Beyond Hegel and Nietzsche: Philosophy, Culture and Agency

Are Hegel and Nietzsche philosophical opposites? Can twentieth-century Continental philosophers be categorized as either Hegelians or Nietzscheans? In this book Elliot Jurist places Hegel and Nietzsche in conversation with each other, reassessing their relationship in a way that affirms its complexity. Jurist examines Hegel’s and Nietzsche’s claim that philosophy and culture are linked and explicates the various meanings of culture in their work–in particular, the contrast both thinkers draw between ancient and modern culture. He evaluates their positions on the failure of modern culture and on the need to develop conceptions of satisfied agency. It is Jurist’s original contribution to focus on the psychological sensibility that informs the project of both philosophers. Writing in an admirably clear style, he traces the ongoing legacy of Hegel’s and Nietzsche’s thought in Adorno, Habermas, Honneth, Jessica Benjamin, Heidegger, Derrida, Lacan, and Butler.