Infinite Autonomy: The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche - Hardcover

Church, Jeffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0271050756 ISBN 13: 9780271050751

Publisher: Penn State University Press, 2012

Synopsis

G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche are often considered the philosophical antipodes of the nineteenth century. In Infinite Autonomy, Jeffrey Church draws on the thinking of both Hegel and Nietzsche to assess the modern Western defense of individuality―to consider whether we were right to reject the ancient model of community above the individual. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are important, because the proper defense of the individual allows for the survival of modern liberal institutions in the face of non-Western critics who value communal goals at the expense of individual rights. By drawing from Hegelian and Nietzschean ideas of autonomy, Church finds a third way for the individual―what he calls the “historical individual,” which goes beyond the disagreements of the ancients and the moderns while nonetheless incorporating their distinctive contributions.

About this title

About the Author

Jeffrey Church is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Houston.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Publication date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0271050756
• ISBN 13: 9780271050751
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 296