The Concept, Time and Discourse

by Alexandre Kojève, Robert B. Williamson (Translator), James H. Nichols (Preface)

Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) is most widely known in America for his provocative assertion that history is at its end, that is, its completion. In the “practical” sense, this means that the process of historical development can at last be seen (if from a distance) as the realization of the Marxist “universal and homogeneous state.” However, Kojève claimed as well that the history of philosophical thinking had also reached its goal in the transformation of philosophy, as the “love of wisdom” (or the unsatisfied quest for comprehensive knowledge), into that very Wisdom itself and had done so in the most essential respects in the philosophy of Hegel. The Concept, Time, and Discourse  is the first volume of Kojève’s  magnum opus , which was to have given an exposition of the (Hegelian) System of Knowledge and of which five volumes were written before his death. It contains, along with a preliminary discussion of the need for an updating of the Hegelian system, the first two of three introductions to the exposition of that a First Introduction of the Concept (the integrated totality of what is comprehensible, which is the final object of philosophic inquiry) and a Second Introduction concerning Time, both introductions leading to the (Hegelian) identification of the Concept with Time, an identification which alone takes adequate account of the fact that Philosophy is necessarily  discursive  (that it must actualize the requirements and essential structure of Discourse). The present volume offers Kojève’s fullest statement of his Ontology. It includes a critical discussion of the traditional oppositions of the “general” to the “particular” and of the “abstract” to the “concrete” and an analysis of the act of “generalizing abstraction,” which detaches Essence from the Existence of Things. Kojève then discusses the three great figures in the three-stage development of philosophy into Parmenides, Plato, and Hegel. Parmenides’ monadic account of Being (= Eternity) rendered it ineffable, thereby reducing philosophy to (non-philosophic) silence; Plato’s dyadic account of Being (as eternal) was intended to make Being a possible subject of discourse but failed to reflect adequately the triadic (and temporally developing) structure which Plato himself discerned in Discourse. Finally, Hegel’s triadic account of Being as itself “dialectical” achieved the final identification of the Concept with Time. This is a first-time, meticulous translation of Kojève’s late, unfinished  magnum opus , the “updating” of the Hegelian System of Knowledge, meaning its modification so as to make it comprehensible to the author himself and to his contemporaries. It is, however, much more than an exposition of its central terms, The Concept and Time and their identity. It is an acute, original review of the major themes of the West’s philosophical tradition; it is, in fact, a philosophical education in itself. Robert Williamson has done this tradition a great service by making Kojève’s work accessible to Americans. – Eva Brann, Dean Emerita and Senior Faculty, St. John’s College, Annapolis, Maryland We now recognize Alexandre Kojève as one of the central figures of 20th century European philosophy. A translation of his  The Concept, Time, and Discourse  will enable English speaking readers to have a fuller understanding of his remarkably ambitious intellectual project. – Michael S. Roth, President, Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. Robert B. Williamson is Tutor Emeritus at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he continues to teach. He is co-author, with Alfred Mollin, of  An Introduction to Ancient Greek  (University Press of America) and the author of articles on Plato’s philosophy and Einstein’s early work on relativity theory. James H. Nichols, Jr. is Professor of Government and Dr. Jules L. Whitehill Professor of Humanism and Ethics at Claremont McKenna College, where he teaches political philosophy. Among his publications are  Epicurean Political The  De rerum natura  of   Lucretius , translations with interpretations of Plato’s  Gorgias  and  Phaedrus , and most recently  Alexandre Kojè Wisdom at the End of   History .

Genres: Philosophy

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 15, 2012

About the author

Alexandre Kojève was a Russian-born French philosopher and statesman whose philosophical seminars had an immense influence on twentieth-century French philosophy, particularly via his integration of Hegelian concepts into continental philosophy. As a statesman in the French government, he was instrumental in the creation of the European Union. Kojève was a close friend of, and was in lifelong philosophical dialogue with, Leo Strauss.

Reviews

[A YOGAM]

In „Le concept, le temps et le discours“ beweist Alexandre Kojève, dass er weit mehr war als nur der charismatische Reiseleiter durch Hegels „Phänomenologie“; hier unternimmt er den ehrgeizigen Versuch, die Statik seines eigenen philosophischen Gebäudes offenzulegen und rechnerisch zu sichern. Der Diskurs erscheint bei ihm als das eigentliche Laboratorium der Wahrheit, in dem der „Begriff“ zur logischen Schweißnaht zwischen der objektiven Struktur der Dinge und dem subjektiven Sinn unserer Rede wird.
Besonders für analytisch geschulte Köpfe ist Kojèves Ringen mit der Paradoxie der Wahrheit von höchster Spannung: Wie kann eine Erkenntnis, die zu einem bestimmten historischen Zeitpunkt entsteht, zugleich den Anspruch zeitloser Notwendigkeit erheben? Um diese Spannung aufzulösen, zwingt Kojève die Logik selbst, die Dimension des Zeitlichen aufzunehmen, und denkt das Tempus nicht als äußeren Rahmen, sondern als konstitutives Moment der Wahrheit.
Diese bedeutendste seiner lange unveröffentlichten Schriften bildet das intellektuelle Bindeglied zwischen flüchtiger Rhetorik und geschlossenem Systemdenken. Sie markiert den Punkt, an dem Kojèves Philosophie ihren höchsten Einsatz wagt: den Anspruch, das Denken nicht nur zu erklären, sondern es – im Horizont des „Endes der Geschichte“ – endgültig zu fixieren.

[Marco Sán Sán]

Al ser tan explícito parecería redundante o simplista la exposición de Kojeve (además de meter tres introducciones por la cara xD) si como bien él mismo indica, no se ha leído ni tenido curiosidad por lo previos 2400 años de filosofía occidental, dicho lo cual, puedo entender por que los posmodernos franceses se inclinaron por la lingüista sin siquiera saberlo como ya antes lo habían hecho ciertos alemanes o austriacos tampoco sin sospecharlo y hoy en día está tan de moda el mismo enfoque, al querer analizar un concepto por su significante, sin siquiera tener curiosidad por su génesis, ese paso donde lo que se significa no significa y es sentido puro, para formar el discurso no como sintaxis sino como testimonio del SER.

Grande Kojeve aunque al ser tan claro es casi irrisorio lo fácil que se puede confundir el predicado con el sujeto, te has de haber reído mucho al redactar esta aclaración jejejeje.