Robert Stern

The University of Sheffield | Sheffield · Department of Philosophy

This paper considers whether Hegel's master/slave dialectic in the Phenomenology of Spirit should be considered as a refutation of solipsism. It focuses on a recent and detailed attempt to argue for this sort of reading that has been proposed by Frederick Beiser – but it argues that this reading is unconvincing, both in the historical motivations g...

It is a commonplace to say that it is hard to understand the trajectory of 'continental' philosophy without coming to terms with the influence of Hegel. Hegel is not just be seen as a 'parting of the ways' between 'continental' and 'analytic' philosophy, but as a bridge between them too, as many continental thinkers have come to address the traditi...

This book consists in a series of chapters that trace the development of a distinctively Hegelian approach to metaphysics and certain central metaphysical issues. It begins with an introduction that considers this theme as a whole, followed by a section of chapters on Hegel himself, concerning his idealism, his theory of truth, and his claim concer...

This book consists in a series of chapters that trace the development of a distinctively Hegelian approach to metaphysics and certain central metaphysical issues. It begins with an introduction that considers this theme as a whole, followed by a section of chapters on Hegel himself, concerning his idealism, his theory of truth, and his claim concer...

A modest transcendental argument is one that sets out merely to establish how things need to appear to us or how we need to believe them to be, rather than how things are. Stroud's claim to have established that all transcendental arguments must be modest in this way is criticised and rejected. However, a different case for why we should abandon am...

This book consists in a series of chapters that trace the development of a distinctively Hegelian approach to metaphysics and certain central metaphysical issues. It begins with an introduction that considers this theme as a whole, followed by a section of chapters on Hegel himself, concerning his idealism, his theory of truth, and his claim concer...

This paper sets out to demonstrate that a contrast can be drawn between coherentism as an account of the structure of justification, and coherentism as a method of inquiry. Whereas the former position aims to offer an answer to the ‘regress of justification’ problem, the latter position claims that coherence plays a vital and indispensable role as...

The aim of this article is twofold. First, it is argued that while the principle of ‘ought implies can’ is certainly plausible in some form, it is tempting to misconstrue it, and that this has happened in the way it has been taken up in some of the current literature. Second, Kant’s understanding of the principle is considered. Here it is argued th...

The aim of this article is twofold. First, it is argued that while the principle of ought implies can is certainly plausible in some form, it is tempting to misconstrue it, and that this has happened in the way it has been taken up in some of the current literature. Second, Kant s understanding of the principle is considered. Here it is argued that...

The Kant-Hegel relation has a continuing fascination for commentators on Hegel, and understandbly so: for, taking this route into the Hegelian jungle can promise many advantages. First, it can set Hegel's thought against a background with which we are fairly familiar, and in a way that makes its relevance clearly apparent; second, it can help us lo...

This paper is a discussion of Mark Bevir's The Logic of the History of Ideas (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1999). It focuses on three topics central to Bevir's book: his weak intentionalism; his anthropological epistemology; and his priority claim regarding sincere, conscious, and rational beliefs. It is argued that Bevir's position on th...

Kierkegaard is often described as the first existentialist, one of the nineteenth century precursors of a philosophical movement which, according to Sartre, “puts every man in possession of himself as he is and places the entire responsibility for his existence squarely upon his own shoulders.” (Sartre, Existentialism and Humanism, p. 29) Certainly...

Writing in 1946, Merleau-Ponty declared that “all the great philosophical ideas of the past century — the philosophies of Marx and Nietzsche, phenomenology, German existentialism, and psychoanalysis — had their beginnings in Hegel.” (Merleau-Ponty, “Hegel’s Existentialism”, p. 63) Although this is in some respects an exaggeration, Merleau-Ponty’s a...

In trying to reach some view regarding the philosophical exchanges that went on between F. H. Bradley and William James at the turn of the century, it is in some respects tempting to endorse Bradley's view that ‘our differences may perhaps on the whole be small when compared with the extent of our agreement’. Indeed, in most of the articles, letter...

This book consists in a series of chapters that trace the development of a distinctively Hegelian approach to metaphysics and certain central metaphysical issues. It begins with an introduction that considers this theme as a whole, followed by a section of chapters on Hegel himself, concerning his idealism, his theory of truth, and his claim concer...

… intellectual and moral process (is) a history of increasingly useful metaphors rather than of increasing understanding of how things really are.” (Richard Rorty, Contingency, Irony, and Solidarity , p. 9) In an engaging recent paper, Ian Hacking has argued that Hegel is “speaking to us” once again, after a long period (in Anglo-American philosop...

Ever since Plato coined the metaphor, it has been tempting to treat the history of philosophy as a series of battles between Gods and Giants, as a ‘clash of argument’ between idealists and materialists, rationalists and naturalists, and idealists and realists. Many commentators, provoked by Hegel's combative remarks, have been led to see the Kant-H...