Hegel, Nietzsche, and Philosophy: Thinking Freedom (Modern European 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 challenging study explores the theme of freedom in the philosophy of Hegel and Nietzsche. In the first half Will Dudley sets Hegel's Philosophy of Right within a larger systematic account and deploys the Logic to interpret it. The author shows that freedom involves not only the establishment of certain social and political institutions but also the practice of philosophy itself. In the second half, he reveals how Nietzsche's discussions of decadence, nobility and tragedy map on to an analysis of freedom that critiques heteronomous choice and Kantian autonomy, and ultimately issues in a positive conception of liberation. In boldly bringing Hegel and Nietzsche together into a conversation, something that is rarely attempted, Will Dudley has developed a set of interpretations that will be of considerable importance to students of these philosophers, and more generally to political theorists and historians of ideas

this Study Explores The Theme Of Freedom In The Philosophy Of Hegel And Nietzsche.

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both Philosophers Adopted Kant's Notion That Freedom Depends On A Further Kind Of Freedom For Which It Is Unable To Account, And That People's Actions Are Truly Free Only If Their Choices Are Determined By A Free Will, Dudley (philosophy, Williams College) Argues, But They Then Diverged To Contend That Willing Can Be Truly Free Only In Virtue Of An Activity Other Than Itself, And That Self-determination Of The Will Rests On Another Kind Of Freedom Without Which Willing Fails To Be Genuinely Self-determining. Annotation C. Book News, Inc., Portland, Or (booknews.com)

This study explores the theme of freedom in the philosophy of Hegel and Nietzsche. In bringing Hegel and Nietzsche together into a conversation, Will Dudley has developed some original interpretations that will be of considerable importance to students of these philosophers, and to political theorists and historians of ideas. Hegel thinks that there is nothing more important for us to understand, and nothing that we understand more poorly, than freedom.