Obliquity in Question: Method, Transformation, and Metaphilosophical Implications

Abstract

One word in the title of Angelica Nuzzo’s book Approaching Hegel’s Logic, Obliquely: Melville, Molière, Beckett stands out: the adverb ‘obliquely’. This word raises expectations concerning the path that will be taken. It refers to a method of philosophical inquiry that is simultaneously a method of conceptual narrative for generating alternative possibilities.
It is precisely on the basis of the term ‘obliquely’ that I would like to discuss the intersection between two aspects of Angelica Nuzzo’s text. The first regards the methodology of the oblique approach and its metaphilosophical implications. The second concerns the topic of transformation and, more specifically, the author’s interpretation of Hegel’s logic as «a ‘logic of transformation’ or a ‘logic of transformative processes’».