Idealism and Existentialism

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.

Autorentext

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

Inhalt

Acknowledgements Abbreviations of Primary Texts Preface Introduction Part I: Hegel and German Idealism 1. Hegel and the Myth of Reason 2. Hegel's Phenomenology as a Systematic Fragment 3. The Architectonic of Hegel's Phenomenology of SpiritPart II: Between Idealism and Existentialism 4. Points of Contact in the Philosophy of Religion of Hegel and Schopenhauer 5. Kierkegaard's Criticism of the Absence of Ethics in Hegel's System 6. Kierkegaard's Criticism of Abstraction and His Proposed Solution: Appropriation 7. Kierkegaard's Recurring Criticism of Hegel's "The Good and Conscience" 8. Hegel and Nietzsche on the Death of Tragedy and Greek Ethical Life III. Existentialism 9. Existentialist Ethics 10. Merleau-Ponty's Criticisms of Sartre's Theory of Freedom 11. Sartre and Merleau-Ponty on Consciousness and Bad Faith Bibliography Index of Persons Subject Index