Debating the Political Philosophy of Hegel

Walter Kaufmann

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• eBook ISBN: 9781351523417
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Modern Philosophy

Few philosophers have had as much influence as Hegel. When he died in 1831, he not only dominated German philosophy, but also left his mark on the study of religion and art, on historical studies, and on political thought. Much later, Lenin insisted that no one could completely comprehend Karl Marx unless he had first made a thorough study of Hegel. Later, it became fashionable to link Hegel with Nazism and communism. There is today broad agreement that knowledge of Hegel's thought adds a critical dimension to our understanding of recent cultural and political history.

This volume, first published in 1970, focuses on Hegel's political philosophy. It brings together ten essays by six authors who present sharply conflicting interpretations. Here are point-by-point discussions, from differing perspectives, on Hegel's philosophy of the state and his ideas about history and war, nationalism and liberty. Never before have these issues been joined in comparable fashion in a single volume.

Sidney Hook sees Hegel as "the very model of a small - minded, timid Continental conservative" and accuses him of "the most specious reasoning that ever disgraced a philosopher," and E. F. Carritt argues for a "totalitarian" reading of Hegel, while T. M. Knox and Shlomo Avineri defend Hegel against these and other charges. The book also contains a short contribution by Z. A. Pelczynski and Walter Kaufmann's "The Hegel Myth and Its Method." Walter Kaufmann, an outstanding historian of European ideas in philosophy, furnished an introduction as well as footnotes that help to clarify perplexing issues and in some cases seek to put an end to long-lived errors. His analysis is itself a major contribution to Hegel's political theories.

Index

Absolute government, 4-5, 36

Absolutist government, 73, 91, 99; see also Despotism, Totalitarianism

Alexander the Great, 164-165

Alexander, Samuel, 143

Altenstein, Karl Sigmund Franz, Freiherr vom Stein zum, 91-92, 94

Anarchy, 22, 45, 85, 155

Anglo-American philosophy, 2, 55, 138

Ariosto, 166

Aristotle, 24, 65, 139, 151, 170

Art, 1, 155-156

Aryan concept, 111-112

Augustine, St., 156

Austria, 74, 115

Avineri, Shlomo, 5-8, 71-79, 87, 91-95, 100-103, 109-136

Babylonia, 160

Barth, Karl, 138

Basch, Victor, 13

Bastille, 66-67, 84

Baumler, Alfred, 149

Bentham, Jeremy, 65, 97

Bergson, Henri, 143

Berlin, 14, 20, 78, 84, 91, 100-101, 122-123, 166

Birch Society, 67, 92

Bismarck, Otto von, 61, 64, 71, 76-78, 102-103, 113

Bochenski, Innocentius M., 95

Bosanquet, Bernard, 13, 31, 41-42, 138

Bowie, J., 134

Bradley, F. H., 41, 55, 138-139

Bredvold, Louis I., 105n

Brie, S., 135n

Buber, Martin, 141

Buddha, 161

Burke, Edmund, 38, 88, 98, 105n, 135n

Caesar, 39, 52, 97, 162, 164

Calvin, John, 150

Camoens, 166

Carlsbad Decrees, 14, 15, 28n, 91, 95

Carove, Friedrich Wilhelm, 20

Carritt, E. F., 4-5...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgment
• Introduction
• I The First Debate
• II The Second Debate
• III Two Solos
• For Further Reading
• Index