Hegel’s Theory of Self-Conscious Life and the Modern Aristotelianism

Hegelian philosophy, recently, has been dealing with the natu- ralistic aspects connected to Hegel’s notion of self-conscious life and has highlighted the tight correlation between the German philosopher and Aristotle when it comes to the definition of the human being, its form of life and its practical and historical dimension. This reading is embedded within a wider debate about contemporary Aristotelian philosophy and the way it accounts for some notions of practical philosophy especially life-form and self-knowledge. In this contribution I will deal with Hegel’s notions of life and self-consciousness, and the impact they have on our understanding of human practices and institutions. I will compare Hegel with authors like Anscombe and M. Thompson and highlight that the notion of life can be deployed to shed light onto the fundamental questions of practical thought and that it is crucial for an appropriate understanding of the practical sphere of the human beings.