Abstract

Given the current interest in Hegel in the English-speaking world and the prevailing philosophical concern with language which forms a large part of its intellectual background, a work dealing with the topic of language in Hegel’s thought seems especially useful and appropriate. Just as the recent turn to Hegel on the part of some philosophers might be partially explained by an impatience with the self-imposed limits of “ordinary language philosophy” on the one hand, and an awareness of the problems which have led to the disintegration of the “phenomenological movement” on the other, one might expect that Hegel’s reflections upon language would provide many with a fruitful basis for a renewed approach to those problems with which both of these traditions have been preoccupied. Professor Cook’s book is a solid step in this direction.