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Hegel and the Art of Mythmaking
Paperback
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ISBN13: 9798195564902
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 4 2026
Pages: 258
Weight: 0.77
Height: 0.54 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: May 4 2026
Pages: 258
Weight: 0.77
Height: 0.54 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel promised to explain everything. The entire universe, all of history, the full trajectory of human consciousness - wrapped up in one tidy system powered by contradictions that magically resolve themselves. It was the most ambitious philosophical project ever attempted, and for nearly two centuries, some of the finest minds in the world have either worshipped it or tried to burn it down.
Hegel and the Art of Mythmaking takes a different approach: it reads Hegel's grand system not as a triumph of reason but as a myth dressed in rational clothing. With wit, clarity, and zero equations, this book guides the reader through the labyrinth of the Absolute Spirit, the dialectical method, and the Phenomenology of Spirit - showing how each of these celebrated constructions shares more with ancient mythology than with modern science. Along the way, it traces the real-world consequences of treating this myth as truth: from Marx's revolutionary dialectics to Fukuyama's premature declaration of history's end, from liberation theology to authoritarian regimes that found in Hegel's philosophy a convenient justification for suppressing individual freedom.
But the book is not merely a demolition job. It explores why human beings - including brilliant philosophers - are drawn to myth, why our brains crave grand narratives, and what happens when a culture mistakes a compelling story for an objective description of reality. It compares Hegel's mythmaking with the philosophical mythologies of Plato, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, examines the devastating critiques launched by Kierkegaard, Popper, and Adorno, and asks the uncomfortable question: can philosophy ever truly free itself from myth, or is mythmaking the price of admission for any system that dares to explain the whole?
Keywords: Hegel, dialectics, mythology, philosophy, Absolute Spirit, political philosophy, history of ideas
But the book is not merely a demolition job. It explores why human beings - including brilliant philosophers - are drawn to myth, why our brains crave grand narratives, and what happens when a culture mistakes a compelling story for an objective description of reality. It compares Hegel's mythmaking with the philosophical mythologies of Plato, Nietzsche, and Heidegger, examines the devastating critiques launched by Kierkegaard, Popper, and Adorno, and asks the uncomfortable question: can philosophy ever truly free itself from myth, or is mythmaking the price of admission for any system that dares to explain the whole?
Keywords: Hegel, dialectics, mythology, philosophy, Absolute Spirit, political philosophy, history of ideas
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