Category: Philosophy
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Hegel’s Transcendental Induction
The book challenges the orthodox account of Hegelian phenomenology as a hyper-rationalism, arguing that Hegel’s insistence on the primacy of experience in the development of scientific knowledge amounts to a kind of empiricism, or inductive epistemology. While the inductive element does not exclude an emphasis on deductive demonstration as well, Hegel’s phenomenological description of knowledge […]
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Mapping Ideology
Not so long ago, the term “ideology” was in considerable disrepute. Its use had become associated with a claim to know a truth beyond ideology, a radically unfashionable position. What then explains the sudden revival of interest in grappling with the questions that ‘ideology’ poses to social and cultural theory, as well as to political […]
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State in Time
Become a citizen of the first global state of the universe! The NSK State in Time emerged in 1992, evolving in the context of the dissolution of Yugoslavia and the transformation Neue Slowenische Kunst. Existing both as an artwork and a social formation, a state that encompasses all time but holding no territory, the NSK […]
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The Century
The 20th century has been judged and condemned as the century of totalitarian terror, of utopian and dangerous ideologies, of empty illusions and mass genocides. In this major book Badiou undertakes to re-examine this century through an immanent investigation of the century itself in its unfolding. DOWNLOAD: (.pdf)
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Manifesto for Philosophy
Manifesto for Philosophy evokes many possible directions that may be signaling one of the most important transitions in modern thought, with great implications and a rich source of inspiration. It begins by questioning if philosophy is dead. Contra those proclaiming the end of philosophy, Badiou aims to restore philosophical thought. The Death of Philosophy is […]
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‘The Parallax View’ by Slavoj Žižek
The Parallax View is one of Slavoj Žižek’s most substantial theoretical works; at the time of publishing Žižek himself described it as his magnum opus. Parallax can be defined as the apparent displacement of an object, caused by a change in observational position. Žižek is interested in the “parallax gap” separating two points between which no […]
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‘Tarrying with the Negative: Kant, Hegel, and the Critique of Ideology’ by Slavoj Žižek
In Tarrying with the Negative, Žižek challenges the contemporary critique of ideology, and in doing so opens the way for a new understanding of social conflict, particularly the recent outbursts of nationalism and ethnic struggle. Are we, Žižek asks, confined to a postmodern universe in which truth is reduced to the contingent effect of various […]
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Grundrisse: Foundations of the Critique of Political Economy
Written during the winter of 1857-8, the Grundrisse was considered by Marx to be the first scientific elaboration of communist theory. A collection of seven notebooks on capital and money, it both develops the arguments outlined in the Communist Manifesto (1848) and explores the themes and theses that were to dominate his great later work Capital. Here, for the […]
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A “Cancel Culture” Parallax by Slavoj Žižek | Compact Magazine | January 23, 2023
Parallax refers to the apparent displacement of an object, the shift of its position against a background, caused by a change of the point from which we observe it. The philosophical twist to be added is that the observed difference isn’t simply “subjective,” due to the fact that the same object that exists “out there” […]
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The Birth of Theory
Modern theory needs a history lesson. Neither Marx nor Nietzsche first gave us theory―Hegel did. To support this contention, Andrew Cole’s The Birth of Theory presents a refreshingly clear and lively account of the origins and legacy of Hegel’s dialectic as theory. Cole explains how Hegel boldly broke from modern philosophy when he adopted medieval dialectical habits […]
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‘The Phenomenology of Spirit’ by G. W. F. Hegel | Peter Fuss & John Dobbins Translation
The Phenomenology of Spirit, first published in 1807, is G. W. F. Hegel’s remarkable philosophical text that examines the dynamics of human experience from its simplest beginnings in consciousness through its development into ever more complex and self-conscious forms. The work explores the inner discovery of reason and its progressive expansion into spirit, a world […]
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Society of Friends of the Hegelian Dialectic
I’ve created a new online group aimed to those with an interest in the study of Hegel and related literature in dialectics. Everyone is encouraged to join and to invite any friends you might find interested in this area of study. This group is meant as a project for the long-term, as a place to […]
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Surplus-Enjoyment: A Guide For The Non-Perplexed
Contemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek’s guide to surplus (and why it’s enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very […]
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Hegel after Derrida
Hegel occupies a unique position within the development of Derrida’s thought, for Hegel is both the antithesis of deconstruction and its very point of departure. Derida has stressed from his earliest work to his book-length study of Hegel, Glas, that we must come to terms with Hegel’s work. For one of the fundamental tasks of […]
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Philosophy by Other Means: The Arts in Philosophy and Philosophy in the Arts
Throughout his career, Robert B. Pippin has examined the relationship between philosophy and the arts. With his writings on film, literature, and visual modernism, he has shown that there are aesthetic objects that cannot be properly understood unless we acknowledge and reflect on the philosophical concerns that are integral to their meaning. Philosophy by Other […]
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Translating Hegel: The Phenomenology of Spirit and Modern Philosophy
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit stands at the crossroads of modern philosophy. Taking us from the lowest and simplest level of sense-certainty through ever more complex forms of knowing and acting, Hegel’s monumental work eventually aspires to nothing less than a blueprint for absolute knowledge: a unity of subject and object, finite and infinite, man and […]
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Hegel’s Practical Philosophy: Rational Agency as Ethical Life
This fresh and original book argues that the central questions in Hegel’s practical philosophy are the central questions in modern accounts of freedom: What is freedom, or what would it be to act freely? Is it possible so to act? And how important is leading a free life? Robert Pippin argues that the core of […]
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G.W.F. Hegel: The Jena System, 1804-5: Logic and Metaphysics
As he worked on the Jena system, Hegel’s understanding of the nature of logic and its connection with metaphysics underwent changes crucial to his later system. As a result, logic acquired a new and expanded significance for him. This text is thus the key to an understanding of the works of Hegel’s maturity, and to […]
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Marx’s Grundrisse and Hegel’s Logic
This book argues that Marx’s critique of political economy, and his critique of Hegel, are double interrelated. Not only did Marx adapt Hegelian logic in order to analyse the economic categories crucial to modern society but it is argued that those logical categories were themselves seen as reflections of the productive processes of contemporary commercial […]
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Metaphysics to Metafictions: Hegel, Nietzsche, and the End of Philosophy
Through close reading and interpretive reflections, Paul Miklowitz examines key dialectics in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit in order to come to terms with the undoing of the Hegelian system of totality inaugurated by Nietzsche. In his interpretation of the Phenomenology, Miklowitz shows how Hegel skillfully manipulates narrative structures, even while disavowing them. Tracing the self-undermining […]
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Capital as Organic Unity: The Role of Hegel’s Science of Logic in Marx’s Grundrisse
This is a work of historical critical exegesis. It aims to establish the influence of the Science of Logic of G.W.F. Hegel on the Grundrisse of Karl Marx. It is the first work in the history of Marx Studies to demonstrate that the Hegelian logic guided Marx’s doctrinal development, and that the ordering of the […]
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‘Studies in Hegelian Cosmology’ by McTaggart
John McTaggart (1866–1925) was a Cambridge philosopher, famous for his metaphysical theory that time is not real and that temporal order is an illusion. Although best known for his contributions to the philosophy of time, McTaggart also spent a large part of his career expounding Hegel’s work. In this book, first published in 1901, he […]
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‘Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic’ by McTaggart
What is the nature of dialectic according to Hegel? And what is achieved by its means? These are the main questions that John McTaggart (1866–1925) seeks to answer in this work, first published in 1896. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Cambridge-educated philosopher and fellow of Trinity College enjoyed a prominent position within […]
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‘A Commentary on Hegel’s Logic’ by McTaggart
A Commentary on Hegel’s Logic (1910) consists of a critical commentary on the logical connections between various categories by which experience must be organized and the various transitions that lead one from Hegel’s category of Being to the category of Absolute Idea. John McTaggart Ellis McTaggart (3 September 1866 – 18 January 1925) was an […]
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Tragedy in Hegel’s Early Theological Writings
Tragedy plays a central role in Hegel’s early writings on theology and politics. Hegel’s overarching aim in these texts is to determine the kind of mythology that would best complement religious and political freedom in modernity. Peter Wake claims that, for Hegel at this early stage, ancient Greek tragedy provided the model for such a […]
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Hegel’s Philosophy of Freedom
Human freedom is the central theme of modern political philosophy, and G. W. F. Hegel offers perhaps the most profound and systematic modern attempt to understand the state as the realization of human freedom. In this comprehensive examination of Hegel’s philosophy of freedom, Paul Franco traces the development of Hegel’s ideas of freedom, situates them […]
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‘Hegel’s Ladder: A Commentary on Phenomenology of Spirit’ by H. S. Harris | Two Volume Set
Awarded the Nicholas Hoare/Renaud-Bray Canadian Philosophical Association Book Prize in 2001. This commentary by Henry Silton Harris is a landmark study on Georg W. F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit from 1807, a work of philosophy which is by itself often regarded as the most difficult and misunderstood book to ever have been written in the entire history […]
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Hegel’s Political Philosophy: The Test Case of Constitutional Monarchy
Originally published in 1991, this volume examines Hegel’s political philosophy from the perspective of his argument for constitutional monarchy. It offers an interpretation of Hegelian theory that is relevant for the understanding of modern republican constitutions. Modern republican theories are assessed together with those of Plato, Kant and Marx in order to put Hegel’s model […]
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Hegel’s Political Aesthetics: Art in Modern Society
What is the role of art in modern society? To what extent are the beautiful and the morally good intertwined? Hegel’s Political Aesthetics explores Hegel’s take on these ever-relevant philosophical questions and investigates three key themes: art’s contribution to modern ethical life, the loss of art’s authority in modern ethical life and ways of thinking […]
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Hegel: Faith and Knowledge
As the title indicates, Faith and Knowledge deals with the relation between religious faith and cognitive beliefs, between the truth of religion and the truths of philosophy and science. Hegel is guided by his understanding of the historical situation: the individual alienated from God, nature, and community; and he is influenced by the new philosophy […]
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Hegel’s Philosophy of Mind
G. W. F. Hegel is an immensely important yet difficult philosopher. Philosophy of Mind is the third part of Hegel’s Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical Sciences, in which he summarizes his philosophical system. It is one of the main pillars of his thought. Michael Inwood presents this central work to the modern reader in an intelligible and accurate […]
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From Marx to Hegel and Back: Capitalism, Critique, and Utopia
The relation between Hegel and Marx is among the most interpreted in the history of philosophy. Given the contemporary renaissance of Marx and Marxist theories, how should we re-read the Hegel-Marx connection today? What place does Hegel have in contemporary critical thinking? Most schools of Marxism regard Marx’s inversion of Hegel’s dialectics as a progressive […]
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Hegel’s ‘Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Volume I: Introduction and the Concept of Religion’
Hegel’s lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel’s […]
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Hegel’s ‘Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Volume III: The Consummate Religion’
Hegel’s lectures have had as great a historical impact as the works he himself published. Important elements of his system are elaborated only in the lectures, especially those given in Berlin during the last decade of his life. The original editors conflated materials from different sources and dates, obscuring the development and logic of Hegel’s […]
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The End of Literature, Hegel, and the Contemporary Novel
This book explores the concept of the end of literature through the lens of Hegel’s philosophy of art. In his version of Hegel’s ‘end of art’ thesis, Arthur Danto claimed that contemporary art has abandoned its distinctive sensitive and emotive features to become increasingly reflective. Contemporary art has become a question of philosophical reflection on […]
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Hegel’s Concept of Life: Self-Consciousness, Freedom, Logic
Karen Ng sheds new light on Hegel’s famously impenetrable philosophy. She does so by offering a new interpretation of Hegel’s idealism and by foregrounding Hegel’s Science of Logic, revealing that Hegel’s theory of reason revolves around the concept of organic life. Beginning with the influence of Kant’s Critique of Judgment on Hegel, Ng argues that Hegel’s key philosophical […]
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Hegel’s Phenomenology: A Philosophical Introduction
This book is complementary introduction to Hegel’s Phenomenology. It follows through Hegel’s thought chapter by chapter. While not a simple exegesis, this book is the commentary and recapturing of the book. It recaptures the nub of each chapter, not in simple briefing, but in the way to place Hegel against other philosophers like Descartes, Locke, […]
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Picturing Hegel: An Illustrated Guide to Hegel’s Encyclopaedia Logic
In her innovative take on G.W. F. Hegel’s The Encyclopaedia Logic, Julie E. Maybee uses pictures and diagrams to cut through the philosopher’s dense, difficult writing. Picturing Hegel: An Illustrated Guide to Hegel’s Encyclopaedia Logic utilizes diagrams in order to rehabilitate Hegel’s logic for serious consideration by showing how each stage develops step-by-step from earlier stages according to […]
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Apocalyptic Political Theology: Hegel, Taubes and Malabou
Hegel’s philosophy of religion contains an implicit political theology. When viewed in connection with his wider work on subjectivity, history and politics, this political theology is a resource for apocalyptic thinking. In a world of climate change, inequality, oppressive gender roles and racism, Hegel can be used to theorise the hope found in the end […]
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Hegel’s Theory of Normativity: The Systematic Foundations of the Philosophical Science of Right
Hegel’s Elements of the Philosophy of Right offers an innovative and important account of normativity, yet the theory set forth there rests on philosophical foundations that have remained largely obscure. In Hegel’s Theory of Normativity, Kevin Thompson proposes an interpretation of the foundations that underlie Hegel’s theory: its method of justification, its concept of freedom, and its account of […]
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‘Hegel’s Concept of Experience’ by Martin Heidegger
Martin Heidegger’s writings on Hegel are notoriously difficult but show an essential engagement between two of the foundational thinkers of phenomenology. Joseph Arel and Neils Feuerhahn provide a clear and careful translation of Volume 68 of the Complete Works, which is comprised of two shorter texts—a treatise on negativity, and a penetrating reading of Hegel’s […]
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Hegel’s Actuality Chapter of the Science of Logic: A Commentary
This book explores Hegel’s theory of modality (actuality, possibility, necessity, contingency) through extremely close textual analysis of the “Actuality” chapter of Hegel’s Science of Logic. The “Actuality” chapter is the equivalence of Aristotle’s momentous Metaphysics book 9. Because of this, Hegel’s chapter deserves the same thorough investigation into its complex insights and argumentation. This book […]
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Philosophy and Politics: A Commentary on the Preface to Hegel’s Philosophy of Right
There is a didactical as well as a philosophical importance to providing a commentary on the Preface to Hegel’s handbook on the Philosophy of Right. Considering the fact that the text brings us the thought of a great and difficult philosopher in a non-rigorous, “exoteric” way, it is well suited to the task of introducing […]
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Hegel in His Time
Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel is now recognized as one of the great philosophers; his concept of the dialectic profoundly influenced the course of Western thought, and—particularly through the lens of Marxist philosophy—continues to exert great influence even today. Yet Hegel himself has often been accused of being a philosopher of reaction: on the political sphere […]
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Contradiction in Motion: Hegel’s Organic Concept of Life and Value
“Everything is contradictory,” Hegel declares in Science of Logic. In this analysis of one of the most difficult and neglected topics in Hegelian studies, Songsuk Susan Hahn tackles the status of contradiction in Hegel’s thought. Properly philosophical thinking in the Hegelian mode recognizes that contradiction pervades all organic forms of life. Contradiction in Motion presents Hegel’s doctrine of […]
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‘On Hegel’s Philosophy of Right: The 1934-35 Seminar and Interpretive Essays’ by Martin Heidegger
This is the first English translation of the seminar Martin Heidegger gave during the Winter of 1934-35, which dealt with Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. This remarkable text is the only one in which Heidegger interprets Hegel’s masterpiece in the tradition of Continental political philosophy while offering a glimpse into Heidegger’s own political thought following his […]
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Hegel’s Interpretation of the Religions of the World. The Logic of the Gods
In his Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion, Hegel treats the religions of the world under the rubric “the determinate religion.” This is a part of his corpus that has traditionally been neglected since scholars have struggled to understand what philosophical work it is supposed to do. In Hegel’s Interpretation of the Religions of the World, Jon Stewart argues […]
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God and the Self in Hegel: Beyond Subjectivism
This book proposes a reconstruction of Hegel’s conception of God and analyzes the significance of this reading for Hegel’s idealistic metaphysics. Paolo Diego Bubbio argues that in Hegel’s view, subjectivism—the tenet that there is no underlying “true” reality that exists independently of the activity of the cognitive agent—can be avoided, and content can be restored to […]
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Hegel’s Trinitarian Claim: A Critical Reflection
Hegel’s philosophical interpretation of Trinity as a dialectically developing movement of Spirit is one of the most profound readings of Trinity in Western thought. In Hegel’s Trinitarian Claim, Dale M. Schlitt provides a careful, detailed presentation of this claim in Hegel’s major published works and in his lectures on the philosophy of religion, taking a critical […]
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Between Vision and Obedience. Rethinking Theological Epistemology: Theological Reflections on Rationality and Agency with Special Reference to Paul Ricoeur and G.W.F. Hegel
The present study seeks to respond theologically to current discussions about ideas of self from the perspective of God’s action in and towards the world. Its aim is to trace a view of rationality that follows the drama of God’s engagement with the world, thus involving dying and resurrection, ascesis and abundance, suffering witness and […]