the Lukacsian concepts of reification, praxis, working class-bourgeoisie interaction, working-class self-consciousness, autonomous subject. Our approach to the Hegelian master–slave dialectic is mostly – but not only – based on its philosophical–anthropological interpretation by A. Kojeve. Kojeve’s interpretation, by attributing a crucial role to labour in the mastery–slavery dialectic, focuses on that aspect of the Hegelian dialectic which, in our estimation, was determining for HCC. In addition, our approach to the Hegelian master–slave dialectic is based on some occasional references Lukacs has to it in Young Hegel as well as on his interpretation latent in History and Class Consciousness.

Orienting Care: Boris Groys, Philosophy of Care

In Philosophy of Care, Boris Groys undertakes a reading of key philosophical texts in terms of the relationship between self-care and care, as a way of trying to reinvigorate the question of health beyond its current instantiation in biopolitical life and algorithmic life. He passes through Socrates, Hegel, Nietzsche, Kojève, Bataille, Heidegger and others, culminating in Bogdanov’s distinction between egressive and degressive organization and his cosmist-immortalist dreams. The philosophy outlined by Groys is questioned here through the prism of the work of Bernard Stiegler, in particular via the distinction between labour and work, a re-reading of Hegel on the master-slave dialectic, an interpretation of the meaning of defunctionalization, and an account of the necessity of reorienting ourselves in thought so as to make possible a new economy of care, which depends on the possibility of fostering new processes of sublimation.

Hegel’s master-slave dialectic and the Haiti revolt (1791–1804): Transatlantic print chronicles of race in an age of colonial market exchange

This work contributes to recent transdisciplinary efforts to view the Haitian slave revolt (1791–1804) as the historical inspiration for Hegel’s master-slave dialectic. Reconstructions offered by contemporary postcolonial scholars argue that the Haitian revolt was chronicled in Minerva as Hegel raced to finish his Phenomenology. Benhabib recently recognized the Hegel-Haiti thesis as entailing the sort of inclusive dialogical learning process necessary to validate subaltern experiences. The thesis has also drawn its share of sceptical scrutiny as Badiou claims that it risks forcing an unnecessary moral dissymmetry, neglects objectionable features of enslavement and imposes a mismatch between apolitical subject and revolutionary. In reply, we appeal to the pioneering work of Tavares to show that the asymmetrical construction of classification schemes for persons of mixed-racial statuses accords with decades of documented literary exchanges between Hegel and Gregoire. We then turn to the work of James on the role of mixed-race merchants in the testimonial accounts of late 18th century French historians to show that European literate publics were well aware of the extremely coercive forms of commodified labour found in Saint-Domingue. We then invoke the archival work of Du Bois on French, British and American parliamentary proceedings that show the provisional colonial identities ascribed to Caribbean subjects did not hinder their self-conscious exercise of political agency. Viewing Hegel in terms of the historiographic records of the racial ontologies of early modern transatlantic literary exchanges helps explain how he adapted these tropes concerning mixed-race subjects in a manner that better explains many of the anomalous features of the dialectic. However, conferring the Haitian revolution its proper world-historical warrant as inspiration for his infamous master-slave dialectic need not lead us to overlook Hegel’s complicity with many of the epistemic and ontological flaws of colonial tropes held in early modern transatlantic print.

Identity Dilemma and Post-Colonialism in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness

This study aims to examine Conrad's novella "Heart of Darkness" in terms of two diverse themes; identity dilemma and post-colonialism. This narrative follows the protagonist Marlow as he travels to the Congo River and discovers the harsh realities of colonization and its effects on the native people. However, apart from postcolonialism, this study also aims to shed light on how the novella represents the complicated and sometimes contradictory nature of identity via an investigation of the experiences and actions of the characters. At the same time, it is possible to realize that the novella includes a theme of identity dilemma, which can be examined in terms of the Hegelian master-slave dialectic. It represents the nature of oppression, subjugation, and resistance at some point.

The master as parasite in modern literature

ABSTRACT The master speaks infrequently and rarely does he speak directly from his immediate, personal experience as conqueror, slave holder, colonialist, or father/husband. Literary works, beginning with slave narratives and including several twenty and twenty-first century novels, furnish helpful insights into the master’s daily routine of subjugating others. For a theoretical framework, I begin with G. W. F. Hegel’s examination of the master-slave dialectic in his 1807 work, The Phenomenology of Spirit, and rely on subsequent critical theories such as psychoanalysis, colonialism, and feminism to illuminate more fully how radical ideas about cultural representation can be used to decipher literature. From Joseph Conrad’s novella Heart of Darkness and George Orwell’s ‘Shooting an Elephant’ to Pauline Réage’s novel, Story of O, and Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Hottentot Venus, the master is portrayed as a brutal man with the capacity to act bestially toward another human being. Tragically, for the master, he can never transcend the dehumanised condition that allows him to exist.

承認理論的創造論回歸——一項關於人倫構成的比較哲學研究

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.
 承認涉及自我與他者之間的相互認可，因而可以將承認理論理解為一項關於人倫構成的哲學理論。本文首先分析黑格爾、霍耐特的現代承認理論的得失，特別對霍耐特所提出的“生存模式的承認”與黑格爾的“主奴辯證法”進行反思性分析，揭示出現代承認理論的人類學前提是將人理解為一個口只關注人的必死性的欲望的主體；之後回到奥古斯丁，通過重構奥古斯丁關於人從記憶中尋求上帝的描述，提出一種基於創造論(proctology)的承認理論，指出這種承認理論的人類學前提是將人理解為一個關注人的降生性的感應的主體；最後通過分析儒教經典中的相關論述，指出天人之倫乃是父子之倫、朋友之倫、君臣之倫的基礎，從而為一種宗教性的生命倫理學奠定理論基礎。
 Recognition involves mutual recognition between the self and others. As such, the theory of recognition can be understood as a philosophical theory about the constitution of human relations. This article first analyzes Hegel's and Honneth's modern theories of recognition. It critically assesses Honneth's “recognition of the mode of existence” and Hegel's “master-slave dialectics,” revealing that these modern recognition theories embrace an anthropological premise: man is understood as a subject who only pays attention to the desire of man's mortality. The article then turns to Augustine's doctrine. By reconstructing Augustine's description of man seeking God from memory, the article proposes a protology-based theory of recognition, laying out an alternate anthropological premise in which man is understood as a sympathetic subject concerned with human incarnation. Finally, in analyzing relevant discussions in Confucian classics, the article indicates that the relationship between Heaven and man is the foundation for the relationship between father and son, the relationship between friend and friend, and the relationship between monarch and minister, laying a theoretical foundation for Confucian religious bioethics.

Hegel in a postcolonial world: Populist authoritarianism, postcolonialism, and the master–slave dialectic

The paper seeks to offer a Hegelian-inspired normative explanation of the utilization of postcolonial arguments by authoritarian states to challenge Western norms. In the last decades, several authoritarian politicians like Modi and Erdoğan have used postcolonial concepts to justify a range of questionable essentialist and nationalistic policies of new imperialism. Whereas scholars and policymakers have identified this phenomenon as pragmatic manoeuvring by politicians, they have failed to either incorporate the role of the West in their analysis or explain the efficiency of this rhetoric within national contexts. The previously successful practice of retreating to universal Western norms has become impractical due to the overall lack of consensus on existing social hierarchies and Western values. Since the increasingly popular practice appears as a contextual epiphenomenon of a globalized issue, broader frameworks are required to make sense of these increasing distortions of postcoloniality. As such, the paper argues for a Hegelian approach that positions the West/Europe and the populist authoritarian states in a master–slave dialectic. The dialectic offers a normative and rational reading of this problematic postcolonial phenomenon, one that not only shows the past and contemporary circumstances of its formulation but also helps us eliminate or, more realistically, understand the phenomenon. It also incorporates in the analysis the role of domestic factors and the inter-subjective influence of the West/Europe on the formulation of a postcolonial identity and discourse. Furthermore, the paper argues that populist and authoritarian governments do not manage to overcome the master–slave dialectic but instead exploit it to maximize their political gains. Hence, after placing Hegel’s master–slave dialectic in the international relation corpus, the paper uses a dialogical model to examine the Turkish Justice and Development Party’s postcolonialist colonialism and show the benefits of the master–slave dialectic in analysing the phenomenon.

Social Disintegration and the Anchor of Subjectivity: Theoretical Analysis Based on the Perspective of Social Solidarity

In his study of the phenomenon of suicide, Emile Durkheim found that the decline of religious cohesion brought about a weakening of solidarity and faith, which then led to a series of social problems. As an Establishment, the religious community is not merely an oppressive force, but also the field on which the master-slave dialectic is hosted. By virtue of its transcendental nature, the Establishments are able to provide individuals with an anchor of subjectivity while giving them a sense of transcendence over life and death. On this basis, Durkheim sees the vocational community as a remedy for social disintegration and the reconstitution of a conscience collective following the disintegration of the religious order.

The Battle Within and the Battle Without: The Posthuman Worldview of Ken MacLeod’sThe Corporation WarsTrilogy

AbstractThe present essay seeks to analyze Scottish science fiction writer Ken MacLeod’sThe Corporation Warstrilogy (2016-2017) as an amalgam of politico-philosophical ideas set against the background of posthumanism. MacLeod’s far-future posthuman world-building relies on the conventional tropes of science fiction (man-machine hybrids, brain uploading, digital resurrection, and the agency of sentient machines) to engage with pressing ideologies (the master-slave dialectics, the historical perpetuation of age-old conflict between progressive and reactionary forces, the ethics of machinic consciousness). MacLeod’s novels project a postbinarist worldview where outmoded binary oppositions between life and death, the real and the virtual, the human and the machinic are constantly abolished, but which still preserves persistent ideological divisions.

'n Fenomenologie van rassisme: Hegeliaanse (wan)erkenning en die struktuur van koloniale bewussyn

Hierdie artikel neem Hegel se weergawe van die mislukking van wedersydse erkenning (dus wanerkenning) krities onder die loep met spesifieke fokus op die meester-slaaf-dialektiek. Hegel gee daarmee sy analise van 'n soort bewussynsontwikkeling wat lei tot vervreemde selfbewussyn in sowel die self as die ander (subjek en objek). Die proses wat hierdie soort bewussyn begrond, gee myns insiens 'n fenomenologiese beskrywing en verduideliking van die kognitiewe wortels van rassisme en geweld soos wat dit gemanifesteer word in 'n sogenaamde moderne koloniale mentaliteit (beide in die koloniale en die postkoloniale konteks). Dit bied met ander woorde 'n uiteensetting van hoe rassisme vorm aanneem in die selfbewussyn. Die moontlike wegbeweeg van rassisme na wedersydse erkenning word ondersoek met die doel om te sien hoe wanerkenning hanteer kan word (in die selfbewussyn). Dit word gedoen aan die hand van 'n model van Hegel se bewussynsteorie, wat verskillende soorte intersubjektiewe erkenning in breë trekke uiteensit. Die fokus van hierdie model is die wisselwerking tussen die dinglike en begripsaspekte van Hegeliaanse erkenning in die interaksie van die self (as subjek) met die ander. Hopelik kan hierdie model help om begrip te bevorder van hoe selferkenning, wanerkenning en wedersydse erkenning gepaard gaan met verskillende vorme van bewussyn. Teen die agtergrond van 'n koloniale bewussyn het wanerkenning en wedersydse erkenning 'n beduidende uitwerking op menslike verhoudinge. Fanon het dit verder belig met sy fokus op die rol van ras in die dialektiek en erkenning.

Wollstonecraft in Jamaica: the international reception of A Vindication of the Rights of Men in the Kingston Daily Advertiser in 1791

ABSTRACT Re-reading Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Men (1790) in the context of the international politics after the start of the French Revolution in 1789 and before the rise of the Haitian Revolution in 1791 leads to three discoveries in the history of European ideas. First, her reply to Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France was advertised, discussed, and rumoured to be the work of a woman in London papers days earlier in November 1790 than previously documented. Second, Wollstonecraft’s first known instances of public reception beyond Britain were in a major Jamaican newspaper from January to March 1791. Thirdly, and most notably, in February 1791, the Kingston Daily Advertiser published a lengthy excerpt from her Rights of Men that called for the abolition of slavery and the realization of justice for the poor and oppressed. Long before Hegel probably developed his master-slave dialectic in response to journalistic accounts of the independence of Haiti in 1804, there was Wollstonecraft’s actual reception in the international news in Jamaica, amid the spread of reports of the rise of slave unrest in the broader post-revolutionary Caribbean.

Master-Slave Dialectic and Mimicry: A Postcolonial Analysis of the Subjectivity of Frankenstein and his Monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Master-Slave Dialectic and Mimicry: A Postcolonial Analysis of the Subjectivity of Frankenstein and his Monster in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Outsourcing, Imperialism, and Power: Master-slave Dialectic in Rimini Protokoll’s Call Cutta in a Box

الملخص التعهيد، الامبريالية، والقوة: جدلية السيد والعبد في مسرحية کلکتا فى صندوق لريمني بروتکول . يسلط البحث الضوء على التعهيد خارج الحدود کما ظهر في مسرحية الموقع المحدد کلکتا فى صندوق لريمني بروتکول کمجاز عن جدلية السيد والعبد لهيجل. حيث توظف شرکات التعهيد خارج الحدود، مثل شرکة ديسکون المحدودة، عمالا هنودا في مراکز الاتصالات وتجبرهم، لاستمرار عملهم، على تخفيف اللکنة الهندية الثقيلة وتغيير الموقع الجغرافي لهم ليسهل لهم خداع العملاء الأوربيين على خطوط التليفون الدولية وبالتالي يسهل اقناعهم أنهم اوربيون مثلهم لتسويق بضائعهم. وهکذا غدت اللغة وتکنولوجيا الاتصالات سلاحين أساسيين في تجنيد العمال الهنود في مراکز الاتصالات لتقديم خدمة رخيصة الثمن للعملاء الأوربيين. ويهدف البحث إلى الإجابة عن الأسئلة : کيف أصبح التعهيد خارج الحدود حلقة من حلقات هيمنة الغرب على الشرق؟ کيف فرض الاستعمار تعلم اللغة الإنجليزية على الهنود لخدمة العملاء الأوربيين؟ کيف استحال العمال الهنود في سلم طبقي و تکنولوجي يسبب الکثير من الضغوط عليهم و يسبب صعوبات في الاندماج مع مجتمعاتهم؟ کيف أن إتقان اللغة و التکنولوجيا يسبب ادراکا و استقلالية للهنود ضد اسيادهم الأوربيين کما جاء في نظرية هيجل؟ ماهي إلية استخدام مسرح الموقع المحدد في کالکتا؟ This paper investigates how offshore outsourcing, as represented in Rimini Protokoll’s site-specific play Call Cutta in a Box, is a metaphor of the Hegelian Master-slave dialectic. Offshore outsourcing corporations, like Descon Limited, employ Indian call center operators and force them to have intense training to neutralize their thick Indian accents and mask their GPS location to defraud European customers at the other end of the line. Language and Information Technology have been used by these global corporations to enslave Indian workers and to provide a service of high quality to European customers. The paper seeks to find answers to the questions: How is offshore outsourcing an important phase in the trajectory of the imperialistic hegemony of the West over the East? How did colonialism impose the English language on Indians to turn them into mere servants to their purposes? How does the hierarchical power structure cause immense stress on Indian call center operators? How do the Indians payback by mastering Information Technology, thus gaining ‘recognition’ and ‘independence’ from the masters? What is the function behind using a call center in Kolkata as a site-specific theatre?

Self-Consciousness as a Living Kind: On the Fourth Chapter of Hegel's Phenomenology

AbstractThis paper discusses Hegel's conception of self-consciousness in the fourth chapter of the Phenomenology of Spirit. It argues that Hegel articulates self-consciousness as a living being's capacity to conceive of itself in light of the life-form it instantiates. I start by critically reassessing the prevalent readings of the Self-Consciousness chapter, each of which focuses on one of three constitutive aspects of self-consciousness: sociality, corporeality or practicality. Second, I reconstruct how the opening of the chapter aims to reveal that the initial rift between the sensory and the conceptual capacities of consciousness is resolved by the unity of consciousness as a life-form. Third, I discuss the specification of this life-form as Geist and argue that, by introducing the notion of Geist, Hegel indicates that the generic capacity of the human being to conceive of itself in light of its life-form always particularizes itself in a conception of human life that determines a historic and social form of life. Fourth, I outline how the master-slave dialectic illustrates the interdependency between sensory and conceptual capacities. Hegel's tale undermines the assumption of a self-contained capacity for reason by displaying how conceptual capacities, actualized by a living being, rely from the outset on objective constraints. I conclude by contending that the Self-Consciousness chapter paves the way for the central role that the idea of life plays in the Logic in exemplifying the objectivity of the concept.

Identity Recognition as a Tragic Flaw in King Lear by William Shakespeare: Application of Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic

According to several theories of recognition it has been established that an individual counts on the feedback of another to seek identity recognition. According to G.W.F. Hegel (1977) the identity of an individual being does not rest solely in himself but in its relationship to other beings. In his opinion, consciousness of a self exists in being acknowledged by another self and true selfhood exists in acknowledging the requirements and rights of the other self. This paper aims at analyzing the identity recognition as a tragic flaw in William Shakespeare’s famous tragedy King Lear in the light of Hegel’s critiques of self and the other. In this context, King Lear’s attainment of true selfhood and self- knowledge is going to be visualized as the consequence of his effort for identity recognition and then undergoing an extreme suffering. The present research aims to explore the process or stages of becoming a victim of identity crisis. The crisis of recognition for the protagonist of the play starts right in the first scene. This paper aims at discussing the identity recognition on the part of King Lear himself and others in the play as a cause of tragedy. By using Hegel’s Master-Slave Dialectic, this paper will open up a new research direction for the Shakespearean scholars.

Fanon and Recognition

This paper applies Hegel’s master-slave dialectic to Fanon’s issue of pseudo-recognition discussed in the essay, “The Negro and Recognition,” as a way of establishing a form of self-consciousness. I begin the paper by arguing that in the Hegelian dialectic establishing a self-consciousness is an essential prerequisite to Fanon’s goal of mutual subject-recognition. I then argue that given the position of black people as slaves within the master-slave dialectic, they are denied the recognition required to attain being in-itself for-itself, which in reality can only be obtained if black people establish self-consciousness on their own terms. I then make the case that this required self- consciousness can only be obtained through struggle, essentially reversing the stages of the dialectic to create a new master/slave relation. In particular, I argue that this moment of struggle provides a moment of proto-recognition which can be used to build a new mutual subject-recognition. I then theorize on what form this new relation must take, making the case that it must be a relation where the categories of master and slave are made irrelevant, and where all subjects are capable of mutual recognition.

Fanon and Recognition

This paper applies Hegel’s master-slave dialectic to Fanon’s issue of pseudo-recognition discussed in the essay, “The Negro and Recognition,” as a way of establishing a form of self-consciousness. I begin the paper by arguing that in the Hegelian dialectic establishing a self-consciousness is an essential prerequisite to Fanon’s goal of mutual subject-recognition. I then argue that given the position of black people as slaves within the master-slave dialectic, they are denied the recognition required to attain being in-itself for-itself, which in reality can only be obtained if black people establish self-consciousness on their own terms. I then make the case that this required self- consciousness can only be obtained through struggle, essentially reversing the stages of the dialectic to create a new master/slave relation. In particular, I argue that this moment of struggle provides a moment of proto-recognition which can be used to build a new mutual subject-recognition. I then theorize on what form this new relation must take, making the case that it must be a relation where the categories of master and slave are made irrelevant, and where all subjects are capable of mutual recognition.