Choice Review

Comay (Univ. of Toronto) attempts an understanding of Hegel's ethical thought by situating it in the context of German responses to the French Revolution. In Comay's account, German philosophy (and German thought more generally) from Kant through Hegel represents an attempt to translate the practical radicalism of France into a more domesticated theoretical revolution. The author's discussion focuses on the transition in approach from Kant to Hegel. Whereas Kant's ethics repudiates political insurrection as it seeks to replace it with a moral conversion, Hegel rejects such a distanced appropriation. Although Hegel shares his contemporaries' assessment of the "untimeliness" of the revolution and its roots in the failure of the Reformation in France, his ethics of forgiveness in the Phenomenology seeks to historicize that event so that its destructiveness remains intact, "but it no longer confronts ... as a stony obstacle.. Comay's grasp of a broad range of the literature of the time is impressive, though her speculative and highly literary style of argument will not appeal to all philosophers. Her index is thorough and well organized. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students and researchers/faculty. J. A. Gauthier University of Portland