Abstract

Nahum Brown has written a very ambitious book on Hegel's theory of modality. It provides detailed textual analyses of three chapters from the Science of Logic and places Hegel's theory in a highly original classificatory scheme. The volume is well researched and transparently argued. It ought to have considerable influence on how scholars interpret Hegel, as well as on how we construe the history of modal thinking in European traditions. The introduction presents a series of problems that Brown claims are historically widespread, chief among which is what he calls the "modal indeterminacy problem." There are some infelicities in his initial statements of this problem. Sympathetic readers nonetheless should be