From Introduction to the Reading of Hegel ed. Allan Bloom Trans. James H. Nichols Jr. New York: Basic Books. 1969. Based on his lectures given in 1933-1939. Published in French under the title Introduction à la Lecture de Hegel 1947.
🙂 In contemplation man is lost in the object, with her head in the clouds, and can only be brought back by Desire: from a state of passive quietude, Desire dis-quiets him and moves him to action. Born of Desire, action tends to satisfy it, and can do so only by the “negation,” the destruction, or at least the transformation, of the desired object ..” 4
As Desire humans are transformed from animals into an “I” “radically opposed to, the non-I. The (human) I is the I of a Desire or of Desire. 4
For a man to be truly human, for him to be essentially and really different from an animal, his human Desire must actually win out over his animal Desire. … All the Desires of an animal are in the final analysis a function of its desire to preserve its life. Human Desire, therefore, must win out over this desire for preservation. In other words, man’s humanity “comes to light” only if he risks his (animal) life for the sake of his human Desire. It is in and by this risk that the human reality is created and revealed as reality; it is in and by this risk that it “comes to light,” i.e., is shown, demonstrated, verified, and gives proofs of being essentially different from the animal, natural reality. And that is why to speak of the “origin” of Self-Consciousness is necessarily to speak of the risk of life (for an essentially nonvital end). 7
In Lacanese, animal desire is merely ‘demand’ and humans differ by seeking, Kojève adds “to desire the Desire of another … I want him to “recognize” my value as his value. I want him to “recognize” me as an autonomous value.
In other words … the Desire that generates Self-Consciousness, the human reality — is, finally, a function of the desire for “recognition.” … to speak of the “origin” of Self-Consciousness is necessarily to speak of a fight to the death for “recognition.” 7
Therefore the human being can be formed only if at least two of these Desires confront one another. Each of the two beings endowed with such a Desire is ready to go all the way in pursuit of its satisfaction; that is, is ready to risk its life —and, consequently, to put the life of the other in danger— in order to be “recognized” by the other, … accordingly, their meeting can only be a fight to the death. And it is only in and by such a fight that the human reality is begotten, formed, realized, and revealed to itself and to others. 7-8