Recognition

Robert R. Williams is Professor of German, Religious Studies, and Philosophy at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"The most impressive aspect of this book is the full-length, detailed treatment of the idealist concept of intersubjectivity, or recognition, rarely studied in detail, virtually undiscussed in English at present. Williams' treatment of this concept is careful, informed, useful, and sticks closely to the primary text with appropriate reference to the available secondary literature and the relevant discussion by later thinkers. His study will redress many misconceptions about post-Kantian idealism, particularly concerning Fichte and Hegel. In his attention to Fichte, Williams breaks with the widespread, but often unjustified tendency to approach Hegel in terms of Schelling. He further shows the emergence of a significant form of phenomenology in the thought of Fichte and Hegel." — Tom Rockmore, Duquesne University"The scholarship is excellent, ranging from classical secondary literature to the most recent. Moreover, the topic is extremely important. The argument for Hegel's social ontology based upon a triadic social model for absolute spirit versus the dyadic idealist model, and the foundations of this found in the center concept of 'recognition,' is very important. Williams has here successfully made a case for Hegel and has contributed to the destruction of the 'block-universe' interpretation which has so badly distorted Hegel. Williams has made sense of this triadic social model without falling into the sort of incomprehensibility traditionally experienced when other commentators in the past have attempted to speak of the model. Williams succeeds." — Joseph C. Flay, Pennsylvania State University

• Preface Abbreviations Part One: Introduction 1. IntroductionThe Hidden Theme of Intersubjectivity in German IdealismPhenomenology and German IdealismPhenomenology in German IdealismThe Problem of the Other in Contemporary PhilosophyPlan and Overview Part Two: Fichte 2. Between Kant and Fichte The Problematic Transcendental in KantReaction to Kant: Reinhold's Quest for CertaintyFichte and The Crisis in First PrinciplesFirst Introduction to WissenschaftslehreFichte's AntifoundationalismFrom Transcendental Philosophy to the Pragmatic History of SpiritFichte's Foundationalism? 3. Fichte on Recognition The Status and 'Location' of the Problem of the OtherThe Naturrecht in the Development of Fichte's ThoughtThe Concept of RightFreedom as IntersubjectiveThe Other as a Summons (Aufforderung) to FreedomAufforderung and the AnstoßThe Ambiguity: Aufforderung as Transcendental FactRecognition (Anerkennung)Critical Evaluation Part Three: Hegel 4. The Early Hegel and Fichte Hegel's Earliest Social TheoryHeteronomy and Domination in Hegel's Early Theological WritingsLove and Reconciliation in the Early Theological WritingsHegel's Theory of LoveLove as IntersubjectiveThe Limits and Fate of LoveHegel's Critique of FichteProblems in Appropriating AnerkennungTransformation of AnerkennungLove and AnerkennungAnerkennung in the Mode of ConflictConclusion 5. Hegel and Phenomenology HusserlThe Phenomenological Reduction or EpochéThe Theoretical Inversion of the World of the Natural AttitudeReduction as Reversal of the Positivist ReversalThe Abyss of Groundlessness: Philosophy without FoundationsHegel and Husserl?Hegel's Treatment of SkepticismTurning the TablesAlterity and Truth 6. Hegelian Phenomenology The Task of the Phenomenology of SpiritHegel's Hermeneutical Critique of CritiqueThe Problem of the CriterionIntentional Analysis of the Gestalts of ConsciousnessConsciousness Tests ItselfSelf-Accomplishing Skepticism: The Highway of DespairBetween Panlogism and Existential Anthropology 7. Hegel's Eidetics of Intersubjectivity Life as a CategoryTowards an Eidetics of RecognitionOverview of Hegel's EideticsHegel's Eidetics: Translation and CommentaryHegel §1Commentary: The Doubling of Self-ConsciousnessRecognition and the Problem of RelationHegel §§2–3Commentary: Othering and the OtherHegel §4Commentary: The Sublation of Otherness and the OtherHegel §§5–6Commentary: Reciprocal RecognitionHegel §7Commentary: The Interplay of IntersubjectivitySummary 8. The Empirics of Recognition Towards the Life and Death StrugglePhenomenology of MasteryPhenomenology of ServitudeSummaryLove as a Form of Recognition 9. Recognition and Geist The Social Dimension of RecognitionTwo Levels of RecognitionHegel's Departure from Transcendental PhilosophyThe Social Context and Mediation of ReasonSpirit and the WorldRecognition in its Tragic RealizationTragic Recognition: AntigoneTragedy in Estranged SpiritBeyond Tragedy: Conscience and Forgiveness 10. Absolute Spirit, Recognition, and Tragedy Anomalies in Hegel's Treatment of Religion in the PhenomenologyAn Intersubjective-Social Conception of ReligionReligion as Quest for RecognitionTragic RecognitionThe Religion of ArtHegel's Changing Assessment of TragedyThe Revelatory ReligionAbsolute Geist and TragedyThe Death of God: Hegel's Theological AtheismThe Death of God and Tragedy 11. Recognition and Absolute Knowledge Absolute KnowledgeTwo ModelsThe Problem of Relating the Two ModelsFrom Vorstellung to BegriffTowards a Non-Foundational Absolute KnowledgeHegel's Critique of PositivityThe Triadic Structure of Absolute SpiritHegel's Triadic Holism: Two PossibilitiesConclusion 12. Hegel and Phenomenology: Husserl, Sartre, and Levinas HusserlSartreSartre's Reading of HegelHegel's BreakthroughSartre's Criticism of HegelLevinasLevinas and Hegel Bibliography Index