Soul and the Absolute Negative
Dear Colleagues,
Soul is the central concern of PDI. A difficulty arises in the fact that soul as defined by Giegerich, and as conceived as psychology, is unique to his work. In any field or discipline, growth can be stunted in the absence of complementary views which spur development. This is pure Hegel: only through contradiction--or at a minimum, difference--can change occur. Of course, the difference has to be complementary. A new view of the Hegelian dialectic can only arise by engaging with an adequate understanding of that dialectic and responding to it accordingly. 20th Century philosophy has many such examples of such engagement: Derrida, Bataille, etc.
How could that occur within PDI? I believe the possibility exists through the concept of absolute negativity. Absolute negativity is the bridge concept to other disciplines. How? Giegerich clearly defines the soul as absolute negativity: "we arrive at the idea of a logically negative autonomous or objective soul" (Giegerich, What is Soul?). While Giegerich's notion of soul is unique to him--Jung never used the term absolute negativity--the concept of absolute negativity is not. Hegel, of course, defines self-consciousness in terms of absolute negativity.
"But this pure universal movement, the absolute melting-away of everything stable, is the simple, essential nature of self-consciousness, absolute negativity, pure being-for-self, which consequently is implicit in this consciousness." Phenomenology of Spirit, p. 117.
Starting with Hegel, there is a rich philosophical literature which engages with the concept of absolute negativity. I would suggest this literature could help enrich and develop our concept of soul.
Daniel Anderson