Keywords
hypocrisy
irony
beautiful soul
consciousness
How to Cite
Abstract
This article explores Hegel’s critique of Romantic irony. For Hegel, ironic consciousness, while recognizing the objectivity of the norm, feels free from it, believing itself above all conditions. The article relates irony to ‘Conscience’ and to the concept of the ‘beautiful soul’ in his Phenomenology of Spirit. It compares Hegel’s and Friedrich Schlegel’s perspectives on the beautiful soul, noting similarities in their critique of vanity and hypocrisy. However, a fundamental difference stands out: the Hegelian conscience of action can confess its failings and seek reconciliation, while the Schlegelian perspective consists of a perseverance in the one-sidedness of opinion and an inability to recognize or forgive others. Schlegelian irony, according to Hegel, reduces reality to a subjective appearance, and the self isolates itself in an abstract “evil”.
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