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484Freedom, dependence, and the general willPhilosophical Review 102 (3): 363-395. 1993.n his Lectures on the Histmy 0f Philosophy Hegel credits Rousseau with an cpoch-making innovation in the realm 0f practical philosophy, an innovation said to consist in thc fact that Rousseau is thc first thinker t0 recognize "the free will" as thc fundamental principle 0f political philosophy} Since Hcgcl’s 0wn practical philosophy is explicitly grounded in an account 0f thc will and its freedom, Hcgcl’s assertion is clearly intended as an acknowledgment 0f his deep indebtedness t0 R0usscau’s s…Read more
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206Hegel’s Idea of a ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’Philosophical Review 109 (2): 296-299. 2000.Michael Forster’s latest book is a comprehensive and illuminating treatment of the basic tasks and strategies of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. As the title indicates, Forster is more concerned to elucidate the aims and structure of the Phenomenology as a whole than to reconstruct the claims of specific sections or to provide a chapter-by-chapter commentary. Forster is correct that a coherent and sympathetic account of the Phenomenology’s “official project” is badly needed, and he succeeds adm…Read more
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160Deducing Desire and Recognition in the Phenomenology of SpiritJournal of the History of Philosophy 24 (2): 243-262. 1986.
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159Jean-Jacques Rousseau and the Origins of AutonomyInquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 54 (5). 2011.Abstract Modern reflection on the ideal of personal autonomy has its Western origin in the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, where autonomy, or self-legislation, involves citizens joining together to make laws for themselves that reflect their collective understanding of the common good. Four features of this conception of autonomy continue to be relevant today. First, autonomy, a type of freedom, is introduced into modern philosophy in order to make up for a perceived deficiency, or incomple…Read more
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151Rousseau's theodicy of self-love: evil, rationality, and the drive for recognitionOxford University Press. 2008.This book is the first comprehensive study of Rousseau's rich and complex theory of the type of self-love (amour proper) that, for him, marks the central difference between humans and the beasts. Amour proper is the passion that drives human individuals to seek the esteem, approval, admiration, or love--the recognition--of their fellow beings. Neuhouser reconstructs Rousseau's understanding of what the drive for recognition is, why it is so problematic, and how its presence opens up far-reaching…Read more
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113Review of Rahel Jaeggi, Entfremdung: Zur Aktualität Eines Sozialphilosophischen Problems (review)Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews 2007 (7). 2007.
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92On Detaching Hegel’s Social Philosophy from His MetaphysicsThe Owl of Minerva 36 (1): 31-42. 2004.This paper rebuts four objections to my attempt, in Foundations of Hegel's Social Theory, to reconstruct Hegel's social philosophy in abstraction from his metaphysics and theodicy: 1) that social philosophy requires the Logic as its ground; 2) that only an independent metaphysics can justify the norms employed by social philosophy; 3) that empirical considerations can play no role in Hegel's arguments; and 4) that, robbed of his "ontology of the self," Hegel cannot respond to romantic critics. I…Read more
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70On Detaching Hegel’s Social Philosophy from His MetaphysicsThe Owl of Minerva 36 (1): 31-42. 2004.This paper rebuts four objections to my attempt, in Foundations of Hegel's Social Theory, to reconstruct Hegel's social philosophy in abstraction from his metaphysics and theodicy: 1) that social philosophy requires the Logic as its ground; 2) that only an independent metaphysics can justify the norms employed by social philosophy; 3) that empirical considerations can play no role in Hegel's arguments; and 4) that, robbed of his "ontology of the self," Hegel cannot respond to romantic critics. I…Read more
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66Nietzsche on Spiritual Illness and Its PromiseJournal of Nietzsche Studies 45 (3): 293-314. 2014.ABSTRACT This article reconstructs Nietzsche's conception of spiritual illness, especially as exhibited in various forms of the bad conscience, and asks what positive, ennobling potential Nietzsche finds in it. The relevant concept of spirit is arrived at by reconstructing Nietzsche's conception of life and then considering what reflexive life—life turned back against itself—would look like. It distinguishes four independent features of spiritual illness: the measureless drive to make oneself su…Read more
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66Fichte’s Theory of SubjectivityCambridge University Press. 1990.This is the first book in English to elucidate the central issues in the work of Johann Gottlieb Fichte, a figure crucial to the movement of philosophy from Kant to German idealism. The book explains Fichte's notion of subjectivity and how his particular view developed out of Kant's accounts of theoretical and practical reason. Fichte argued that the subject has a self-positing structure which distinguishes it from a thing or an object. Thus, the subject must be understood as an activity rather …Read more
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62Rousseau's Critique of Inequality: Reconstructing the Second DiscourseCambridge University Press. 2014.Rousseau's Discourse on the Origin of Inequality among Mankind, published in 1755, is a vastly influential study of the foundations of human society, including the economic inequalities it tends to create. To date, however, there has been little philosophical analysis of the Discourse in the literature. In this book, Frederick Neuhouser offers a rich and incisive philosophical examination of the work. He clarifies Rousseau's arguments as to why social inequalities are so prevalent in human socie…Read more
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53Die Idee einer Hegelianischen ‚Wissenschaft 'der Gesellschaft‘Analyse & Kritik 30 (2): 355-378. 2008.This paper sets out the kind of intellectual enterprise Hegel’s science of society is by explaining its aim (reconciliation) and the method it employs to achieve that aim. It argues that Hegel’s science of society, similar to Smith’s and Marx’s, offers an account of the good social order that is grounded in both an empirical understanding of existing institutions and a normative commitment to a certain vision of the good life. It spells out the criteria Hegel appeals to in his judgment that the …Read more
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51Desire, Recognition, and the Relation between Bondsman and LordIn Kenneth R. Westphal (ed.), The Blackwell Guide to Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Wiley‐blackwell. 2009.This chapter contains sections titled: Further Reading.
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43Hegel and Nietzsche on Spirit and its PathologiesIn Leonel R. dos Santos & Katia Dawn Hay (eds.), Nietzsche, German Idealism and its Critics, De Gruyter. pp. 11-34. 2015.
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41The General Will: Rousseau, Marx, CommunismPhilosophical Review 104 (4): 597. 1995.The principal aim of Andrew Levine’s most recent book is to defend the ideal of communism. Its strategy is to demonstrate the coherence and desirability of that ideal by invoking Rousseau’s concept of the general will. More specifically, the general will is supposed to provide a model for the kind of cooperation that will take place among members of a communistic society. Since the notion of a general will is itself highly obscure, this book can also be read as an attempt to clarify and flesh ou…Read more
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38Diagnosing Social Pathology: Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and DurkheimCambridge University Press. 2022.Can a human society suffer from illness like a living thing? And if so, how does such a malaise manifest itself? In this thought-provoking book, Fred Neuhouser explains and defends the idea of social pathology, demonstrating what it means to describe societies as 'ill', or 'sick', and why we are so often drawn to conceiving of social problems as ailments or maladies. He shows how Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Durkheim – four key philosophers who are seldom taken to constitute a 'tradition' – deploy…Read more
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35Die kritische Funktion der Genealogie im Denken Jean-Jacques RousseausDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 54 (4): 495-509. 2006.Der Beitrag rekonstruiert sowohl Rousseaus Erklärung der Entstehung der Ungleichheit als auch die Maßstäbe, die er anwendet, um die Legitimität von Ungleichheiten zu beurteilen. Nachdem gezeigt wird, dass die Eigenliebe die Hauptquelle der Ungleichheit ist, wird das Verhältnis zwischen Rousseaus Genealogie und seiner normativen Kritik an der Gesellschaft untersucht
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34Warren Breckman, Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical Social Theory: De-throning the Self (Review) (review)Mind 110 (438). 2001.
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33Daniel Breazeale, ed. and trans., "Fichte: Early Philosophical Writings" (review)Journal of the History of Philosophy 28 (4): 624. 1990.
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30The General Will (review)Philosophical Review 104 (4): 597-600. 1995.The principal aim of Andrew Levine’s most recent book is to defend the ideal of communism. Its strategy is to demonstrate the coherence and desirability of that ideal by invoking Rousseau’s concept of the general will. More specifically, the general will is supposed to provide a model for the kind of cooperation that will take place among members of a communistic society. Since the notion of a general will is itself highly obscure, this book can also be read as an attempt to clarify and flesh ou…Read more
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29Hegel’s Idea of a ‘Phenomenology of Spirit’ (review)Philosophical Review 109 (2): 296-299. 2000.Michael Forster’s latest book is a comprehensive and illuminating treatment of the basic tasks and strategies of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. As the title indicates, Forster is more concerned to elucidate the aims and structure of the Phenomenology as a whole than to reconstruct the claims of specific sections or to provide a chapter-by-chapter commentary. Forster is correct that a coherent and sympathetic account of the Phenomenology’s “official project” is badly needed, and he succeeds adm…Read more
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26Rousseau und das menschliche Verlangen nach AnerkennungDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 56 (6): 899-922. 2008.Rousseau ist der erste Denker in der Geschichte der Philosophie, der das Streben nach Anerkennung durch Andere im Innersten der menschlichen Natur lokalisiert und es damit zu einem zentralen Thema der Moral-, Sozial- und politischen Philosophie macht. Der Aufsatz zeichnet Rousseaus Überlegungen zum menschlichen Streben nach Anerkennung der Leidenschaft, die er l′amour propre nennt in großen Linien nach und versucht dabei vorzuführen, wie sich die einzelnen Bestandteile des Rousseauschen Aner…Read more
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24Response to Robert PippinProceedings of the Eighth International Kant Congress 1 999-1003. 1995.
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23Rousseaus Kritik der ökonomischen UngleichheitDeutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 63 (2). 2015.This paper reconstructs Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s position on the limits of legitimate economic inequality as presented in his Second Discourse. It argues that, although Rousseau’s position is egalitarian in that it places severe limits on permissible inequalities, he values economic equality instrumentally, not for its own sake but only as a means for promoting freedom and for securing the social conditions that make recognition, a central component of human well-being, available to all. The pape…Read more
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22Alienation by Rahel Jaeggi Translated by Frederick Neuhouser and Alan E. Smith (review)Review of Metaphysics 68 (3): 662-664. 2015.
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19Marx, the Young Hegelians, and the Origins of Radical Social Theory: De-Throning the SelfMind 110 (438): 439-442. 2001.