Introduction to the Reading of Hegel
{{short description|1947 book by Alexandre Kojève}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit
| title_orig = Introduction à la Lecture de Hegel
| translator = James H. Nichols, Jr
| image = File:Introduction to the Reading of Hegel.jpg
| caption = Cover of the first edition
| author = Alexandre Kojève
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = France
| language = French
| series =
| subject = Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
| published ={{plainlist|
- 1947 (Gallimard, in French)
- 1969 (Basic Books, in English)
}}
| media_type = Print (Hardcover and Paperback)
| pages = 287 (English edition)
| isbn = 0-8014-9203-3
| isbn_note = (English edition)
| dewey =
| congress = 80-66908
| oclc =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit ({{langx|fr|Introduction à la Lecture de Hegel}}) is a 1947 book about Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel by the philosopher Alexandre Kojève, in which the author combines the labor philosophy of Karl Marx with the Being-Toward-Death of Martin Heidegger. Kojève develops many themes that would be fundamental to existentialism and French theory such as the end of history and the Master-Slave dialectic.
Summary
Kojève argues that Hegel's System needs to be seen as circular and returning to itself. {{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=James H. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLAwbwHa_CYC&pg=PA34 |title=Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History |year=2007 |isbn=9780742527775 |page=34|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield }} This implies that Hegel's philosophical framework creates a continuous loop of development and self-reflection.
Kojève takes Heidegger's concept of Angst (anxiety) in the face of death and applies it to the fear experienced by the Slave in his initial conflict with the Master.{{cite book |last1=Kleinberg |first1=Ethan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uJEFoRIa7lwC&pg=PA82 |title=Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927-1961 |year=2005 |isbn=0801473829 |pages=81–83|publisher=Cornell University Press }} In Hegel's dialectic, the Master-Slave relationship is pivotal. The Master achieves dominance because he is willing to risk his life and confront death, while the Slave, fearing death, submits. This initial act of submission due to the Slave's unwillingness to accept death sets the foundation for their unequal relationship. The Master remains the master because of his fearlessness, and the Slave remains the slave because of his fear.
Influenced by Heidegger's insights into the manner in which Dasein (being-there, a term Heidegger uses to describe human existence) stands before earthly death, Kojève sees man as a fundamentally negative creature. This negativity is not merely a lack or absence but an active force that negates existence through labor and transformation.{{cite book |last1=Tønder |first1=Lars |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z6BP3P-UQg0C&pg=PA19 |title=Radical Democracy: Politics Between Abundance and Lack |last2=Thomassen |first2=Lasse |year=2005 |isbn=9780719070440 |pages=19–20|publisher=Manchester University Press }} According to Kojève, it is through labor that the Slave begins to transform the world and, ultimately, himself. This labor is a form of negation of the given reality, a reshaping of the world through human effort and creativity. Therefore, the Slave, despite his initial position of subjugation, engages in a process of self-creation and world-creation, leading to the eventual possibility of overcoming the initial inequality with the Master.
Reception
The philosopher Herbert Marcuse, in a 1960 appendix to Reason and Revolution (first published 1941), writes that the "only major recent development in the interpretation of Hegel's philosophy" is the "postwar revival of Hegel studies in France". Marcuse credits the "new French interpretation" with showing clearly "the inner connection between the idealistic and materialistic dialectic", and lists Kojève's book as one of the key works.{{cite book |author=Marcuse, Herbert |title=Reason and Revolution |publisher=Beacon Press |location=Boston |year=1970 |page=420 |isbn=0-8070-1557-1 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate=}}
Some have argued that the book is more an elaboration of Kojève's own philosophy rather than a mere commentary on Hegel. For example F. Roger Devlin claims it is like calling Aquinas's Summa Theologica a mere introduction to Aristotle.{{cite book|title=Alexandre Kojève and the Outcome of Modern Thought By F. Roger Devlin|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zg-pXYDbLygC&pg=PR13 |page=xiii| isbn=9780761829591 | last1=Roger Devlin | first1=F. | year=2004 | publisher=University Press of America }}
Simone de Beauvoir's reading of the book would emphasize the Master-Slave relation between men and women she saw in The Second Sex (1949).{{cite book|title=Simone de Beauvoir: A Critical Reader| isbn=9780415147033 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HU71rmuh7rgC&pg=PA93 | last1=Fallaize | first1=Elizabeth | year=1998 | publisher=Psychology Press }}
In Jon Stewart's anthology The Hegel Myths and Legends (1996), Introduction to the Reading of Hegel is listed as a work that has propagated "myths" about Hegel.{{cite book |editor=Stewart, Jon |title=The Hegel Myths and Legends |publisher=Northwestern University Press |location=Evanston, Illinois |year=1996 |page=[https://archive.org/details/hegelmythslegend0000unse/page/382 382] |isbn=0-8101-1301-5 |oclc= |doi= |accessdate= |url=https://archive.org/details/hegelmythslegend0000unse/page/382 }} Robert B. Pippin expressed a similar judgment in Idealism as Modernism: Hegelian Variations, writing that Kojève's readings "represent truncated and unsatisfactory jumblings of Hegelian ideas which get a better hearing in the original."{{Cite book |last=Pippin |first=Robert B. |title=Idealism as modernism: Hegelian variations |date=1997 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-56873-9 |series=Modern European philosophy |location=Cambridge |pages=260}}
The work has also been subject of critical analysis by Paul Redding,{{Cite journal |last=Redding |first=Paul |date=1991-10-01 |title=Hermeneutic or Metaphysical Hegelianism? Kojève’s Dilemma |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/pdc/bvdb.nsf/purchase?openform&fp=owl&id=owl_1991_0022_0002_0175_0189 |journal=The Owl of Minerva |language=en |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=175–189 |doi=10.5840/owl199122219}} George Armstrong Kelly{{Cite journal |last=Kelly |first=George Armstrong |date=1966 |title=Notes on Hegel's "Lordship and Bondage" |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20124139 |journal=The Review of Metaphysics |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=780–802 |issn=0034-6632}} and Patrick T. Riley{{Cite journal |last=Riley |first=Patrick |date=1981-02-01 |title=Introduction To the Reading of Alexandre Kojève |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/009059178100900102 |journal=Political Theory |language=EN |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=5–48 |doi=10.1177/009059178100900102 |issn=0090-5917}} among others.