Absolute Form: Modality, Individuality and the Principle of Philosophy in Kant and Hegel

Metabolic form inverts itself into content. Highlighting Hegel’s conceptual realism, Hoffmann focuses on an undervalued move in his dialectic: inversion (

). From precursors in Kant the author validates the philosopher’s claim in not supplying a completeness proof for his table of categories: it’s easy! Hoffmann shows how his new approach works on Hegel’s central terms-paradigmatically language and individuality-in detailed analytical work through the two great masterpieces: Phenomenology and Objective Logic. From consciousness inversion at the start of the former to the modalities and subjectivity of substance at the end of the latter, Hoffmann develops Hegel’s epochal conceptual realism and metabolic dialectic as keys to substantiating the philosopher’s claim for his Logic: it is indeed the science of absolute form!