Hegel, the End of History, and the Future

In Phenomenology of Spirit (1806) Hegel is often held to have announced the end of history, where 'history' is to be understood as the long pursuit of ends towards which humanity had always been striving. In this, the first book in English to thoroughly critique this entrenched view, Eric Michael Dale argues that it is a misinterpretation. Dale offers a reading of his own, showing how it sits within the larger schema of Hegel's thought and makes room for an understanding of the 'end of history' as Hegel intended. Through an elegant analysis of Hegel's philosophy of history, Dale guides the reader away from the common misinterpretation of the 'end of history' to other valuable elements of Hegel's arguments which are often overlooked and deserve to endure. His book will be of great interest to scholars and advanced students of Hegel, the philosophy of history, and the history of political thought.

Introduction; Part I. Hegel and the End of History: 1. The end of history as a question and a problem; 2. Hegel and Nietzsche; 3. Hegel and Engels; 4. Hegel and Kojève; Part II. Hegel and the Philosophy of History: 5. Herder and history; 6. Fichte and history; 7. Hegel and history; 8. The spirit and the end; 9. The present and the future.

Eric Michael Dale is Affiliated Faculty Professor in Philosophy at Emerson College, Boston. He has written many articles for journals such as Existenz: An International Journal in Philosophy, Religion, Politics, and the Arts; Animus: The Canadian Journal of Philosophy and Humanities; and IWM Post. He is also a former visiting fellow at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna.