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Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
The conference confronts a pressing question of our time: Can there be knowledge without comprehension—and what becomes of Hegel’s concept of Geist in an era defined by algorithmic operations, statistical inference, and synthetic cognition?
The point of departure is Hegel’s conception of Spirit as the self-developing totality of mediation, in which knowing is never simply the accumulation of information, but the unfolding of self-related comprehension. Yet today, we witness a proliferation of epistemic structures—artificial intelligences, language models, neural nets—that generate outputs irreducible to conscious understanding. These systems “know” in a sense that bypasses human reflection, operating through a logic that resists the very categories of intentionality and meaning on which Hegel’s dialectic relies.
What happens, then, to Spirit when cognition no longer entails comprehension? Does AI signal a new stage of reason—or the end of the very subject Hegel placed at the core of his system? Drawing on psychoanalysis (Lacan, the Ljubljana School) and post-Hegelian dialectics (Marx, Adorno, Deleuze, the Frankfurt School), the conference explores whether AI reveals an unthought dimension of Geist: the unconscious of the concept, the drive of negativity beyond reflection, the logic of the inhuman within Spirit itself.
At the same time, the event serves as an indirect homage to Slavoj Žižek—both as a thinker of Hegel’s speculative legacy and as a diagnostician of our paradoxical historical moment. In revisiting the question of Spirit under digital conditions, we aim to honor Žižek’s persistent engagement with the dialectical entanglements of consciousness, ideology, and technicity.
A Marxist perspective is explicitly welcome: AI not only transforms knowledge but intensifies class divisions and reconfigures labor, value, and subjectivity. Can HegelianGeist still name a site of resistance— or has it become the operating system of a post-political technocapitalism?
Invited speakers may interrogate the unconscious as a thinking machine, reflect on the limits of rational comprehension, explore the ontology of machinic intelligence, or speculate on a rehabilitation—or radical transformation—of Hegelian categories. Is AI a dialectical continuation of Geist, or its monstrous parody? And can the subject still be thought within systems that outpace its ability to comprehend?
Speakers:
Andrew Cutrofello, Dirk Quadflieg, Mladen Dolar, Frank Ruda, Adrian Johnston, Daniel Feige, Thomas Khurana, Michael Reder, Rahel Jaeggi, Luca Di Blasi, Slavoj Žižek, Christoph Menke, Russell Sbriglia, Alenka Zupančič, Dominik Finkelde.
With kind support from Fritz Thyssen Stiftung.
Information on participating / attending:
To register, please email hegelonai@gmail.com
As places are limited, early registration is recommended.
Date:
05/21/2026 13:30 - 05/23/2026 13:30
Event venue:
Hochschule für Philosophie München,
Aula
Kaulbachstr. 31/33
80539 München
Bayern
Germany
Target group:
Scientists and scholars, Students
Email address:
Relevance:
international
Subject areas:
Philosophy / ethics
Types of events:
Conference / symposium / (annual) conference
Entry:
04/22/2026
Sender/author:
Kathrin Czychi
Department:
Veranstaltungen
Event is free:
yes
Language of the text:
English
URL of this event: http://idw-online.de/en/event81453
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