Drive

Hegel (Logic of the Concept, Idea of Life)

Drive (Trieb) is the inner, active movement of the living being, arising from need (the "being-for-itself" felt as a lack) and pressing toward its satisfaction (assimilation) (Ch. 19.2). It is the motor of the second life-process, self-preservation (Ch. 19.4.2). Drive is a contradiction: the living being is incomplete (lack) and actively strives toward completeness (satisfaction). Hegel calls it "natural teleology," since it is purposive (directed toward self-preservation) but not yet conscious. Cognition (Ch. 21) likewise springs from a drive (the drive to know), which sublates the immediacy of life (Ch. 19.8).

Origin

Latin appetitus, impetus (urge, impulse). Spinoza: conatus (striving for self-preservation). Schopenhauer: will as drive. Freud: drive theory. Hegel: drive as a moment of the idea of life and of cognition --- the self-movement of the concept.

In Hegel

Enz. §218 (Life), §427 (Spirit)

Cross-references

Need · Idea of Life · Self-Preservation · S³ Structure · Being-for-itself · End (Zweck)