Hegelian Themes in the Barbie Movie and Their Philosophical Roots

The "Barbie" movie, surprisingly, offered a Hegelian reading of its subject, prompting reflection on the philosophical underpinnings of its script. This unexpected connection serves as an entry point into understanding Hegel's complex philosophy, which requires time and multiple perspectives to grasp fully. For those seeking a deeper dive, a comprehensive lecture course on "Phenomenology of Spirit" by Jay Bernstein at the New School is available online.

The Enduring Shadow of the French Revolution

The French Revolution of 1789 cast a long shadow over the 19th century, sparking debates about its ultimate value. For Hegel, much like for Marx, the revolution was unequivocally a good and necessary event. In Hegel's philosophy, "good" and "necessary" are often synonymous. The storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, symbolized the irreversible fall of the Ancien Régime. Hegel, born in 1770, was a highly impressionable 18 or 19-year-old at the time, an age that profoundly shaped his worldview.

The French Revolution illustrated the transformation of Enlightenment ideals into Romanticism through the Terror. The initial optimism of the Declaration of the Rights of Man, with its emphasis on freedom, equality, and popular sovereignty, ultimately devolved into an "orgy of bloodlust." Hegel sought to reconcile these opposing forces—Enlightenment and Romanticism, individual and society, reason and passion—by overcoming divisions and contradictions. His philosophy is driven by the ambition to synthesize these seemingly disparate elements.

The Seduction of Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit"

Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit," completed in 1807, is a notoriously difficult but profoundly influential work. It is not a book to be read casually; rather, it is an "experience" that one "lives through," as described by Alexander Herzen. The book's obscure language belies its peculiar seductive power.

Hegel, a Southern German born in 1770, was excited by the French Revolution and the works of Kant. He matured during the Napoleonic Wars (1805-1815), even reportedly seeing Napoleon as "world spirit on the horse," a figure embodying historical progress.

The Problem of the Bridge: Subject to Object

A central epistemological question that preoccupied Enlightenment thinkers was the "problem of the bridge": how does one move from the subjective experience within one's mind to an objective understanding of the external world? Philosophers have explored this through various dualities: mind and world, consciousness and being, imminent and transcendent, inner and outer, subject and object. Hegel aimed to elevate philosophy to a science and solve this problem, but he found Enlightenment's approach too skeptical and superficial. He sought a deeper understanding, one that would integrate history into philosophy itself.

Traditionally, philosophy focused on the timeless and universal, like the certainty of "two plus two equals four." History, with its empirical and contingent nature, was often seen as something to be purged from philosophical inquiry. Hegel, however, made history an integral, constitutive component of philosophy, arguing that the movement from subject to object occurs through historical progression.

Being vs. Becoming: The Restless Movement of History

Hegel's philosophy emphasizes "werden" (becoming) over "sein" (being). Unlike the static ideals of traditional philosophy, Hegel believed everything is in constant motion, always "on the way," always becoming. This restless, edgy movement is not a calm, steady flow but a series of bursts and slowdowns, akin to a runner's uneven pace.

A key concept in Hegel is the "transformation of quantity into quality." This refers to moments when gradual changes in scale become so significant that they result in a fundamental change in kind. The classic example is water boiling: increasing temperature gradually leads to a sudden transformation into steam at the boiling point. This metaphor applies to all of life for Hegel. He illustrates this with the birth of a baby: "Spirit is indeed never at rest but always engaged in moving forward. But just as the first breath drawn by a child after its long, quiet nourishment breaks the gradualness of mere quantitative growth, there is a qualitative leap and the child is born." This "sunburst" or "ein blitz" illuminates a new world.

Geist: The Spirit of the Whole

The concept of "geist" (spirit) is central to Hegel's philosophy. Often translated as "mind" or "spirit," it's best understood as a collective, animating force that encompasses the entire universe. "The Phenomenology of Spirit" can be seen as a "Bildungsroman" – a coming-of-age novel – of consciousness. Consciousness matures through stages, eventually developing into self-consciousness and then merging with "geist." This journey is about overcoming alienation, moving from darkness to light, and striving for a unified, all-encompassing system that explains everything.

Jay Bernstein's baseball analogy helps clarify "geist": think of "team spirit." Just as the meaning of hitting a baseball depends on the context of the game, the team, and its history, individual actions derive meaning from the context of the "whole." Hegel's phrase, "The I that is a we, and the we that is an I," encapsulates this idea of the individual and the collective being intertwined. "Geist" represents the power of the whole, where everything is relational and meaning arises from context.

The Owl of Minerva: Wisdom in Retrospect

Hegel famously stated, "The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk." Minerva, the goddess of wisdom, only takes flight at night, signifying that true understanding comes only in retrospect. Meaning is revealed by looking back at events, not by predicting the future. This stands in contrast to Kantian morality, which emphasizes intentions. Hegel argued that actions often have consequences far exceeding their intent, making retrospective analysis crucial for understanding their true meaning. The example of Neville Chamberlain at the Munich Conference in 1938, who sought "peace in our time" but inadvertently paved the way for World War II, illustrates this point. While Chamberlain's intentions may have been good, the historical outcome was disastrous.

Dialectics: The Engine of History

History progresses through "dialectics," a process driven by contradictions and antagonisms. When a position proves unstable and is met by a negating force, a "determinate negation" occurs, leading to a new position. This process involves the previous state being both negated and preserved, but elevated to a higher level.

Hegel's clearest example of dialectics is the growth of a fruit tree: a seed becomes a sprout, then a bud, a leaf, a flower, and finally fruit. Each stage "cancels" the previous one (the flower disappears when the fruit emerges) but also preserves it by taking it to a higher level, moving closer to its "telos" (its ultimate aim, the apple). This constant movement, both forward and cyclical, is characterized by "aufheben," a German word that defies precise English translation but implies lifting up, taking forward, negating while simultaneously preserving, and transcending.

The Master-Slave Dialectic: Recognition and Interdependence

The master-slave dialectic is one of the most influential parts of "Phenomenology of Spirit." It explores the relationship between the lord and the bondsman, revealing a dialectical inversion where the seemingly powerful master becomes dependent on the slave. The master needs the slave's recognition to affirm his identity, but by reducing the slave to an object, the master cannot receive satisfying recognition. Conversely, the slave, through labor and transforming the world, subjectifies himself, gaining a form of power.

Angela Davis, in her lectures on liberation, highlights this dynamic: "The master is always on the verge of becoming the slave. The slave possesses the real concrete power to make him always on the verge of becoming the master." The master's freedom is a myth, as his sustenance and wealth depend on the institution of slavery. This dialectic underscores that identity is not self-contained but always involves mediation and recognition through others. As Jay Bernstein notes, we are not who we are alone; our dependencies, though sometimes unbearable, are fundamental to our existence. The "Barbie" movie's portrayal of Ken's struggle for identity without Barbie's gaze offers a contemporary parallel to this Hegelian concept.

The Seduction of the Whole

Hegel's philosophy collapses the distinction between facts and values, suggesting an amorality where everything happens as it must. The "seduction of the whole" is a key aspect of his appeal, encapsulated by the slogan "The true is the whole." Everything is interrelated and mutually dependent, and this totality can only be understood in retrospect. This "Hegelian bite," as Czeslaw Milosz called it, offers a powerful, albeit potentially dangerous, vision of unity and interconnectedness. Hannah Arendt described Hegel's philosophy as the last attempt to reconcile subject and object, thought and being, questioning whether it was a residence for reality or a prison. Isaiah Berlin famously warned of the intoxicating effect of Hegel's ideas, particularly on Russian intellectuals, describing his system as a "very dark wood" from which few return to tell what they have seen.