Black Circle: A Life of Alexandre Kojève, The

✍ Scribed by Love, Jeff

• Book ID: 110353185
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Tongue: en-US
• Weight: 1 MB
• Category: Fiction
• ISBN-13: 9780231546706

✦ Synopsis

Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) was a thinker of many contradictions. Born in Russia, he spent most of his life in France. His interpretation of Hegel and his notorious declaration that history had come to an end had a major influence on French thinkers and writers such as Raymond Aron, Georges Bataille, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Jacques Lacan, and Raymond Queneau. An unorthodox Marxist, he was a critic of Martin Heidegger and interlocutor of Leo Strauss who played a leading role in establishing the European Economic Community; a polyglot with many arcane interests, he wrote works, mostly unpublished, on quantum physics, the problem of the infinite, Christian theology, Mahayana Buddhism, atheism, and Vassily Kandinsky's paintings.
In The Black Circle, Jeff Love reinterprets Kojève's works, showing him to be a provocative thinker who challenged modern society and its valuation of individuality, self-interest, and freedom from death. Emphasizing Kojève's neglected Russian...