Hegel’s Concept of Singularity: Zdravko Kobe and Georges Faraklas

6.–8. 11. 2025, Cultural and Congress Centre Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana

The event was jointly organized by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, the Department of Philosophy (the research group The Common Between Substance and Subject), Cankarjev dom, and Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.

Singularity (Einzelheit) is one of the key logical categories of Hegel's philosophy, yet it receives surprisingly little attention in the literature. According to several influential interpretations (e.g., Russell's or Adorno's), Hegel's philosophy explicitly prioritizes the universal over the singular – in the sense that something singular gains actuality only as an instance of a concept (i.e., something universal). According to these interpretations, Hegel's philosophy is distinctly a philosophy of the devaluation of the singular as singular. However, a closer reading reveals that Hegel's conception of singularity is significantly more nuanced. Nevertheless, considerable ambiguity remains in the complex relationship between singularity and universality in Hegel's thought. Hegel himself distinguishes two meanings of "singularity": the traditional philosophical meaning, where singularity is the way in which sensible things exist – immediately and factually; and the second, more complex and specifically Hegelian meaning, where singularity is one of the (three) moments in the articulated structure of the concept. However, it is not entirely clear what the relationship between these two meanings is, and consequently, which meaning Hegel refers to in individual cases. Clarifying these ambiguities is the main purpose of the conference. Although this topic touches upon the deep logical core of Hegel's philosophy, it also has clear implications for the field of political philosophy, as it directly concerns the status of the individual – the central political category of modernity – in his relationship to universality. Perhaps in Hegel, we can hope to find logical tools for thinking an alternative to the social ontology of radical individualism, which at the same time does not lose the individual.

The three-day event was introduced by a keynote lecture by Prof. Dr. Zdravko Kobe (University of Ljubljana) and Prof. Dr. Georges Faraklas (Athens-Panteion).

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6.–8. 11. 2025, Cankarjev dom, Ljubljana

Dogodek so organizirali Filozofska fakulteta Univerze v Ljubljani (Oddelek za filozofijo – raziskovalna skupino Skupno med substanco in subjektom), Cankarjev dom in Goethe-Institut Ljubljana.

Delavnica „Heglov pojem posameznosti“ je bila tridnevna mednarodna filozofska konferenca, posvečena enemu ključnih, a pogosto spregledanih konceptov v Heglovi logiki – pojmu posameznosti (Einzelheit). Dogodek je združil raziskovalce nemške klasične filozofije, politične teorije in logike, ki so se ukvarjali z vprašanjem, kako Hegel razume strukturo posameznosti ter kakšna je njena vloga v razvoju pojma, kot tudi razmerje med konkretnim posameznikom, univerzalnostjo in particularnostjo. Udeleženci so osvetlili tako klasične interpretacije kot sodobne filozofske probleme, ki se navezujejo na razumevanje individualnosti, racionalnosti in svobode.

Konferenca je imela tudi širši filozofsko-politični pomen, saj je odpirala vprašanja, kako Heglova misel o posameznosti vpliva na razumevanje sodobnega radikalnega individualizma, identitete ter vloge posameznega subjekta v skupnosti. Poseben poudarek je bil na tem, ali Heglova logika ponuja bolj kompleksno alternativo današnjim pojmovanjem individualnosti, ki pogosto zanemarjajo vpetost posameznika v družbene in simbolne strukture. Dogodek je vključeval vrsto predavanj, razprav in teoretskih prispevkov, ki so prispevali k poglobljenemu razumevanju tega filozofsko zahtevnega, a temeljnega pojma.

Tridnevni dogodek je uvedlo predavanje prof. dr. Zdravka Kobeta (Univerza v Ljubljani) in prof. dr. Georgesa Faraklasa (Atene-Panteion).

Več o dogodku: https://www.goethe.de/ins/si/sl/ver.c...

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