Hegel's Concept of Desire in the Context of Deleuze's Critique of Idealist Desire

Abstract

Deleuze critiques the conceptualization of desire through lack and acquisition within idealist philosophy and claims that the idealist notion of desire reduces production to the production of fantasy. He proposes an alternative concept of desire, which can be understood through pure production. This critique allows for a re-evaluation of Hegel's concept of desire as an idealist philosopher. This paper examines Hegel's concept of desire in the Phenomenology of Spirit, by focusing on the concepts of destructiveness, production, and satisfaction. The paper argues that Deleuze's understanding of desire as production is indeed present within Hegel's concept of desire, but production cannot be regarded as the fundamental characteristic of desire as seen in Deleuze's framework. The article concludes that, based on Hegel's analysis, lack and destructiveness are necessary conditions for the productive activity in desire, and that Deleuze's critique of idealist desire underlying the relationship between lack and acquisition is not sufficiently convincing, regarding Hegel's analysis of desire.