JBSP Online: Book review – Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life by Andreja Novakovic

journal update

Out now, Jeremy Dunham’s review of Andreja Novakovic’s book for our Journal, published online in advance of the paper edition.

Jeremy Dunham – Book Review: ‘Hegel on Second Nature in Ethical Life by Andreja Novakovic’ [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017]. (Review originally published online: 17 Apr 2019).

Opening paragraph: This is an excellent book. Anyone interested in Hegel’s views on habit, culture, ethical life, freedom, and the meta-philosophical assumptions behind his project in the Philosophy of Right will find, I expect, Novakovic’s work extremely useful. It will also be of great interest to anyone considering the contemporary relevance of Hegel’s work for political philosophy and ethics. Novakovic’s method is to present Hegel as conversing with a modern audience. This is not an approach to the history of philosophy that often works very well, but I am impressed by how well it works in this book. I think one of the reasons why Novakovic succeeds so masterfully is that she does not try to artificially wedge Hegel into some fashionable contemporary debate, but makes Hegel speak in his own voice on broad practical issues, such as inequality, race, and gender, without trying to turn this voice into the voice of a contemporary analytic or continental philosopher.

Full article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00071773.2019.1605967

Jeremy Dunham, University of Durham, UK

Accessing the JBSP Online
The online version of the Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology publishes articles in advance of the paper edition. Articles can be accessed via our publisher’s website: JBSP at Taylor & Francis Online.
Access to the JBSP is free to all members of the soceity, who also receive the quarterly paper copy of the journal as part of their subscription. You can find out more about becoming a member and supporting the BSP on the membership webpage. If you are not a member of the BSP, you can purchase articles from the site, or log in using institutional or personal access via Shibboleth and OpenAthens.

Reminder: JBSP 50th Anniversary Conference: On the History of Being – After the Black Notebooks (2019) >>>early bird registration now open
In celebration of Volume 50 of the JBSP, the British Society for Phenomenology is running a three-day conference, examining the contribution of Heidegger’s Schwarze Hefte (Black Notebooks) to an understanding of the question of the history of being. See the conference homepage for early bird registration, as well as the speakers and abstracts.