Beyond the Totalitarian: Ethics and the Philosophy of Religion in Recent Hegel Scholarship

Abstract

Recent developments in Hegel scholarship have been dominated by two waves. Focusing on his complex conception of freedom, the first has transformed the dominant view of his ethical and political thought. The second, which has dramatic consequences for the interpretation of his philosophy of religion, reads Hegel as extending rather than repudiating Kant's critical project. These ‘post-Kantian’ interpretations have rejected the view of Hegel's logic as principally metaphysical in favor of a reading that focuses on the spontaneous and social character of thought.