Alexandre Kojève

Headstone of Alexandre Kojeve

Alexandre Kojève ( Russian Александр Владимирович Кожевников / Alexander Vladimirovich Kozhevnikov , as AW Kojevnikoff ., Scientific transliteration Aleksandr Vladimirovič Koževnikov * 28. April 1902 in Moscow , † 4. June 1968 in Brussels ) was a Russian - French philosopher who greatly to Rediscovery of Hegel in France contributed.

Life

Alexander Koschewnikow, who called himself Alexandre Kojève in France, was born to wealthy and cultured parents in Moscow; his uncle was the painter Wassily Kandinsky . From 1920 he studied - first Sanskrit and Chinese , later Western and Far Eastern philosophy - in Heidelberg and Berlin. Alexandre Koyré and Leo Strauss were among his fellow students . After a dissertation on the Russian mystic Wladimir Solowjow , which he submitted to Karl Jaspers in 1926, Kojève went to France at the end of 1926. There he lost his fortune due to the collapse of the stock exchange in 1929. In 1937 he took French citizenship. At the École pratique des hautes études in Paris from 1933 to 1939 he lectured on Hegel's phenomenology of the mind (on behalf of Alexandre Koyré) - a topic that was to accompany him throughout his life. The readings quickly gained notoriety; Among others, they lived with Raymond Queneau , Georges Bataille , Jacques Lacan , Pierre Klossowski , Roger Caillois , Patrick Waldberg , Tarō Okamoto , Jean Wahl , Eric Weil , Jean Hyppolite , Maurice Merleau-Ponty , Brice Parain , Raymond Aron and Hannah Arendt with Günther Anders at.

Kojève survived the Second World War together with Léon Poliakov in Marseille, where he joined a resistance group near Souillac . It was there that he wrote his study on authority , published in 1942 . After the end of the war, Kojève was unemployed for a while until he was given a post in the DREE ( Direction de la Recherche et des Études Économiques ) and later in the French Ministry of Economics through Robert Marjolin , one of his former students . From 1948 he was secretary for the OEEC . In this capacity, he advised the French governments on European policy issues until his death and was instrumental in shaping important negotiations, such as those on the GATT . Philosophically he did not remain idle during this time; he updated Hegel's encyclopedia on weekends, but never found his way back to university philosophy.

Rumors that Kojève worked for the Soviet secret service KGB have persisted to this day.

In 1967 the person invited by the SDS to Berlin surprised the student leader Rudi Dutschke and other 68ers with the advice that they should better learn ancient Greek.

Kojève died of a heart attack while giving a lecture in Brussels in 1968 and was also buried there, in accordance with his orders to bury him at the place of his death.

plant

Victor Cousin introduced the Hegelian philosophy to France in the 19th century . The overwhelming importance that Hegel now has in French philosophy, especially in political philosophy, is attributed to Kojève - until his arrival in Paris, Hegel was a marginal figure in the history of philosophy; a mathematically inspired neo-Kantianism dominated . However, before him, Jean Wahl , Alexandre Koyré , Raymond Queneau , Georges Bataille , Victor Basch and, quite independently, Henri Lefebvre also dealt with Hegel. His reading of Hegel is now one of the most influential of all, even if it is not undisputed. For example, Jacques Derrida , Jacques Lacan , Georges Bataille and Michel Foucault have repeatedly pointed out the profound influence Kojève had on their respective thinking; He is therefore considered one of the masterminds of postmodernism . Through his friend Leo Strauss , Kojève also became effective in the United States, for example he influenced the thinking of Allan Bloom .

Kojève's interpretation of Hegel was decisive for Bataille and Lacan. Kojève was also a member of the Collège de Sociologie founded in 1937 by Georges Bataille, Roger Caillois and Michel Leiris , at which he gave a lecture (cf. Moebius 2006). However, he was critical of the “sacred sociological” endeavors of the college and described the founders of the college as “sorcerer's apprentices” because they endeavored to awaken the sacred to new life.

The lectures on the phenomenology of the mind , which are considered to be Kojève's main work, were published in 1947 under the title Introduction à la Lecture de Hegel , but largely without Kojève's actual involvement - the main editorial work was done by Raymond Queneau , who took the lecture notes for the others Gathered and brought listeners together (a process that is strikingly similar to the creation of some of Hegel's own writings, such as the lectures on aesthetics).

By combining the thoughts of Hegel, Marx and Heidegger , Kojèves Hegel 's reading developed a detailed interpretation of the dialectic of master and servant from phenomenology , whereby he sees the concept of recognition as central to Hegel's entire social theory. This is relatively little developed in phenomenology itself, but was of eminent importance in Hegel's Jenenser early writings. The ability to ask for recognition is a characteristic of specifically human desire - in contrast to the natural desire of animals for self-preservation . Desire is originally something that does not exist that longs for beings, such as hunger as a desire for food. In order to rise above being, one has to desire a non-being, namely another desire - and this is only obtained in recognition. In order to get the coveted recognition from other people, the person permanently risks his life - he finds the fulfillment of his desire in the negation of the desire of the other. There are fights between people in which life may be risked, but not taken: the death of the other prevents the other person from being able to be recognized. Therefore the winner of the fight only has to threaten the loser with death , and that for his entire life - in this way he becomes the master, the other the servant. According to Kojève, this form of the “prestige struggle” is also a typical human behavior that has no equivalent in the animal kingdom.

The mutual recognition crises between master and servant lead, according to Kojève, to a disappearance of the master, while the servant gradually becomes master of nature through work . Like Hegel, Kojève sees the end of history reached with Napoleonic Europe , a universal and homogeneous civil society based entirely on mutual recognition of equal citizens . In the Hegelian model, the story ends with the victory of the ideas of the French Revolution in the battle of Jena . Since then there have been no more new political ideas, only their improvement and deepening. The age of historical man and political action in the strongest sense is over. From then on man only realizes himself in art, in love and in play, and in this he can return to his original animalism, purified by civilization. In contrast to Marx, for Kojève the final state of historical development is not socialist or communist, but liberal-capitalist - a thesis that has recently been updated and controversially discussed by Francis Fukuyama's Hegel reading from Kojève .

Lesser known writings by Kojève deal with the pre-Socratics , Kant and the connections between Christianity , Marxism and Hegelianism . His Esquisse d'une phenomenologie du droit ( Outlines of a Phenomenology of Law ), in which he juxtaposes aristocratic and bourgeois legal concepts , were published posthumously . The discussion of the philosophy of history of his friend and former fellow student Leo Strauss also takes up a lot of space .

For decades he maintained an intensive philosophical correspondence with the conservative Leo Strauss and also corresponded with Carl Schmitt , whom he visited in 1967 in his place of residence ("Where should one go in Germany? Carl Schmitt is the only one worth talking to." ")

reception

His student Raymond Queneau created a literary monument to Kojève in his novel Le dimanche de la vie (1951; German: Sunday of Life ).

Fonts

Philosophical writings

• The religious philosophy of Vladimir Soloviev (1924–1925). Heidelberg 1926. Partial print under the title: The Philosophy of History of Vladimir Soloviev . Bonn (Cohen) 1930. 20 pp.
• L'idée du déterminisme dans la physique classique et dans la physique moderne (1929). Paris ( Le Livre de Poche ) 1990
• L'athéisme (1931). Paris (Gallimard) 1998
• Les peintures concrètes de Kandinsky (1936). First published under the title: Pourqoui concret , in: XXe Siècle, n ° 27, decembre 1966. Partial print in: Vasilij Kandinskij, Correspondances avec Zervos et Kojève , Les Cahiers du Musée National d'Art Moderne (Hors-série / Archives), Paris 1992. German translation: Kandinsky's concrete painting . Bern, Berlin (Gachnang & Springer) 2005
• La notion de l'autorité (1942). Paris (Gallimard) 2004
• Esquisse d'une phenoménologie du droit (1943). Paris (Gallimard) 1981
• Hegel, Marx et le christianisme . In: Critique 3-4 (1946). German translation: Hegel, Marx and Christianity in Fetscher (1975), appendix.
• Introduction à la lecture de Hegel. Leçons sur la phenoménologie de l'esprit, professées de 1933 à 1939 à l'Ecole des Hautes-Etudes. Edited by Raymond Queneau . Gallimard, Paris 1947. Partial translation: Alexandre Kojève: Hegel, a visualization of his thinking. Commentary on the phenomenology of the mind. Translated by Iring Fetscher . Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1958, from 1975 at Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main, numerous editions, ISBN 3-518-27697-2
• L'action politique des philosophes . In: Critique 41, pp. 46-55 (1950) and in Critique 42, pp. 138-154 (1950). (Review of the book by Leo Strauss, On Tyranny: An Interpretation of Xenophon's Hiero . Foreword by Alvin Johnson. New York (Political Science Classics) 1948). Later published as an afterword under the title: Tyrannie et sagesse in: Leo Strauss, De la tyrannie Paris (Gallimard) 1954 and in: Leo Strauss De la tyrannie. Correspondance avec Alexandre Kojève 1932–1965 . Paris (Gallimard) 1997. German translation under the title: About Tyrannis and Wisdom in: Leo Strauss, About Tyrannis: An interpretation of Xenophons Hieron. Neuwied (Luchterhand) 1963
• Kant (1952). Paris (Gallimard) 1973
• Le concept, le temps et le discours (1952–1956). Paris (Gallimard) 1990
• Les romans de la sagesse . In: Critique 60 (1952); German in: Alexandre Kojève, Survival Forms , Berlin ( Merve Verlag ) 2007
• Le dernier monde nouveau . In: Critique 111-112 (1956); German in: Alexandre Kojève, survival forms , op. cit.
• L'empereur Julien et son art d'écrire (1964). Paris (Fourbis) 1990; German in: Art of Writing . Leo Strauss, Alexandre Kojève, Friedrich Kittler. Berlin (Merve Verlag) 2009
• Diary of a philosopher . Translated from Russian and Italian by Simon Missal. Afterword by Marco Filoni. Matthes & Seitz, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-88221-395-9 .
• Essai d'une histoire raisonnée de la philosophie païenne . Paris (Gallimard), 1st volume: 1966, 2nd volume: 1972, 3rd volume: 1973

Political Writings

• Esquisse d'une doctrine de la politique française (August 27, 1945). Publication in La regle du jeu 1 (1990). German translation: Helmut Kohlenberger, Walter Seitter: Alexandre Kojève. The Latin Empire . In: tumult. Schriften zur Verkehrswwissenschaft 15 (1991), pp. 92-122. English by Erik De Vries: Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy. In Policy Review 2004, p. 3-40, online Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy | Hoover Institution .
• Alexandre Kojève: Düsseldorf Lecture: Colonialism from a European perspective . In: Piet Tommissen (ed.): Schmittiana. Contributions to the life and work of Carl Schmitt . Volume 6, Berlin 1998, pp. 126-143. English translation and commentary, including the Schmitt-Kojève correspondence: Erik De Vries: Alexandre Kojève - Carl Schmitt Correspondence and Alexandre Kojève, “Colonialism from an European Perspective” . In: Interpretation , 29/1 (2001), p. 91-130.
• Alexandre Kojève: Note to humanity in the second half of the 20th century . In: Svenja Bromberg, Birthe Mühlhoff and Danilo Scholz (eds.): Eurotrash. Berlin ( Merve Verlag ) 2016. German translation: Danilo Scholz. Original title: "Note pour l'humanité de la deuxième moitié du XX ^e siècle". Unpublished memorandum dated April 14, 1950. Archives of the Institut de la Gestion Publique et du Développement Économique, Paris.

Further literature

• Dominique Auffret: Alexandre Kojève. La philosophie, l'Etat, la fin de l'histoire , Librairie Generale Française, Paris 2002 [1990], ISBN 2-253-94320-7
• Judith Butler : Subjects of Desire. Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth Century France , Columbia University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-231-06450-0
• Barry Cooper: The End of History. An essay of modern Hegelianism , UTP, Toronto 1984, ISBN 0-8020-5625-3
• F. Roger Devlin: Alexandre Kojeve and the Outcome of Modern Thought , University Press of America, Lanham, Md. 2004, ISBN 0-7618-2959-8
• Vincent Descombes: The Same and the Other. Forty-five years of philosophy in France 1933–1978 , Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt / M. 1987, ISBN 3-518-27946-7
• Shadia B. Drury: Alexandre Kojeve. The Roots of Postmodern Politics , Palgrave MacMillan, Basingstoke 1994, ISBN 0-333-62211-1
• Joseph Juszezak: L'anthropologie de Hegel à travers la pensée modern. Marx-Nietzsche, A. Kojeve, E. Weil , Ed. Anthropos, Paris 1977, ISBN 2-7157-0278-7
• Gwendoline Jarczyk, Pierre-Jean Labarrière: De Kojève à Hegel: 150 ans de pensée hégélienne , Albin Michel, Paris 1996, ISBN 978-2-226-07866-7
• Alberto Bonchino: "Sulle letture francesi di Hegel" [About the French reading of Hegel.] - In: Intersezioni. Rivista di storia delle idee. Bologna. 23 (2003), 1, 103-129.
• Ulrich J. Schneider: The French Hegel , Akademie-Verlag 2007, ISBN 978-3-05-004195-7
• Henk de Berg: The end of history and the civil constitutional state: Hegel - Kojève - Fukuyama , A. Francke Verlag, Tübingen and Basel 2007, ISBN 978-3-7720-8205-4
• Raymond Queneau : Sunday of Life , Fischer, Frankfurt / M. 1986, ISBN 3-596-25892-8 (French: "Le dimanche de la vie")
• Stephan Moebius : The sorcerer's apprentices. Sociological history of the Collège de Sociologie 1937–1939. Constance: UVK, 2006. ISBN 3-89669-532-0
• Forms of survival. Berlin: Merve. 2008. ISBN 978-3-88396-234-4 .
• Art of writing. Leo Strauss, Alexandre Kojeve, Friedrich Kittler. Berlin: Merve. 2009. ISBN 978-3-88396-250-4 .
• Marco Filoni: Il filosofo della domenica. La vita e il pensiero di Alexandre Kojève , Bollati Boringhieri, Torino 2008. ISBN 978-88-339-1856-3
• Boris Groys : Introduction to Anti-Philosophy , Hanser, Munich 2009. ISBN 978-3-446-23404-8
• Günther Rösch: Philosophy and self-description: Kojève, Heidegger , Berlin: Merve. 2010. ISBN 978-3-88396-272-6
• Leander Scholz: A footnote on Japan. Alexandre Kojèves Journey into the World of Signs , in: Ryozo Maeda / Teruaki Takahashi / Wilhelm Voßkamp (eds.): Written and Imagery. Visual cultures in Europe and Japan , Munich: Fink 2007, pp. 49–67. ISBN 978-3-7705-4291-8
• Giampiero Chivilò: Fenomenologia, metafisica e ontologia secondo Alexandre Kojève , Introduzione a: A. KOJÈVE, Oltre la fenomenologia. Recensioni (1932–1937) , a cura di G. Chivilò, Mimesis, Milano-Udine, 2012, pp. 11-53. ISBN 978-88-5750-877-1
• Giampiero Chivilò: Tirannide e saggezza (1949). Grecità e cristianesimo in Alexandre Kojève . - In: G. Chivilò, M. Menon (eds.) Tirannide e filosofia: Con un saggio di Leo Strauss ed un inedito di Gaston Fessard sj , Edizioni Ca 'Foscari, Venezia, 2015 pp. 335-374.

Web links

• Literature by and about Alexandre Kojève in the catalog of the German National Library
• Majid Yar:  Entry in the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy .
• Thomas Thiel: The frenzied standstill of world history in: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung from October 30, 2011.

Posts on the 50th anniversary of death

• Wolf Lepenies: He wanted to contain Germany and died for the EU. In: Die Welt from June 5, 2018.
• Danilo Scholz: Alexandre Kojève's career: an exciting, adventurous profession. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of June 9, 2018.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mark Lilla , The end of philosophy , review a. a. by D. Auffret, TLS, No. 4592, April 5, 1991, pp. 3-5
2. ↑ Thomas Thiel: The maddened standstill of world history , FAZ.Net, October 30, 2011
3. ↑ Wolf Lepenies: He wanted to contain Germany and died for the EU. In: Die Welt from June 5, 2018.
4. ↑ Entretien avec Roger Caillois , La Quinzaine littéraire , No. 97, June 16, 1970, pp. 6f
5. ↑ Heinrich Meier: friend disciples as enemy . In: Der Spiegel . No. 31 , 1991, pp. 168 ( online - 29 July 1991 ).