This is the third of three posts concerning three passages in the third section, “Children & Dissolution,” of the third chapter, “Ethics,” of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, a book I reread this Christmas.
The philosopher:
The need for an upbringing is present in children as their own feeling of dissatisfaction within themselves at the way they are – as the drive to belong to the adult world whose superiority they sense…
The commentator: Childhood is the worst state to be in, and so the only good that can come out of it is precisely a sense of steadily and quickly coming out of it. Those who praise children for being such, for being just kids, are doing them more harm than good. Indeed, elsewhere Hegel writes: “By representing children, in the immature state which they feel they are in, as in fact mature, by endeavoring to make them satisfied with the way they are, this method distorts and obscures the true need of the children themselves for something better…” A child’s true need is to become all that it is not, to undo itself entirely, to grow ever so swiftly out of a very messy and trying situation. The body of a child is its obstacle, its enemy. And It is here that we find one of the main wrongs that reside in the sexual desire for boys or girls. It is a desire for something that is in essence the enemy of the child; a desire for what imprisons, frustrates, and blocks them. The very nature of a pedophile’s desire is to arrest a child’s development. This is the dark root of Lolita—to arrest a body of time in a prison of language. This is why the damage of such a desire is often the extension (often into adulthood) of the prison sentence that is a boy’s or girl’s childhood.
Charles,
A child’s true need is to be loved and have some kind of stability in their lives!
Childhood sucks sometimes because parents can be real assholes!
Who cares what Hegel’s philosophy of childhood is?
Children do not need some idealistic philosophical discussion on childhood. They need to have a childhood where they can use their imagination, be carefree and make mud pies!
If the guy entertains you great but he seems like a true idiot when it comes to kids!
I guarantee you no child cares. The guy is a scary looking ugly old dude.
Where is Hegel’s empirical evidence? Don’t judge and raise your children based on stuff some dude made up, even if said dude looks rather learned. Read a fucking psychology book. Fuck, read a parenting guide. And read something written by a person you wouldn’t be frightened to leave your daughter alone with.
Charles, please look up the definition of “pederast” before using it.
Do you even know what you are talking about? What is your experience with pederasty?
You really are insufferable…..
sorry, it was just a mistake. i know my greeks. i know my pederasts.
The Philosophy of Right is scary, very Hobbesian. Particularly where Hegel basically says that the state is logically driven toward expansion through colonialism in order to put its “rabble of paupers” to proper use by subjugating “backward” people abroad.
@4— “i know my greeks.i know my pederasts.”
Gah! More vagueness. Care to elaborate, or are we supposed to guess what your special knowledge of pederasty might be, and how you obtained it?
And it’s good you changed your entry to reflect a more accurate term for your discussion(pedophile), but you really ought to say you did so. The comments make no sense if you forget to do such basic blog editting.