Infinite Autonomy

The Divided Individual in the Political Thought of G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche

Jeffrey Church

• Publisher: Penn State University Press
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9780271061627
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

G. W. F. Hegel and Friedrich Nietzsche are often considered the philosophical antipodes of the nineteenth century. In Infinite Autonomy, Jeffrey Church draws on the thinking of both Hegel and Nietzsche to assess the modern Western defense of individuality—to consider whether we were right to reject the ancient model of community above the individual. The theoretical and practical implications of this project are important, because the proper defense of the individual allows for the survival of modern liberal institutions in the face of non-Western critics who value communal goals at the expense of individual rights. By drawing from Hegelian and Nietzschean ideas of autonomy, Church finds a third way for the individual—what he calls the "historical individual, " which goes beyond the disagreements of the ancients and the moderns while nonetheless incorporating their distinctive contributions.

Table of contents

• COVER Front
• CIP Page
• Preface
• List of Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Notes to Introduction
• Chapter 1: Three Concepts of Individuallity
• 1.1 The Natural Individual
• 1.2 The Formal Individual
• 1.3 Rousseau and the Historical Individual
• Notes to Chapter 1
• Chapter 2: Hegel's Defense of Individuality
• 2.1 The Distinctively Human Subject and the Good Life
• 2.2 The Autonomy of the Laboring Subject
• 2.3 The “Infinite Worth” of Individual Character
• Notes to Chapter 2
• Chapter 3: Hegel on the Ethical Individual
• 3.1 The Origin of Community
• 3.2 The Nature of Community
• 3.3 Politics as the Highest Ethical Community
• Notes to Chapter 3
• Chapter 4: Hegel on the Modern Political Individual
• 4.1 The Ancient Versus the Modern State
• 4.2 Expansion of Desire in Modern Commercial Society
• 4.3 Estates and Corporations as Ethical-Political Communities
• Notes to Chapter 4
• Chapter 5: Nietzsche's Defense of Individuality
• 5.1 The Problem of Individuation in Nietzsche
• 5.2 Will to Power and the Development of theDistinctively Human
• 5.3 Individuality as a Narrative Unity
• Notes to Chapter 5
• Chapter 6: Nietzsche on the Redemptive Individual
• 6.1 The Tension in the Bow and Human Community
• 6.2 Silenus’ Truth
• 6.3 The Aesthetic Justifi cation of Existence
• 6.4 The Individual’s Redemption
• 6.5 Eros and Eris of Community
• Notes to Chapter 6
• Chapter 7: Nietzsche on the Antipolitical Individual
• 7.1 Historical Development of State and Culture in Modernity
• 7.2 On the Nature and Function of the Modern State
• 7.3 The Possibilities of Modern Culture
• Notes to Chapter 7
• Conclusion
• Notes to Conclusion
• Notes
• References
• Index
• COVER Back