Abstract

In this study, which is volume 113 of the International Archives of the History of Ideas, Peperzak attempts to link Hegel's declared "external and subjective" Preface to the relevant "scientifically analyzed" aspects of his philosophy. In this Peperzak insists, with Hegel, that politics and philosophy must be viewed in unity. The tension between the critical function of philosophy, the rationality of the then-current order, and the political demands of the censor dominates the commentary. Hegel is upbraided for his excessive endorsement of the then current state, yet this is tempered by the analysis of Hegel's overall position relying on the subject's rationality as the way to understand the, at least partial, rationality of the current order.