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Hegel and Speculative Realism has two main objectives. Firstly, to assess the speculative realist formulations of the real regarding the 'withdrawn' object, radical contingency, the absolute register of extinction, and the current interest in 'powers philosophy', with special attention to their possible relation to the absolute scope of Hegelian philosophy. Secondly, to invite the reader to reconsider Hegel in a new way; uncovering rare insights into his thoughts on astronomy, actuality, the concrete and non-being. Johns' inclination is to not mistake the necessary path to the absolute as the only path. Johns argues that Hegel describes the unique trajectory of the dialectical relationship between Nature and Idea as a Spirit oriented by both logical and physical (spatio-temporal) dimensions. Johns reads this as a theory of singularity and makes the bold claim that there may be other paths not taken by the Hegelian spatio-temporal path synonymous withthe dialectic; synthesis, sublation and unfolding. In-fact, speculative philosophy should not be satisfied to study only "what exists" but also what "could exist" or what it means to "inexist" and should entertain multiple modes of potential becoming between Hegel's initial triad of logical categories; Being, Non-Being and Becoming.
List of contents
1. Introduction: Hegel and Speculative Realism.- 2. Graham Harman: Politics of the Absolute: Hegel and Object-Oriented Ontology.- 3. Ray Brassier: Eliminativism or Negation?.- 4. Quentin Meillassoux: Hyper-Chaos or Dialectics?.- 5. Iain Hamilton Grant: Naturphilosophie or The Philosophy of Nature?.- 6. Reflections on Object-Oriented Dialectics.- 7. Iterations of the Absolute
About the author
Charles Johns is a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths University, London, U.K. His research areas include the philosophy of G.W.F Hegel and speculative realism. Currently, Johns engages with these philosophical ideas in relation to current findings in science, cosmology and astronomy.
