Abstract

As Professor Rotenstreich indicates "the purpose of the present analysis is to work out in detail Hegel’s attempted reconciliation of substance and subject." Using the major texts of Hegel, Rotenstreich reveals that the subject precedes the various stages of the dialectic rather than coming at the end of the process. Brought into the analysis is the notion of time which is Hegel’s "stumbling block" in reconciling thought and concept with actuality. In addition, the element of history in the philosophy of Hegel is revealed as a shift to speculation embracing religions but the concept of God which in Rotenstreich’s estimation "Hegel willy-nilly imposes a conceptual limit." But Hegel could have gone beyond the ultimate synthesis to render God hyperspeculatively. Underlying the study is an analysis of totality which when interpreted by Kant, Spinoza, Marx and Hegel there are great differences and what seems to emerge is a lack of concept of totality when analyzed in the technological world where the individual and the world are separated in that both are independent and appear to be abstractions. This is an excellent analysis of Hegel and other major thinkers.—G.D.D.