Hegel and Contemporary Practical Philosophy (Routledge Studies in Social and Political Thought)

While Kantian constructivism has become one of the most influential and systematic schools of thought in analytic moral and political philosophy, Hegelian approaches to practical normativity hold out the promise of building upon Kantian insights into individual self-determination while avoiding their dualistic tendencies. James Gledhill and Sebastian Stein unite distinguished scholars of German idealism and contemporary Anglophone practical philosophy with rising stars in the field, to explore whether Hegelian idealist philosophy can offer the categories that analytic practical philosophy requires to overcome the contradictions that have so far plagued Kantian constructivism.

The volume organizes the contributions into three parts. The first of these engages debates in metaethics regarding the relationship between realism and constructivism. The second part sees contributors draw on debates about the nature of political normativity, focusing primarily on the problems of historical contextualism, relativism, and critical reflection. The concluding part considers the application of the Hegelian framework to contemporary debates about specific ethical issues, including multiculturalism, democracy, and human rights.

Hegel and Contemporary Practical Philosophy contributes to the on-going debate about the importance of systematic philosophy in the context of practical philosophy, engages with contemporary discussions about the shape of a rational social order, and gauges the timeliness of Hegelian philosophy. This book is a must read for scholars interested in Hegel and in the contemporary tradition of Kantian constructivism in moral and political philosophy.

James Gledhill teaches moral and political philosophy at the Universities of Amsterdam and Leiden. His research interests are in political philosophy and critical theory, with a focus on the work of John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas and its relationship to a tradition of thought extending through Rousseau, Kant, and Hegel. He has published articles in Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, Philosophy and Public Issues, Philosophy & Social Criticism, Journal of Social Philosophy, Raisons Politiques and Social Theory and Practice, and recently contributed the entry on Rawls for the Cambridge Habermas Lexicon.

Sebastian Stein is currently a postdoc at Heidelberg University sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) for a project on philosophical method. He has published articles on post-Kantian idealism in the Hegel Bulletin, the Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie and the Hegel Jahrbücher amongst others and has recently guest-edited a special volume of the Hegel Bulletin on Hegel and Aristotle. Together with Thom Brooks, Dr. Stein has edited and contributed to the collection Hegel’s Practical Philosophy: On the Normative Significance of Method and System (2017). His chapter ‘Hegel’ features in the Blackwell Guide to Nineteenth Century Philosophy and he has two collections on Hegel forthcoming with Routledge and one on Hegel’s Encyclopedia.