In this study of Hegel's philosophy, Brinkmann undertakes to defend Hegel's claim to objective knowledge by bringing out the transcendental strategy underlying Hegel's argument in thePhenomenology of Spiritand the Logic. Hegel's metaphysical commitments are shown to become moot through this transcendental reading. Starting with a survey of current debates about the possibility of objective knowledge, the book next turns to the original formulation of the transcendental argument in favor ofa prioriknowledge in Kant's First Critique. Through a close reading of Kant's Transcendental Deduction and Hegel's critique of it, Brinkmann tries to show that Hegel develops an immanent critique of Kant's position that informs his reformulation of the transcendental project in the Introduction to thePhenomenology of Spiritand the formulation of the position of 'objective thought' in theScience of Logicandthe Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Brinkmann takes the reader through the strategic junctures of the argument of thePhenomenology that establishes the position of objective thinking with which the Logic begins. A critical examination of the Introduction to the Lectures on the History of Philosophy shows that Hegel's metaphysical doctrine of the self-externalization of spirit need not compromise the transcendental project of the Logic and thus does not burden the position of objective thought with pre-critical metaphysical claims. | Idealism Without Limits by Klaus Brinkmann, Paperback | Indigo Chapters