Subjects in the Ancient and Modern World

"Subjects in the Ancient and Modern World investigates Hegel's concept of subjectivity through an indirect approach (repeatedly suggested by Hegel himself), namely by contrasting modern with ancient understandings of persons and subjects. The essays collected here are based on the methodological assumption that Hegel's account of subjectivity, as of everything else in the Realphilosophie, cannot be fully understood without including his logical-metaphysical analysis of categories needed to think about the topic at issue. Neither can one do justice to Hegel's conception without highlighting the developmental and historical dimension of what being-subject has meant and means.

Thus, this book addresses first Hegel's idea of an intimate connection between the history and internal logic of philosophic concepts; subsequently, it outlines Hegel's theory of thought and of the subject that does the thinking; finally, it illustrates Hegel's conception through critical readings of selected texts of Greek philosophy, mainly by Plato and Aristotle."--Jacket.