I’d be interested to know if anyone else is struck by the remarkable “parallels” between Pippin’s book and Hegel contra Sociology.

My visit? A change in fortunes? I’m guessing that you are referring to my last post on my very ‘work-in-progress’ website. That was a bit of a mistake – I’d created the site for a different purpose altogether but then found that I just needed to speak… I have an urge to quote Gillian Rose now but I will resist.

Drawn to Benjamin at precisely the ‘wrong’ moments? Interesting. Presumably, they are the ‘right moments’ too.

I perhaps need to read the article again but definitely agree that HCS is frequently given short shrift, although, unfortunately, not working within academia, I can’t say whether that is, in fact, the case now. Its been so long since I looked at the book never mind studied it that I don’t think I can say anything about it worth listening to any more – I had such strong opinions about Gillian Rose and Hegel et al at one time – and I imagine that I still do if I was in the right company – but I don’t have the opportunity to talk about them in any real depth any more. I’d certainly be interested to know what you think about HCS in relation to the rest of her work – I came across Rose through Love’s Work (although I had also stumbled across Rose a year beforehand when I read – or, I should say, tried to read Dialectic of Nihilism) so I’m very conscious that my understanding of HCS could perhaps be a little different to someone else’s understanding of it before Love’s Work was published.

Yes, the reference is to Benjamin’s essay, to which I am drawn at precisely the “wrong” moments; it seems to know when it becomes necessary. I enjoyed how you approached the relationship – it spells a different return.

Upon reflection, Jay Bernstein’s throwaway remark about Hegel Contra Sociology – “is not itself a major contribution to the scholarly literature on Hegel” – is less of a throwaway remark; that is to say it is both erroneous, yet truthful.

On the one hand, the import of Hegel Contra Sociology in establishing new vistas within social thought and beyond is given short shrift; perhaps the book and Prof. Rose operated outside the bounds of departmental lines, perhaps such a re-casting of Hegel cannot – must not! – be possible. With that same stroke, all questions of Robert Pippen’s wholesale lifting (“borrowings”) of passages into his Hegel’s Idealism is passed over in silence.

I’m posting a comment just to acknowledge your post on my profile in Sept 08 on LibraryThing. I particularly enjoyed your parting comment – ‘may the absolute be with you’. Fortunately, it always is, irrespective of whether we chose to acknowledge it or not.