Description
Book SynopsisThe 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
Trade Review"Stewart's fresh approach to the so-called 'antagonism' between idealism and existentialism is both welcome and edifying. His careful, nuanced scholarship encourages the reader to re-consider and re-evaluate the major debates that shaped the development of European philosophy in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries." - Daniel Conway, Texas A&M University, USA
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements; 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 Spirit; Part 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.
