ABSTRACT
While the question of the role of unactualized possibility has been a significant theme in modal theories as diverse as those of Aristotle, Leibniz, and analytic modal logic, a specific version of the concept of unactualized possibility has preoccupied contemporary continental philosophers: the possibility not to be. This chapter focuses on Hegel’s analysis of the possibility not to be in the “Actuality” chapter of the Science of Logic and argues that Hegel’s modal theory is a precursor for continental modal theories such as Heidegger’s and Agamben’s. I argue that the possibility not to be plays a major role in Hegel’s modal theory and that emphasizing this motif in his work complicates the prevalent interpretation that Hegel is a philosopher principally concerned with actuality-primacy.
