The weak life of the nation: Spyridon Zambelios’ philosophical history and its Hegelian roots

Abstract

This paper examines the concept of life in the historiographical work of Spyridon Zambelios. Through a comparative reading with Hegel, it argues that the organicist philosophical background of Zambelios’ national narrative is double-edged: on the one hand, life is linked to infinity in ways that lead to a redefinition of Zambelios’ central notion of national ‘ὁλομέλεια’. On the other, Spirit's immersion in natural life creates complications, which, as in Hegel, place the ‘transition’ from one historical period to the next under the auspices of death, and, in the final analysis, yield a notion, not of infinite, but of a ‘weak’ life which undermines the national narrative from within.