{"id":241164,"date":"2021-05-10T21:24:18","date_gmt":"2021-05-11T02:24:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/?p=241164"},"modified":"2026-04-29T04:17:52","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T09:17:52","slug":"less-than-nothing-hegel-and-the-shadow-of-dialectical-materialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mindseyemag.com\/magazine\/less-than-nothing-hegel-and-the-shadow-of-dialectical-materialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Less Than Nothing: Hegel and the Shadow of Dialectical Materialism"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the last two centuries, Western philosophy has developed in the shadow of\u00a0Hegel, an influence each new thinker struggles to escape. As a consequence,\u00a0Hegel\u2019s absolute idealism has become the bogeyman of philosophy, obscuring\u00a0the fact that he is the defining philosopher of the historical transition to\u00a0modernity, a period with which our own times share startling similarities.<\/p>\n

Today, as global capitalism comes apart at the seams, we are entering a new\u00a0period of transition. In Less Than Nothing, the product of a career-long focus on\u00a0the part of its author, Slavoj \u017di\u017eek argues it is imperative we not simply return to\u00a0Hegel but that we repeat and exceed his triumphs, overcoming his limitations\u00a0by being even more Hegelian than the master himself. Such an approach not\u00a0only enables \u017di\u017eek to diagnose our present condition, but also to engage in a\u00a0critical dialogue with key strands of contemporary thought\u2014Heidegger, Badiou,\u00a0speculative realism, quantum physics, and cognitive sciences. Modernity will\u00a0begin and end with Hegel.