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Review
“All of modern philosophy is a footnote to Hegel.” With these words, Mark C. Taylor echoes what many twentieth century philosophers have also suggested in their works. Philosophers such as Heidegger, Bataille, Derrida, Levinas, and countless others have struggled with the legacy of Hegelianism, critiquing it but never escaping it. In Journey’s to Selfhood, Mark Taylor provides a clear and original assessment of Hegel’s thought and his influence on later philosophers. As the title suggests, Taylor also discusses the work of Kierkegaard, whom other philosophers view as offering an alternative to Hegel’s propensity to totalize. It is Kierkegaard, Taylor suggests, that later philosophers have looked towards in developing their responses to Hegel. Taylor’s discussion of Hegel and Kierkegaard establishes the inescapability of their work in understanding contemporary philsophical issues ranging from structuralist and post-structuralist thought to modernity and postmodernity to ideas about difference and the Other. The philosophers also offer many insights into the complexities that will be confronted in the global era as local and global systems and will clash and integrate. Taylor writes, “As we move into the twenty-first century, we must not only think difference differently but must also rethink systems and structures that allow for integration and reconciliation without exclusion and repression. Though his answers are not completely adequate, as we take up these critical questions, Hegel once again emerges as ‘a trustworthy guide.” Now, as always, we must repeatedly confess that ‘we will never be finished with the reading or rereading of Hegel.” Other recent titles by Mark C. Taylor:
Hiding
Critical Terms for Religious Studies, edited by Mark C. Taylor
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