The owl of Minerva from dusk till dawn, or, two shades of gray

In: Filozofija i društvo, Volume 26, Issue 4, p. 875-890

Abstract

The paper takes as its starting point the figure of the owl as the emblem of
philosophy, it looks at its history and takes up its most significant
philosophical use, the notorious passage where Hegel uses the owl as the
indication of philosophy?s necessary belatedness. This is the passage which
is usually taken as the point of indictment of Hegel?s position and the role
he ascribed to philosophy. Hegel?s adage ?What is rational is actual, and
what is actual is rational? is scrutinized in its various aspects,
particularly in view of its other version, ?what is rational must happen?.
The tension between the ?is? and the ?ought? is perhaps the clue to
understanding this adage, where Hegel doesn?t opt for the one or the other,
but aims at the paradoxical intersection of the two. Hegel?s adage is put in
contrast with Marx?s Thesis Eleven. The paper considers the concepts of the
rational, the actual, the belatedness/retroaction, the grayness and finally
the owl (and the part that bestiary plays in philosophy), thus trying to
circumscribe the task that should be assigned to philosophy.