The Science of Logic, according to Brecht “one of the greatest humorous works in world literature,” is the dark heart of Hegel's system. While Hegel has been back in the intellectual debate for a while now with his philosophy of law and phenomenology, his logic remains an unread major work in the history of philosophy. Thus, this colossal work, which is difficult to penetrate, still awaits a new reading beyond the specialist world. Patrick Eiden-Offe has subjected himself to the exercise of studying logic for an hour every morning, consistently from beginning to end. He has had surprising and moving experiences with and in the book that are lost when simply appropriating it through secondary literature. In the process, he discovered a Hegel whose radical thinking pushes for a very unique, hermetic language that can at best be compared to that of Hölderlin; a Hegel who wants to “get to the bottom” of the matter itself and then can only record how it “goes to the bottom.” And a Hegel whose philosophy bears traces of an abysmal humor. Reading Logic becomes a self-experiment, as does writing about it. In the end, The Science of Logic itself appears as an essay that, as a book of consolation for the modern soul, is of unconditional relevance for our times.
Philosophy
Patrick Eiden-Offe, born 1971, is a literary and cultural scientist. In 2008 he received his doctorate at the University of Konstanz with a thesis on Reich fantasies in the poetic and political work of Hermann Broch. His areas of expertise are the intertwining of literature, economics and politics, Robert Walser, the relationship between literature and ethnology, and romanticism. Since 2017 he has been researching the theory formation of the young Georg Lukács at the Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL) in Berlin.
