Phantasie in Language Formation?: Imagination in Hegel’s “Psychology”

Abstract

: In the “Psychology” and both the 1827 – 8 Lectures on the Philosophy of Spirit and the 1830 Encyclopedia , Hegel speaks of an imagination which, in all its formations ( Gestaltungen ), forms part of the spirit’s dialectical unfolding from intuition (perception) to language (signification). I argue that Hegel’s conception of imagination in the “Psychology” is clouded by ambiguity . This ambiguity consists, on the one hand, in his recognition of the signifying power of the Zeichen machende Phantasie (sign-making imagination) in making objective through linguistic signs, the universal representations formed by the imagination’s incre asing power of reworking the materials in its possession — and, on the other hand, in his relegating of this power of imagination to Gedächtnis (memory), or to sign-recollecting memory. In demonstrating that an ambiguity has figured in the “Psychology,” I se ek to prove that Hegel conceives of an imagination which, when further developed, will yield to a species of imagination central to language-formation and thinking