Alexandre Kojeve: Wisdom at the End of History

by James H. Nichols Jr. Claremont McKenna College

Overview

Nichols examines the major writings of Alexandre Kojève, and clarifies the character and brings to light the importance of his political philosophy. While emphasizing the political dimension of Kojève's thought, Nichols treats all his major published writings and shows how the remarkably varied parts of Kojève's intellectual endeavor go together. This is an essential assessment of Kojève which considers the works that preceded his turn to Hegel, seeks to articulate the character of his Hegelianism, and reflects in detail on the two different meanings that the end of history had in two different periods of his thought.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742527768
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/29/2007
Series:	20th Century Political Thinkers
Pages:	160
Product dimensions:	6.32(w) x 9.32(h) x 0.68(d)

About the Author

James H. Nichols is professor of Political Science at Claremont McKenna College. He has translated Kojève's Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, and is the author of various works including Epicurean Political Philosophy: The De rerum natura of Lucretius

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Religion, Atheism, and Physics
Chapter 2 The Seminar on Hegel: History, Dialectic, and Finitude
Chapter 3 Politics and Law Towards the End of History
Chapter 4 The End of History: In the Future or in 1806, Communist or Capitalist?
Chapter 5 Updating Hegel's System
Chapter 6 Conclusions
Chapter 7 Epilogue: Philosophy, Politics–and Espionnage

Editorial Reviews

It is James H. Nichols, Jr., who can be thanked for giving us the first (abridged) English translation of Kojeve's Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, a book that established Kojeve's well-deserved reputation in France as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the twentieth century…. Nichols' is precisely the sort of book that one should keep by one's side…. Nichols has provided us with a concise but comprehensive introduction to one of the most intriguing philosophers of the twentieth century.

Society

This crisp and concise but synoptic account of the political philosophy of Alexandre Kojève brings to vivid life the excitement and originality of this great Hegelian's thinking. Nichols explains to the Anglo-American world the compelling theoretical reasons for Kojève's immense influence on French philosophy, politics, and political theorizing. The book will be essential reading for anyone who wants to grasp the deep foundations and sources of continental political theory-and practice-in the twentieth century.

Thomas L. Pangle

Nichols’s book should become the standard introductory text on Alexandre Kojève. By providing a clear and thoughtful account of the major aspects of Kojève’s oeuvre, Nichols shows that this interpreter of Hegel developed a powerful version of modern political philosophy from which we can still learn today.

Michael S. Roth

James Nichols has written a concise and extraordinarily informative book that uncovers the coherence of thought that underlies the seemingly contradictory ideas of one of the twentieth century's greatest philosophers. While Alexandre Kojève may not exactly be a household word, he was enormously influential in shaping the intellectual world of the late 20th century, and this book helps us to better understand why.

Francis Fukuyama

It is James H. Nichols, Jr., who can be thanked for giving us the first (abridged) English translation of Kojeve's Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, a book that established Kojeve's well-deserved reputation in France as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the twentieth century…. Nichols' is precisely the sort of book that one should keep by one's side…. Nichols has provided us with a concise but comprehensive introduction to one of the most intriguing philosophers of the twentieth century.

Society