Abstract

An argument contending that Hegel is not the last and greatest exponent of an outdated onto-theologism, but rather the philosopher of modernity, a thinker who anticipates, diagnoses and replies to the spiritual and social crises of the 19th and 20th centuries, would have two parts. The first would hold that the issue of modern theoretical-philosophical crisis and malaise - an issue raised by many and most recently by Richard Rorty in Philosophy And The Mirror of Nature - is both anticipated and replied to by the Phenomenology and the conception of a systematic philosophy which it introduces and makes possible. Such an argument would work to show how Hegel articulates a systematic philosophy not founded on epistemology or metaphysics. The second part of the argument would hold that the issue of modern ethical and socio-political crisis and malaise - an issue raised by many and most recently by Alasdair MacIntyre in After Virtue - is both anticipated and replied to by the Philosophy of Right with its sweeping conception of morality, ethics, society and the state. Such an argument would work to show how Hegel articulates those social and political structures in and through which individuals can realize their humanness in a way which is not destructive, not disruptively arbitrary and alienating but communal and harmonious.