Studies on Hegel´s “Philosophy of Spirit”

Even today the “Philosophy of Spirit” remains one of the most vigorously discussed aspects of Hegel’s system. The theoretical potential of its answers to the challenges of modernity, however, is far from having been exhausted. In his book, “Die Wirklichkeit des Geistes. Studien zu Hegel”, Michael Quante, Professor of Philosophy at the Cluster of Excellence “Religion and Politics”, analyses the fundamental principles and central theses of Hegel’s “Philosophy of Spirit” in light of current discussions in European and Anglo-American philosophy. His discussion centres on the “Phenomenology of Spirit” and the “Elements of the Philosophy of Right”. In these two works Hegel developed the central ideas of his practical philosophy (for example, Action, Personhood, and Will) and explored the ways in which ethical norms and social institutions could be accounted for between the poles of individual autonomy and social embeddedness.

Literature: Quante, Michael: Die Wirklichkeit des Geistes. Studien zu Hegel. Mit einem Vorwort von Robert Pippin (suhrkamp taschenbuch wissenschaft, vol. 1939), Berlin: Suhrkamp 2011.