Introduction to the Reading of Hegel

Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit (French: Introduction à la Lecture de Hegel) is a 1947 book about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel by the philosopher Alexandre Kojève, in which the author combines the labor philosophy of Karl Marx with the Being-Toward-Death of Martin Heidegger. Kojève develops many themes that would be fundamental to existentialism and French theory such as the end of history and the Master-Slave Dialectic.

Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit
Cover of the first edition
AuthorAlexandre Kojève
Original titleIntroduction à la Lecture de Hegel
TranslatorJames H. Nichols, Jr
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench
SubjectGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Published
  • 1947 (Gallimard, in French)
  • 1969 (Basic Books, in English)
Media typePrint (Hardcover and Paperback)
Pages287 (English edition)
ISBN0-8014-9203-3 (English edition)
LC Class80-66908

Summary

Kojève argues that Hegel's System needs to be seen as circular and returning to itself.[1]

Kojève takes Heidegger's concept of Angst in the face of death and applies it to the fear the Slave fears in his initial conflict with the Master. It is the slave's unwillingness to accept death, in contrast with the Master, that leads to their unequal relationship.[2]

Influenced by Heidegger's insights into the manner in which Dasein stands before death, Kojève sees man as a fundamentally negative creature, who negates existence through labor.[3]

Reception

The philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in a 1960 appendix to Reason and Revolution (first published 1941), writes that the "only major recent development in the interpretation of Hegel's philosophy" is the "postwar revival of Hegel studies in France". Marcuse credits the "new French interpretation" with showing clearly "the inner connection between the idealistic and materialistic dialectic", and lists Kojève's book as one of the key works.[4]

Some have argued that the book is more an elaboration of Kojève's own philosophy rather than a mere commentary on Hegel. For example F. Roger Devlin claims it is like calling Aquinas's Summa Theologica a mere introduction to Aristotle.[5]

Simone de Beauvoir's reading of the book would emphasize the Master-Slave relation between men and women she saw in The Second Sex (1949).[6]

In Jon Stewart's anthology The Hegel Myths and Legends (1996), Introduction to the Reading of Hegel is listed as a work that has propagated "myths" about Hegel.[7] The dismissive view of French Hegel is expressed in Idealism as Modernism: Hegelian Variations by Robert B. Pippin. He writes that Kojève is a "truncated and unsatisfactory jumblings of Hegelian ideas which get a better hearing in the original."

gollark: (it's probably doing `mod 50` somewhere)
gollark: Due to quirks of the RNG, it turns out that sequences producing 0 when something asks for a random number up to 50 *also* produce zero when random-choice wants up to 2.
gollark: I can imagine substantially more evil things.
gollark: [REDACTED]
gollark: This can be disrupted somewhat by the random choice player, but they'll cooperate with me so meh.

References
  1. Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History. p. 34.
  2. Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927-1961. pp. 81–83.
  3. Radical Democracy: Politics Between Abundance and Lack. pp. 19–20.
  4. Marcuse, Herbert (1970). Reason and Revolution. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 420. ISBN 0-8070-1557-1.
  5. Alexandre Kojève and the Outcome of Modern Thought By F. Roger Devlin. p. xiii.
  6. Simone de Beauvoir: A Critical Reader.
  7. Stewart, Jon, ed. (1996). The Hegel Myths and Legends. Evanston, Illinois: Northwestern University Press. p. 382. ISBN 0-8101-1301-5.
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