Ragione e appropriazione. Genesi e statuto della categoria nella "Fenomenologia dello spirito" di Hegel

The paper focuses on the concept of “category” in the Phenomenology of Spirit (chapter V). The category, alongside with a reference to the Kantian transcendentalism, has nonetheless a philosophical genesis in the shape of the Unhappy Consciousness (chapter IV). In opposition to the Reason’s certainty, which considers the isomorphism between subject and object to be grounded on a supposed a priori titulus possessionis, the constitution of the Hegelian category presupposes the recognition of the otherness. This means therefore that Hegel views the category as an historic result. The category is then qua talis indeducible, as shown by the key function of language of the mediator towards the Unhappy Consciousness. After analysing any of the paragraphs concerning the role of language in the Encyclopedia, the paper focuses on the Hegelian theory of property (Elements of the Philosophy of Right) in order to highlight the risk and the contradictions imbedded by every effort of self-foundation which intends to exclude the irreducible plus provided by the historic element.