The Sources of Subjectivity in Hegel’s “Anthropology” and His Interpretation of “Animal Magnetism”

Abstract

In the framework of his “Anthropology” Hegel deals with a series of topics that have been little studied by his commentators. Particular attention is drawn to his extensive reflections on “animal magnetism”. In them it can be recognized the attempt to account for a phenomenon that is apparently outside of the limits of reason, but at the same time, among other things, that for his conception of mental and bodily life intersubjectivity is not something that arises from the relation of individuals with others but that is constitutive for the formation of the same subjectivity. His concept of “genius” is designed to think about the relationship to the other within himself.