Idealism and Existentialism: Hegel and Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Philosophy

by Jon Stewart

Overview

The history of Continental philosophy is often conceived as being represented by two major schools: German idealism and phenomenology/existentialism. These two schools are frequently juxtaposed so as to highlight their purported radical differences. There is a commonly held view that an abrupt break occurred in the nineteenth century, resulting in a disdainful rejection of idealism in all its forms. This break is often located in the transition from Hegel to Kierkegaard. The history of philosophy in the first half of the nineteenth century has thus been read as a grand confrontation between the overambitious rationalistic system of Hegel and the devastating criticisms of it by Kierkegaard's philosophy of existence.

This work aims to undermine this popular view of the radical break between idealism and existentialism by means of a series of detailed studies in specific episodes of European thought. As a whole, this book represents an important attempt to demonstrate the long shadow cast by Kant and Hegel over the subsequent history of European philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781441133991
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	08/01/2010
Series:	Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy , #44
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jon Stewart is Associate Research Professor at the Søren Kierkegaard Research Centre, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments vi

Abbreviations of Primary Texts vii

Preface xiii

Introduction 1

Part I Hegel and German Idealism

Chapter 1 Hegel and the Myth of Reason 9

Chapter 2 Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit as a Systematic Fragment 24

Chapter 3 The Architectonic of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit 41

Part II Between Idealism and Existentialism

Chapter 4 Points of Contact in the Philosophy of Religion of Hegel and Schopenhauer 73

Chapter 5 Kierkegaard's Criticism of the Absence of Ethics in Hegel's System 79

Chapter 6 Kierkegaard's Criticism of Abstraction and His Proposed Solution: Appropriation 94

Chapter 7 Kierkegaard's Recurring Criticism of Hegel's "The Good and Conscience" 120

Chapter 8 Hegel and Nietzsche on the Death of Tragedy and Greek Ethical Life 142

Part III Existentialism 163

Chapter 9 Existentialist Ethics 165

Chapter 10 Merleau-Ponty's Criticisms of Sartre's Theory of Freedom 199

Chapter 11 Sartre and Merleau-Ponty on Consciousness and Bad Faith 215

Notes 229

Bibliography 265

Index 279