Louis Althusser (1947), Jacques Martin (1947), and Michel Foucault (1949) wrote their masters’ theses on Hegel. Gilles Deleuze (1968) wrote his doctoral thesis against Hegel. And a few years later, Jacques Derrida deconstructed Hegel in his book Glas (1974).
In each case, their early interest in Hegel would shape their mature writings and politics. For instance, in his master’s thesis, La constitution d’un transcendantal historique dans la Phénoménologie de l’esprit de Hegel, Foucault explored the relationship between the transcendental conditions of experience and the Hegelian dialectic and theory of history. This tied directly to Foucault’s emerging theory of experience, which was his effort at developing a materialist philosophy—and would guide all of his later work.
In this segment, then, we return to the early writings of Althusser, Martin, Foucault, Deleuze, and Derrida, to explore their early interest in Hegel and how it shaped their later thought and politics.
Core Readings
Louis Althusser, “On Content in the Thought of G. W. F. Hegel,” in The Spectre of Hegel: Early Writings, trans. G. M. Goshgarian, ed. François Matheron (New York: Verso, 2014 [1947]) (master’s thesis), https://www.versobooks.com/products/1576-the-spectre-of-hegel.
Jacques Martin, L’individu chez Hegel, ed. Jean-Baptiste Vuillerod (Paris: ENS Éditions, 2020 [1947]) (master’s thesis).
Michel Foucault, La constitution d’un transcendantal historique dans la Phénoménologie de l’esprit de Hegel. Mémoire du diplôme d’études supérieures de philosophie (Paris, Vrin: 2024 [1949]) (master’s thesis).
Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition, trans. Paul Patton (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994 [1968]) (principal thesis for the Doctorat D’État).
Jacques Derrida, Glas, trans. John P. Leavey, Jr. and Richard Rand (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1986 [1974]).
Bruno Bosteels, “Difference,” in Finitude (work-in-progress).
Additional Readings
Bernard E. Harcourt, “A Preface to Experience,” foreword to Michel Foucault, Binswanger and Existential Analysis, trans. Marie McDonough (New York: Columbia University Press, 2025).
Pierre Macherey, “Did Foucault Find a ‘Way Out’ of Hegel?,” Theory, Culture & Society, 40(1-2), 19-36 (2022), available at https://doi.org/10.1177/02632764221084903.
Oliver Roberts-Garratt, “Foucault’s Hegel Thesis: The ‘Tragic Destiny’ of Life and the ‘Being-There’ of Consciousness,” Foucault Studies, no. 36 (September 2024): 443-469, available at https://doi.org/10.22439/fs.i36.7227.
Jean-Baptiste Vuillerod, La Naissance de l’anti-hégélianisme. Louis Althusser et Michel Foucault, lecteurs de Hegel(Paris: ENS Éditions, 2022).