Kant

Kant forms the centerpiece of Alexandre Kojeve’s intriguing discovery of objective reality and its repressed history in Western philosophy

Immanuel Kant’s philosophical system, Kojève argues, is haunted by the Thing-in-itself as the ultimate expression of ‘bourgeois hypocrisy’ and its internally divided reason, split between action and discourse. Making a case for the post-historical moral imperative to turn away from infinite progress and the practical justification of the ideas of God and the immortality of the soul, Kant outlines the material conditions of possibility for revolutionary action within the twin horizons of accomplished and recollected history.

Alexandre Kojève (1902-1968) was one of the major philosophers of the 20th century. His famous lectures on Hegel and his provocative end of history thesis left an indelible mark on contemporary thought. By the end of the Second World War, he abandoned academic philosophy to embark on a diplomatic career. While occupying an influential position in French foreign trade diplomacy, Kojève worked on a series of manuscripts towards a system of knowledge, which have largely remained unpublished until well after this death. Initially dismissed as post-historical irony and play, Kojève’s post-war philosophical writings should open new perspectives on how we became post-historical and what ways we go from there.