This edited volume addresses Alexandre Kojeve's work from different perspectives, emphasizing the continuity between his early reception of a set of non-philosophical and philosophical influences and that which he might have sought himself to exercise in a pedagogical and practical manner. The first part of the book comprises six essays in which their authors explore Kojeve's understanding of art, religion and atheism, and his reception of the thought of Hegel, Marx, and Carl Schmitt. The book's second part is made up by two contributions that tackle respectively Kojeve's conceptions of the "end of history" and "empire" in the light of his notion of Sophia or "Wisdom", and his understanding of the relationship between philosophy and power in the light of an exegetical reading of the debate he held with Leo Strauss. The authors of the final three essays set out to explore the extent to which Kojeve's previous processing of a set of non-philosophical and philosophical influences might have resulted in three increasingly concrete outcomes, namely: his notion of authority; the Lacanian mirror-stage; and global trade.
Luis J. Pedrazuela is currently a research fellow at the University of Leeds.
Part I: Three Sources of Influence: Art, Religion, and Philosophy Chapter 1: From the Inexistent to the Concrete: Kojeve after Kandinsky by Isabel Jacobs Chapter 2: Between Kant and Hegel: Alexandre Kojeve and the Absolute State by Jeff Love Chapter 3: Kojeve and Christianity by Jose Maria Carabante Chapter 4: History and Nothingness: Kojeves Re-Leveraging of Hegels Dialectic of Freedom by Waller R. Newell Chapter 5: Kojeve and Marx: Elusive Affinities and Divergences by Igor Shoikhedbrod Chapter 6: Alexandre Kojeve and Carl Schmitt: Mythologies of Enmity by Massimo Palma Part II: Action and End of History/Wisdom: Means and End of the Concept toward Concretion Chapter 7: Wisdom, Self-Consciousness, and Empire by Alexei Rutkevich Chapter 8: Tyranny or Wisdom: A Reading of the Strauss-Kojeve Debate by Jose Daniel Parra Part III: Three Concrete Kojevean Outcomes and their Likelihood: Authority, the Mirror Stage and Global Trade Chapter 9: Authority and Legitimacy in Alexandre Kojeves The Notion of Authority by Bryan-Paul Frost Chapter 10: The Specular Philosopher: Alexandre Kojeve and Jacques Lacan by Trevor Wilson Chapter 11: Alexandre Kojeves Economic Undertakings by Luis J. Pedrazuela
This is a stimulating collection that sheds new light on Kojeve's thought and activity. The contributions do justice to the remarkable range and continued relevance of the enigmatic figure. -- Svetozar Minkov, Roosevelt University This is a wide-ranging, informative, and provocative collection of essays, well organized and integrated so as to shed much needed light on the thought of the greatest Hegelian of the twentieth century. -- Thomas L. Pangle, University of Texas at Austin Alexandre Kojeve is well known for having introduced a whole generation of French philosophers to an existentialist version of Hegel's system. One of the great merits of the collection of essays gathered by Luis J. Pedrazuela is to highlight the breadth of Kojeve's work besides his lectures on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. The contributions to this collective book draw attention to other important writings by Kojeve such as his Notion of Authority and his Outline of a Phenomenology of Right. They enrich our understanding of the philosophical Twentieth Century by placing these works in the context of Kojeve's exchanges and correspondence with some of his contemporaries, particularly Leo Strauss and Carl Schmitt. -- Vincent Descombes, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Paris These articles on Alexandre Kojeve range from the relation of his thought to other thinkers (Hegel, Marx, Strauss, Schmitt, Lacan) to his understanding of the deepest roots of political life (authority, and right or justice); from his practical concerns with economic issues whose resolution could help lead (via European integration) in the direction of a peaceful global order to the character of art toward the end of its historical development. The collection testifies to scholars' ongoing fruitful fascination with this brilliant, paradoxical, and profound philosopher. -- James H. Nichols Jr., Claremont McKenna College
