Synopses & Reviews
Relating Hegel to Contemporary Philosophy offers a careful analysis and interpretation of various key concepts in Hegel's philosophy. It is shown that concepts such as object, the infinite, necessity, rationality, and the absolute, serve as pillars on which to construct a radically non-metaphysical, unstable, impermanent and open system. In doing so it is argued that Hegel should not be perceived as one of the last metaphysicians but rather potentially as one of the first 'post'-modern philosophers. The concepts selected for analysis will also allow the views of Hegel to be brought to bear on various contemporary debates of issues including realism/anti-realism, singularity, and inferentialism. His theories are placed vis-à-vis those of various contemporary philosophers, such as Quine, Davidson, Levinas, McDowell and Brandom, revealing his relevance to current philosophy and confirming the renaissance in Hegelian studies occurring in the last 20 years.
Synopsis
This book offers an interpretation of certain Hegelian concepts, and their relevance to various themes in contemporary philosophy, which will allow for a non-metaphysical understanding of his thought, further strengthening his relevance to philosophy today by placing him in the midst of current debates.
About the Author
Luis Guzman is Part-Time Associate Teaching Professor at the New School. He earned his Ph.D at The New School for Social Research and has taught philosophy at Hofstra U., NYU, LIU, and U. Nacional de Colombia (Bogota). Guzman has authored and translated (from Spanish and German) articles on Aristotle, Plato, Hegel, Schelling, Benjamin and skepticism.
Table of Contents
I. The In-Itself-For-Consciousness: The Third Dogma
Introduction
Detour via Davidson
Introduction to the Introduction
1.Epistemological Paradoxes
2.Starting Point and Drive of the Phenomenology
3.Natural Consciousness and the Question of Truth
The Problem of the Criterion or Measure
1.Criticisms Raised Against Hegel
2.The Nature of Consciousness
3.The Instability of the Object: Paragraph 85
4.The Negativity of Experience: Paragraph 86
II. The True Infinite and the Idea of the Good: Internal Excess
Introduction
Detour via Levinas/Derrida
Introduction to the Issue of the Infinite
1.Being
2.Dasein
3.Something
4.Determination, Determinateness, and Constitution
5.Determination as Vocation
Finitude 1.Limitation and the Ought
The Spurious and the True Infinite
III. Necessity is Contingency: The Analytic/Synthetic Distinction
Introduction
Detour via Quine
Location of the Chapter on Actuality within the Science of Logic
The Concept of Actuality
The Movement of the Concept
1.Contingency, or Formal Actuality, Possibility, and Necessity
2.Relative Necessity, or Real Actuality, Possibility, and Necessity
3.Absolute Necessity
IV. Everything Rational is a Syllogism: Inferentialism
Introduction
Detour via Brandom
Placement of the Section on the Syllogism within the Science of Logic
1. The Concept
i.Parallel Between the Concept and Kant's 'I think'
ii.Infinite Objects
iii.Correctness and Truth
2. The Judgment
The Syllogism
1.The Syllogism of Existence
2.The Syllogism of Reflection
3.The Syllogism of Necessity
i.The Hypothetical Syllogism
ii.The Disjunctive Syllogism
V. The Most Stubborn Opposition: Mind and World
Introduction
Detour via McDowell
The Idea
1.The Idea of the True
2.The Idea of the Good
3.Overcoming the Idea of the Good
The Absolute Idea
1.Lack of Content
2.Consummation (Vollendung)
3.Totality