Hegel’s Epistemological Realism

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 1-3

3. Problems of Knowledge and Problems with Epistemology

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 4-17

4. Descartes’s Defense of the Metaphysical Certainty of Empirical Knowledge

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 18-34

5. Kant on the Objectivity of Empirical Knowledge

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 35-46

6. Some Aspects of Empiricism and Empirical Knowledge

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 47-67

7. William Alston on Justification and Epistemic Circularity

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 68-90

8. Some Basic Methodological Considerations of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 91-99

9. Self-Criticism and Criteria of Truth

   • Kenneth R. Westphal

   Pages 100-114

10. The Self-Critical Activity of Consciousness

    • Kenneth R. Westphal

    Pages 115-128

11. Some Further Methodological Considerations

    • Kenneth R. Westphal

    Pages 129-139

12. Hegel’s Idealism and Epistemological Realism

    • Kenneth R. Westphal

    Pages 140-148

13. The Structure of Hegel’s Argument in the Phenomenology of Spirit

    • Kenneth R. Westphal

    Pages 149-188

14. Back Matter

    Pages 189-309

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The scope of this study is both ambitious and modest. One of its ambitions is to reintegrate Hegel's theory of knowledge into main stream epist~ology. Hegel's views were formed in consideration of Classical Skepticism and Modern epistemology, and he frequently presupposes great familiarity with other views and the difficulties they face. Setting Hegel's discussion in the context of both traditional and contemporary epistemology is therefore necessary for correctly interpreting his issues, arguments, and views. Accordingly, this is an issues-oriented study. I analyze Hegel's problematic and method by placing them in the context of Sextus Empiricus, Descartes, Kant, Carnap, and William Alston. I discuss Carnap, rather than a Modern empiricist such as Locke or Hume, for several reasons. One is that Hegel himself refutes a fundamental presupposition of Modern empiricism, the doctrine of "knowledge by acquaintance," in the first chapter of the Phenomenology, a chapter that cannot be reconstructed within the bounds of this study.

• Immanuel Kant
• René Descartes
• epistemology
• knowledge
• phenomenology

• Department of Philosophy, University of New Hampshire, Durham, USA

  Kenneth R. Westphal

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