These challenging essays defend Romanticism against its critics. They argue that Romantic thought, interpreted as the pursuit of freedom in concrete contexts, remains a central and exemplary form of both artistic work and philosophical understanding. Richard Eldridge traces the central features of Romantic thinking and shows that Romanticism is neither emptily literary and escapist nor dogmatically optimistic and sentimental. The first serious philosophical defense of the ethical ideals of Romanticism, this volume will appeal particularly to all professionals and students in philosophy,...

This study explores the theme of freedom in the philosophy of Hegel and Nietzsche. First, Will Dudley sets Hegel's Philosophy of Right within a larger systematic account and deploys the Logic to interpret it. He demonstrates that freedom involves not only the establishment of certain social and political institutions but also the practice of philosophy itself. Then, he reveals how Nietzsche's discussions of decadence, nobility and tragedy lead to an analysis of freedom that critiques heteronomous choice and Kantian autonomy, and ultimately issues a positive conception of liberation.

This series makes available in English important recent work by German philosophers on major figures in the German philosophical tradition. The volumes will provide critical perspectives on philosophers of great significance to the Anglo-American philosophical community--perspectives that have been largely ignored except by a handful of writers on German philosophy. This collection brings together in translation the finest post-war German language scholarship on Hegel's social and political philosophy, concentrating on the Elements of the Philosophy of Right.

Jon Stewart's groundbreaking study is a major re-evaluation of the complex relationship between the philosophies of Kierkegaard and Hegel. Although the standard view on the subject is that Kierkegaard defined himself as explicitly anti-Hegelian (and viewed Hegel's philosophy with disdain), Jon Stewart demonstrates that Kierkegaard's criticism was not directed specifically to Hegel, but actually to some contemporary Danish Hegelians.

Beatrice Longuenesse considers the three aspects of Kant's philosophy, his epistemology and metaphysics of nature, moral philosophy, and aesthetic theory, under one unifying standpoint: Kant's conception of our capacity to form judgments. She argues that the elements which make up our cognitive access to the world have an equally important role to play in our moral evaluations and our aesthetic judgments. Her book will appeal to all interested in Kant and his thought, ranging over Kant's account of our representations of space and time, his conception of the logical forms of judgments,...

Nietzsche regarded 'Thus Spoke Zarathustra' as his most important work, and his story of the wandering Zarathustra has had enormous influence on subsequent culture. Nietzsche uses a mixture of homilies, parables, epigrams and dreams to introduce some of his most striking doctrines, including the Overman, nihilism, and the eternal return of the same. This edition offers a new translation by Adrian Del Caro which restores the original versification of Nietzsche's text and captures its poetic brilliance. Robert Pippin's introduction discusses many of the most important interpretative issues...

Hegel's Science of Logic has received less attention than his Phenomenology of Spirit, but Hegel himself took it to be his highest philosophical achievement and the backbone of his system. The present book focuses on this most difficult of Hegel's published works. Beatrice Longuenesse offers a close analysis of core issues, including discussions of what Hegel means by 'dialectical logic', the role and meaning of 'contradiction' in Hegel's philosophy, and Hegel's justification for the provocative statement that 'what is actual is rational, what is rational is actual'. She examines both Hegel's...

Freedom and the subject were guiding themes for Michel Foucault throughout his philosophical career. Johanna Oksala identifies the different interpretations of freedom in his philosophy and examines three major divisions of it: the archaeological, the genealogical, and the ethical. She demonstrates that in order to fully appreciate Foucault's "project," we must understand his complex relationship to phenomenology, and discusses Foucault's treatment of the body in relation to recent feminist work on this topic.

This is the first book in English on the early works of the German philosopher Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814). It examines the transcendental theory of self and world from the writings of Fichte's most influential period (1794-1800), and considers in detail recently discovered lectures on the Foundations of Transcendental Philosophy. Combining incomparable erudition, sensitive readings of some of the most difficult of philosophical texts, clarity in exposition and an acute awareness of historical context, this book takes its place as the ideal introduction to Fichte's thought.

This is the first book-length treatment of the unique nature and development of Nietzsche's post-Zarathustran political philosophy. This later political philosophy is set in the context of the critique of modernity that Nietzsche advances in the years 1885-1888, in such texts as Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals, Twilight of the Idols, The Antichrist, The Case of Wagner, and Ecce Homo. Daniel Conway has written a powerful book about Nietzsche's own appreciation of the limitations of both his writing style and of his famous prophetic "stance."