In this significant contribution to Hegel scholarship, Robert Williams develops the most comprehensive account to date of Hegel's concept of recognition (Anerkennung). Fichte introduced the concept of recognition as a presupposition of both Rousseau's social contract and Kant's ethics. Williams shows that Hegel appropriated the concept of recognition as the general pattern of his concept of ethical life, breaking with natural law theory yet incorporating the Aristotelian view that rights and virtues are possible only within a certain kind of community.

He explores Hegel's...

Beyond Liberalism and Communitarianism is the first collection of essays treating Hegel's social and political philosophy to appear since 1984. Several new books have since been published transcribing Hegel's lectures on the Philosophy of Right. This book reflects these advances in Hegel scholarship and debunks the widely held notion of the totalitarian Hegel. Rather, Hegel's thought is revealed to be an alternative to both liberal individualism and communitarianism. The essays here treat Hegel's critique of morality (Kant), social contract theory, capitalism, poverty, as well as Hegel's...

Unqualified divine simplicity not only contradicts the central christological and trinitarian distinctions but it also renders implausible any positive relation between God and world, God and time.