Abstract

This essay studies the ways in which Hegel's thought demands "closure," critiques various proposals for an "open Hegelianism," and concludes that Hegel cannot achieve the closure he seeks, and that "open Hegelianisms" are not Hegelian because of their separations of form from content. Nonetheless the essay argues that Hegel can play an important role in the analyses of thought and culture today, in part as a corrective to excessive claims of openness and indeterminacy.