Hegel And The History Of Political Philosophy

Synopsis

The status of Hegel as a political philosopher is ambiguous. On the one hand, he is seen as a perceptive theorist of the modern political world, and yet his claim to have assimilated past perspectives into an absolute reading of modern politics repels a sceptical contemp-orary turn of mind. This book assesses Hegel's political philosophy by relating Hegel to a number of predecessors and successors. The Hegelian notion of the interdependence of political philosophy and its history is developed and criticised. Hegel's substantive political philosophy is examined in essays reviewing Hegel's critical assimilation of Plato and Hobbes and in studies appraising subsequent critiques of Hegel by Stirner, Marx and Collingwood. The contemporary relevance of Hegel, a theme of the book, is highlighted in essays comparing Hegel with Lyotard and Rawls.