The first English-language collection devoted to Hegel’s Philosophy of Subjective Spirit.

_The first English-language collection devoted to Hegel’s_ Philosophy of Subjective Spirit.

From Kierkegaard’s famous polemic against Hegel’s system, and Marx’s rejection of the “mysticism” of reason, to Heidegger’s claim that Hegel completes the tradition of western metaphysics, and contemporary critics’ identification of Hegel as the authoritative spokesman — the “Master” — for the principles of unity and identity, a standard view has governed interpretations and evaluations of Hegel’s philosophy. Though familiarity with the positions just cited reveals considerable disparity, one does not need an especially discerning eye to recognize the common features (...) of the figures drawn. Hegel is, in all of them, the philosopher of the Absolute, the proponent of metaphysics without equal in the modern world. (shrink)

I contend that though Pippin argues persuasively that the most trenchant critics of modernity ? Nietzsche and Heidegger ? failed to break free of modernity, it remains unclear whether the unending character of modernity is thereby defended as an unfinished project, or rather is a fate to which we are condemned. The thesis of my paper is that the ambiguity is traceable to Pippin's Hegelian narrative of legitimation. On his view, the demands of modern self?consciousness inaugurated by Kant and radicalized (...) by Hegel prohibit every appeal to a given, even where the given is construed as contingent historical shifts, or perspectives, or Ereignisse. But this rejection of appeals to something outside the narrative of legitimation implies that even the significance of the narrative can only be an effect of the narrative itself. But if this is true, there is on Pippin's own terms no way of establishing the significance of a narrative about modernity and hence no reason for finding it compelling. Thus the very radicalization of the Kantian critique of dogmatism that Pippin claims is the hallmark of modernity renders unavailable the legitimation of modernity. (shrink)

To put modernity in its place. Such is the avowed goal of David Kolb’s important and impressive new book. Accordingly, it presents itself not merely as a contribution to the scholarly literature on Hegel and Heidegger, though it should be remarked at the outset that Kolb’s scholarship is sound and his acquaintance with the burgeoning literatures, not only in English and German, but in French and Italian as well, commendable and put to good use. Rather, Kolb’s conviction that Hegel and (...) Heidegger are united in their “refusal to take as final the categories of modernity’s self-description” leads him to adopt the two thinkers as “guides” to an alternative understanding of the nature, place, and limits of modernity and the modern self understanding. (shrink)