To introduce the topic of this chapter, I would like to begin with a reflection extracted from § 463 of Hegel’s Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences. In this section, Hegel (2000, p. 763) addresses the subject of mechanical memory and assumes as a given the fact that “a composition is, as we know, not thoroughly conned by rote, until one attaches no meaning to the words. The recitation of what has been thus got by heart therefore becomes accentless by itself. The correct accent, if it is brought in, suggests the meaning; but this meaning, the idea which is evoked, disturbs the mechanical nexus and therefore easily throws out the recitation. The faculty of conning by rote series of words in whose connection there is no understanding, or which are meaningless in themselves (for example, a series of proper names), is so supremely marvelous, because it is the very essence of the mind [Geist] to be with itself [bei sich selbst zu sein]; whereas, in this case, the mind is estranged within itself [in ihm selbst entäußert], and its action is like machinery”.