Public Lecture “Hegel’s War: Contradiction at the Heart of the Modern State”

Join us on 16 December for a public lecture by Bartosz Wójcik, INDEX’s December Scholar in Residence, titled “Hegel’s War: Contradiction at the Heart of the Modern State,” hosted by Lviv Ivan Franko National University.

The lecture examines Hegel’s view of war as a moment that interrupts private interest and brings to light the underlying tensions of the modern state. For Hegel, war neither deserves praise nor fits into visions of “perpetual peace.” It reveals both the collective dimension of political life and the unresolved fractures of civil society, such as poverty and the emergence of the “rabble.” This perspective remains relevant today, offering a lens through which to understand how contemporary conflicts expose the structural vulnerabilities of modern political orders.

Bartosz Wójcik is a philosopher and intellectual historian, an assistant professor at the Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences. His work focuses on Hegel’s philosophy and its reception in contemporary thought, as well as Marxism, critical theory and the history of communism. He is the author of Wojna i motłoch. Sprzeczności nowoczesne w filozofii Hegla (War and the Rabble: Modern Contradictions in Hegel’s Philosophy, 2022) and editor-in-chief of the academic journal Praktyka Teoretyczna (Theoretical Practice).

Learn more about Bartosz Wójcik’s project during his residency at INDEX via the link.

— 16 December, 15:00

— Lviv Ivan Franko National University, 1 Universytetska St., Room 301

— Language: English (interpretation not provided)

Attendance is free, but registration is required. Please register via the link.