Hegel, Freedom, and Modernity (Hegelian Studies (Dis)) - Hardcover

Westphal, Merold

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0791410153 ISBN 13: 9780791410158

Publisher: State University of New York Press, 1992

Synopsis

This book studies the intersection of Hegel's political theory as developed in the Philosophy of Right with his philosophy of religion and his dialectical, holistic theory of knowledge. It explores both the methodological and theological dimensions of Hegel's politics by placing him in dialogue with such traditions as Hinduism, the Protestant Reformation, and the contemporary Religious Right, and with such individual thinkers as Husserl, Gadamer, Pannenberg, and Tillich.

The author shows that Hegel's philosophy outlines the dilemma of religion and society perhaps more clearly than any other modern thinker's perspective. Namely that a religiously based society tends to be sectarian, exclusive, and intolerant, while a fully secular society tends to lose the conditions which make community in any meaningful sense possible. Hegel's search for a nonsectarian spirituality of community poses the problem the contemporary world must solve if we are to uncover a humane society.

About this title

About the Author

Merold Westphal is Professor of Philosophy at Fordham University. Former president of the Hegel Society of America, he is the author of History and Truth in Hegel's Phenomenology; God, Guilt, and Death: An Existential Phenomenology of Religion; and Kierkegaard's Critique of Religion and Society.

Edition details

• Publisher: State University of New York Press
• Publication date: 1992
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0791410153
• ISBN 13: 9780791410158
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 313