FÁBIO PEREIRA BONAFINI

The project aims at clarifying the meaning conferred upon physiognomy in G. W. F. Hegel's philosophical system. In the Phenomenology of Spirit, the philosopher dedicates a ferocious critique to that doctrine, which was popular at his time and intends to learn an individual's character from the shaping of their body and, especially, of their facial features. Physiognomical ideas were central both to the development of the arts in the West and to theories of scientific racism. Nevertheless, in the final version of his system, Hegel positions physiognomy at two crucial points. Firstly, it constitutes the concluding moment of his Anthropology, in which Hegel provides the deduction of consciousness from nature. Moreover, it assumes a central role in his Aesthetics, especially in the exposition of the Greek statue, which Hegel considers the most perfect realization of the ideal. To understand this apparent parcial incorporation of physiognomy by Hegel, we will pursue its relations to the philosophy of nature, of the subjective spirit, of history and of art through an immanent reading of the author's works.