There has been an intensive debate in recent years, particularly in political philosophy, on how the concept of recognition ( Anerkennung) can bring insight into understanding social and political relationships and answering ethical questions. Proponents of this philosophy seek to apply German Idealism, especially Hegel, to the arguments of recognition in order to solve contemporary problems. However, does the present debate incorporate sufficiently the requirements of the idealist philosophy which it pretends to inherit and update? As a new paradigm for philosophy claiming to actualize German idealist philosophy, it provokes questions about the foundation of the principle of recognition itself as well as about which philosophical method provides the best means for addressing recognition. In Recognition -- German Idealism as an Ongoing Challenge, renowned authors address this fascinating and far-reaching questions in discussion with Kant, Fichte, Schelling and Hegel. Contributors include: Robert Brandom, Paul Cobben, Simon Critchley, Pirmin Stekeler-Weithofer, Kenneth Westphal, Klaus Vieweg, Erzsébet Rósza, Christian Krijnen, Heikki Ikäheimo, Donald Loose, Kurt Walter Zeidler, Jean-Christophe Merle, Sasa Josifovic, Arthur Kok, Emiliano Acosta

This volume brings together for the first time a group of young researchers who can be seen as representative of a new generation of researchers working on German idealism. Over the past few decades, several generations of the reception of German idealist philosophers have resulted in an intensive, inspiring and fruitful debate about the concept ‘recognition’, a central topic in German idealism and the central topic of this book. Critically approaching many of the classical boundaries set up by earlier generations, the new wave of researchers in this volume explores, diagnoses, analyzes and evaluates the prospects for, and limits of, recognition from an informed yet independent perspective. The contributors to this volume overcome both the traditionally strong emphasis on practical, especially political, philosophy when dealing with ‘recognition’, and classical divisions such as the ‘divide’ between analytic and continental philosophy, or between Frankfurt School interpretations and more scholarly approaches. This unique combination of methodological interests leads to a variety of original voices which incorporate the history of reception, while also showing how German idealism continues to inspire new generations of philosophers. This book provides a first step toward a comprehensive conception of German idealism, through critical re-readings of the classical texts of German idealism, approaching their argumentative potential, their internal development, and, finally, their limits.

The Very Idea of Organization presents a philosophical account of the phenomenon of organization. It takes as its starting point a debate in organization studies about the foundations of organizational research. This debate, however, is running into difficulties regarding the basic concept of the reality that organization studies deal with, that is regarding the ontology of organization. A convincing organizational ontology is not in sight. Therefore, Krijnen introduces a new meta-perspective, offering a more comprehensive and more fundamental social ontology in general as well as an organizational ontology in particular. Exploring the Kantian and Hegelian tradition of philosophy, he convincingly shows that a rejuvenated type of German idealism contains intriguing possibilities for developing a present-day social and organizational philosophy.

This collection of essays provides an exemplary overview of the diversity and relevance of current scholarship on German Idealism. The importance of German Idealism for contemporary philosophy has received growing attention and acknowledgment throughout competing fields of contemporary philosophy. Part of the growing interest rests on the claim that the works of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel remain of considerable interest for cultural studies, sociology, theology, aesthetics and other areas of interest. In the domain of philosophy, the renaissance of innovative readings of German Idealism has taken scholarly debates beyond merely antiquarian perspectives. This renaissance has been a major factor of current efforts to bridge the gap between so-called “analytic” and so-called “continental” philosophy. The volume provides a selection of well-chosen examples of readings that contribute to systematic treatments of philosophical problems. It contains (among others) contributions by Markus Gabriel, Robert Pippin, Anders Moe Rasmussen, Sebastian Rödl.

In the first study to examine F. W. J. Schelling's political thought, Velimir Stojkovski not only unearths a neglected dimension of the influential thinker's philosophy but further shows what it can teach us about our ethical and political responsibilities today. Unlike Hegel or Fichte, Schelling never wrote a political treatise. Yet by reconstructing the portions of such works as The New Deductions of Natural Right that deal explicitly with the political and by thematically rethinking parts of his writings that have a clear repercussion on politics – in particular those on nature, freedom and religion – this book reveals the centrality of politics to his oeuvre. Revisiting his corpus in this way, Stojkovski uncovers a number of ways we can learn from Schelling and his reception. He examines how Schelling's views on nature can clarify our moral and political obligations to the non-human world and further demonstrates how the separation of ontology as first philosophy from the ethico-political has resulted in a fragmented view of the status of the political subject and thus the body politic. Forcefully renouncing this fragmentation, Stojkovski explores how the same divide has contributed to the ongoing political turmoil in Europe and America. Combining an exploration of German Idealism with contemporary concerns, this is an essential study that will introduce readers to a new Schelling: a political thinker for the 21st century.

Interest in the study of Marx’s thought has shown a revival in recent years, with a number of newly established academic societies, conferences, and journals dedicated to discussing his thought. This book brings together distinguished and up-and-coming scholars to provide a major re-evaluation of historical issues in Marx scholarship and to connect Marx’s ideas with fresh debates in contemporary Anglo-American social and political philosophy. Among the topics discussed are Marx’s relationship to his philosophical predecessors—including Hegel, the young Hegelians, and the utopian socialists—his concept of recognition, his critique of liberalism, and his views on the good life. This book will be of interest to scholars and advanced students interested in Marx, Hegel, the history of political thought, and social and political philosophy.

This handbook presents the conceptions and principles central to every aspect of Hegel’s systematic philosophy. In twenty-eight thematically linked chapters by leading international experts, The Palgrave Hegel Handbook provides reliable, scholarly overviews of each subject, illuminates the main issues and debates, and details concisely the considered views of each contributor. Recent scholarship challenges traditional, largely anti-Kantian, readings of Hegel, focusing instead on Hegel’s appropriation of Kantian epistemology to reconcile idealism with the rejection of foundationalism, coherentism and skepticism. Focused like Kant on showing how fundamental unities underlie the profusion of apparently independent events, Hegel argued that reality is rationally structured, so that its systematic structure is manifest to our properly informed thought. Accordingly, this handbook re-assesses Hegel’s philosophical aims, methods and achievements, and re-evaluates many aspects of Hegel’s enduring philosophical contributions, ranging from metaphysics, epistemology, and dialectic, to moral and political philosophy and philosophy of history. Each chapter, and The Palgrave Hegel Handbook as a whole, provides an informed, authoritative understanding of each aspect of Hegel’s philosophy.

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit is famed for its account of the problem of recognition. Yet while readers agree about the importance of its influential accounts of the struggle to the death and the master/slave relation in developing that problem, there is no consensus regarding what sorts of relations among subjects would count as successful forms of recognition. Timothy Brownlee articulates the essential connections between Hegel's concepts of recognition and the self, and presents a novel interpretation of the Phenomenology that traces the emergence of actual relations of reciprocal recognition through the work as a whole. He focuses on the distinctive social constitution conception of the self that Hegel develops in his account of 'spirit,' and demonstrates that the primary significance of recognition lies in its contribution to self-knowledge. His book will be valuable for scholars and students interested in Hegel, German Idealism, and philosophical conceptions of recognition.

The influence of Kant’s understanding of morality is too strong to be ignored. Hegel, however, fundamentally criticized Kant for offering merely a ‘formal’ model of normativity that cannot sufficiently comprehend human action as free. Instead, Hegel argues in his doctrine of ethical life (Sittlichkeit) that the embeddedness of the acting subject must be taken into account when identifying normativity. Yet the issue of normativity in Kant and Hegel remains contested even today, not least due to the misunderstandings of their conceptions of the topic. The present volume explores developments within recent scholarship which enable a better understanding of the concept of normativity in the thought of Kant and Hegel.

Stoicism has had a diverse reception in German philosophy. This is the first interpretive study of shared themes and dialogues between late nineteenth-century and twentieth-century experts on classical antiquity and philosophers. Assessing how modern philosophers have incorporated ancient resources with the context of German philosophy, chapters in this volume are devoted to philosophical giants such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Wilhelm Dilthey, Walter Benjamin, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Hans Jonas, Hans Blumenberg, and Peter Sloterdijk. Among the ancient Stoics, the focus is on Seneca, Epictetus, and doxography, but reference will also be made to texts that have so far been neglected by non-specialists. Often references to Stoic texts are playful, making it hard for non-specialists to reconstruct their understanding of the sources; by illuminating and enhancing the philosophical significance of these receptions, this book argues that they can change our understanding of Greek and Roman Stoic doctrines and authors, twentieth-century continental philosophy, and the themes which coordinate their ongoing dialogues. Some of these themes are surprising for Stoicism, such as the poetics of tragic drama and the anthropological foundations of hermeneutics. Others are already central to Stoic reception, such as the constitution of the subject in relation to various ethical, ecological, and metaphysical powers and processes; among these are contemplation and knowledge; identity and plurality; temporality, facticity, and fate; and personal, social, and planetary forms of self-cultivation and self-appropriation. Addressing the need for a synoptic vision of related continental readings of Stoicism, this book brings ancient texts into new dialogues with up-to-date scholarship, facilitating increased understanding, critical evaluation, and creative innovation within the continental response to Stoicism.