Karen Ng is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University, specializing in post-Kantian European philosophy, especially Hegel, German idealism, Marx, and Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Her new book, Hegel’s Concept of Life: Self-Consciousness, Freedom, Logic (OUP 2020) was awarded the Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize in December 2021. In this Recently Published Book Spotlight, Ng discusses her work, what drew her to Hegel, and what she wishes she could have included in the book.
What is your work about?
I specialize in nineteenth- and twentieth century European philosophy, focusing on Hegel, German idealism, Marx, and Frankfurt School Critical Theory. In bridging these different historical periods and frameworks, my research centers around the concept of nature, and specifically, how different conceptions of nature generate different approaches to thinking about human reason and freedom — what philosophers refer to, broadly, as the domain of normativity. My work on classical German philosophy explores the role of an organic conception of nature for understanding some of the central philosophical developments of this period, including theories of self-consciousness, judgment, freedom, and history. My work in critical theory investigates how concepts of nature and human nature inform the development of theories of social criticism. Specifically, I am interested in exploring models of ideology critique, the compatibility of historicism and naturalism in social philosophy, theories of ethical naturalism, and recognition theory in its connection to philosophical anthropology. In my research, I develop different approaches to theories of natural normativity, arguing that this is a productive way of understanding how both German idealism and critical theory transform, criticize, and pluralize the Enlightenment project.
My interest in the concept of nature in classical German philosophy resulted in my first book, Hegel’s Concept of Life: Self-Consciousness, Freedom, Logic (Oxford, 2020). The book offers a new interpretation of Hegel’s philosophical system as oriented around an organic conception of life, arguing that it plays a foundational role in how he conceives of the activities of reason and thought. In reorienting key Hegelian ideas around the concept of life, I make three central contributions to scholarly debates. First, I show that Hegel’s rationalist commitments are not only compatible with naturalist ones, but that they are grounded in an organic conception of nature in which living activity is understood in proto-cognitive terms. Second, I reconsider the development of Hegel’s philosophy in relation to his contemporaries, including figures such as J.G. Fichte, Friedrich Hölderlin, F.W.J. Schelling, and his most important predecessor, Immanuel Kant. In particular, I argue that Kant’s understanding of inner purposiveness, a central idea from his Critique of the Power of Judgment, is the key to understanding Hegel’s concept of life. Third, I bring the above to bear on a new interpretation of Hegel’s most difficult and important text, the Science of Logic (1812–1816). I argue that Hegel understands judgment, logical form, and thought itself as emergent from living activity and form. My research on the concept of life in Hegel and German idealism lays the groundwork for my current project, which investigates the normative potential of the concept of “species-being” in connection with Hegel’s understanding of ethical life and post-Hegelian thought.
What drew you to Hegel’s work?
Hegel’s writing is notoriously difficult, but since my earliest days as an undergraduate, I was taught to do philosophy through the close and careful reading of texts in the history of Western philosophy. My professors instilled in me that anything worth reading needed to be read again and again and, luckily, I found the close reading of philosophical texts to be incredibly rewarding. The first time I discovered Hegel, I read the preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit (at the time we read the translation by A.V. Miller) and although I found it nearly incomprehensible, I was utterly drawn to the rhythm of the text and could not stop reading. That first experience of reading Hegel was one where the whole made sense, but the details were dizzying. After reading many of Hegel’s texts again and again, I now find him to be incredibly precise — everything is where it should be and there is a method to the apparent madness.
Although I initially came to Hegel as a skeptic, more interested in understanding Hegel’s many critics than Hegel himself, I soon found that he had often been ungenerously treated or simply misunderstood. Instead of the caricature of a rationalist run amok — a caricature perhaps first suggested by Schelling — Hegel’s intricate, subtle, and historically self-conscious account of the nature of reason and freedom remains unrivalled, both as a system of philosophy and as a reflection on the predicaments of the modern world.
Is there anything you didn’t include that you wanted to? Why did you leave it out?
In the initial version of the book project, I had hoped to include further chapters on Hegel’s Realphilosophie, or his philosophies of nature and spirit (Geist). Hegel claims that the Logic provides the method for his philosophical system, so I was interested in exploring exactly how that method gives shape to his account of nature on the one hand, and of spirit or mind on the other. But that turned out to be far too much material for one book, so I ended up mostly focusing on understanding the role of life in the Science of Logic. Since the book’s publication, I’ve been fortunate to participate in a number of symposia that have allowed me to clarify and extend some of my claims in the book in replying to critics (in the Hegel Bulletin and the European Journal of Philosophy).
What writing tips do you have?
Writing is incredibly personal and I’ve discovered that writing habits really vary among the academic and non-academic writers I know. However, writing every day is undoubtedly a good habit to get into, and it’s worth doing whether you have ten minutes or two hours. For me, keeping my head in a project, even when I’m in the midst of a busy semester, is the most important thing, and writing everyday helps with that. I like writing in big, quiet libraries where I can see others also hard at work. It makes writing feel less like a solitary endeavor (which it isn’t, but it can often feel that way, especially when one is stuck).
How has your work influenced your teaching?
I’ve been very fortunate to have my teaching and research line up in helpful ways while writing my book. I think teaching has influenced my work more than the other way around: working at making very difficult, obscure texts in the history of philosophy exciting and accessible to students has taught me to present ideas clearly and always to make the stakes of an argument explicit. Having the opportunity to teach the texts that I work with has helped me immeasurably in coming to understand them better. I owe a lot to the graduate students at Vanderbilt in particular, whose insights and contributions in seminars often lead my thinking in new and exciting directions.
Where would you like to go to do research in the future, if you could go anywhere?
With the ongoing pandemic, I miss travelling regularly to Germany for research, and especially to Berlin, where I completed the manuscript of my book. Berlin has such a vibrant intellectual community and I’m very much looking forward to returning, hopefully soon.
Karen Ng
Karen Ng is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Vanderbilt University. She specializes in post-Kantian European philosophy, especially Hegel, German idealism, Marx, and Frankfurt School Critical Theory. Her book, Hegel’s Concept of Life: Self-Consciousness, Freedom, Logic (OUP 2020) was awarded the Journal of the History of Philosophy Book Prize in 2021.
Maryellen Stohlman-Vanderveen is the APA Blog's Diversity and Inclusion Editor and Research Editor. She graduated from the London School of Economics with an MSc in Philosophy and Public Policy in 2023 and currently works in strategic communications. Her philosophical interests include conceptual engineering, normative ethics, philosophy of technology, and how to live a good life.
