Abstract

Object of the inquiry is Hegel's notion of language as he presents it in the Psychology, within the Encyclopedia's philosophy of subjective spirit. There Hegel discusses language as a necessary moment of the cognitive process of intelligence, granting to language a key function for the development of knowledge. The investigation reconstructs the objectifying role of language with respect to the inward content of representation and its contribution to the sublation of a naïve realism and the development of thought. The inquiry also addresses the relationship between grammar and logic, outlining the limits that according to Hegel language still imposes to speculative thought. The study overall aims at showing how Hegel's handling of language in the philosophy of subjective spirit accounts for the core of his position, and it is thus very fruitful for the understanding also of some other aspects, to which the scholarly literature has devoted greater attention, such as the role played by language in the phenomenological process of consciousness or the relationship between logic and language.