Hegel and the Problem of the History of Philosophy

The Logical Structure of Exemplarity

Thomas Raysmith

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9781350423787
• Edition: 0
• Subtopic: Idealism in Philosophy

Drawing on the work of major philosophers in 18th and 19th-century German idealism, Thomas Raysmith critically examines G. W. F. Hegel's justification for the claim that philosophy has a history. While Kant regarded philosophy as ahistorical, Hegel considered it to be a discipline that is necessarily historical, and elaborated a 'logical structure' that was supposed to allow it to have a history. Calling this structure, which Hegel took to be the fundamental structure of thought itself, 'the structure of exemplarity', Raysmith presents it as a dynamic reciprocity between universality, particularity and singularity. He provides a historical reconstruction of the shifting conceptions of philosophy from Kant, through J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. Schelling, to Hegel, and offers a systematic analysis of Hegel's Science of Logic based on a close, critical reading. Offering a compelling and novel reading of Hegel's thought, Hegel and the Problem of the History of Philosophy is a groundbreaking work for students and scholars of German idealism and the history of philosophy more broadly.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle Page
• Dedication Page
• Title Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations and notes
• Introduction
• 1 Kant’s ahistorical system of principles
• 2 Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre
• 3 Schelling’s Identitätsphilosophie
• 4 Hegel’s Logic: From beginning to actuality
• 5 Hegel’s conception of the fundamental structure of everything: The Idea
• Conclusion
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
• Imprint