THE PHILOSOPHER OF FREEDOM?

Exclusion as a need in the Hegelian system

Abstract

In this essay, I present a path of explanation and reflection on the structure of colonial oppression present in Hegel's Courses in the History of Philosophy, within his comments on the African continent. The aim is to show how the oppressive comments on Africa and its exclusion from history can lead us to another understanding of fundamental points of Hegelian philosophy. This is because they are not simply a failure of the author's dialectic, but a necessity if the dialectical system is to be coherent with the Hegelian project. The aim of this text is a double reflective task that allows us both to develop the thesis that the mode of oppression articulated by Hegel would be a strategy for defending his own philosophical system, and to critique the concepts of universality and humanity present therein. In addition, I try to articulate Frantz Fanon's thought as a possible counterpoint to the false universal present in Hegelian philosophy.