Irony and Idealism: Rereading Schlegel, Hegel, and Kierkegaard

Irony and Idealism investigates the historical and conceptual structure of the development of a philosophically distinctive conception of irony in early- to mid-nineteenth century European philosophy. The principal figures treated are the romantic thinkers Friedrich Schlegel and Novalis, Hegel, and Kierkegaard. Fred Rush argues that the development of philosophical irony in this historical period is best understood as providing a way forward in philosophy in the wake of Kant and Jacobi that is discrete from, and many times opposed to, German idealism. Irony and Idealism argues, against the grain of received opinion, that among the German romantics Schlegel's conception of irony is superior to similar ideas found in Novalis. It also presents a sustained argument showing that historical reconsideration of Schlegel has been hampered by contestable Hegelian assumptions concerning the conceptual viability of romantic irony and by the misinterpretation of what the romantics mean by 'the absolute.' Rush argues that this is primarily a social-ontological term and not, as is often supposed, a metaphysical concept. Kierkegaard, although critical of the romantic conception, deploys his own adaptation of it in his criticism of Hegel, continuing, and in a way completing, the arc of irony through nineteenth-century philosophy. The book concludes by offering suggestions meant to guide contemporary reconsideration of Schlegel's and Kierkegaard's views on the philosophical significance of irony.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Note on text, references, and translation Introductory remarks 1: Jena romanticism and the philosophical significance of irony 2: Irony displaced, or Hegel 3: Irony redivivus, or Kierkegaard Irony redivivus, or Kierkegaard Appendix Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Fred Rush teaches philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is the author of On Architecture (Routledge, 2009), the editor of the Cambridge Companion to Critical Theory (CUP, 2004), and for ten years edited the annual Internationales Jahrbuch des Deutschen Idealismus.

Review :
Ambitious and insightful... Rush's book is an extremely well-written and perceptive addition to the philosophical literature on the contest between romanticism and idealism. Given the philosophical and linguistic difficulty of many of the original sources it treats with care, as well as the thorniness and persistence of the issues that lie in the critical space between idealism and romanticism, it will serve as an invaluable resource for scholars of early to mid 19th-century European philosophy.