The Becoming of Consciousness

Paul R. Matthews

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Chapter 3 The Becoming of Consciousness

In: Animal Spirit(s): Hegel, Habit, and the Reanimalization of Religion

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Paul R. Matthews

Paul R. Matthews
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 88–122

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004756267-004

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Abstract

Turning to the “Anthropology” and the Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, this chapter explores the role of habit in the transition from the feeling soul to consciousness. Habit, while initially appearing to purify the soul of its immediacy, ultimately points beyond itself. The becoming of spirit hinges on the subject’s encounter with the infinite—an encounter that manifests most fully in the human capacity to endure death as the negative image of infinity. Unlike the animal, which flees from death, the human being internalizes it, remembers it, and thereby becomes (a) subject. The chapter situates this account within Hegel’s broader philosophy of spirit, in which death becomes the moment of spiritual transformation.

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Animal Spirit(s): Hegel, Habit, and the Reanimalization of Religion

Series: New Research in the History of Western Philosophy, Volume: 17

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004756267

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 22 Apr 2026

Subjects
- Philosophy
  - German Idealism
  - Epistemology & Metaphysics

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Chapter 3 The Becoming of Consciousness

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Animal Spirit(s): Hegel, Habit, and the Reanimalization of Religion

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