Просмотр кода страницы Английская Википедия:Alexandre Kojève

{{Английская Википедия/Панель перехода}}
{{Short description|Russian-born French philosopher and statesman}}
{{Infobox philosopher
|region = [[Western philosophy]]
|era = [[20th-century philosophy]]
|image = Kojeve.jpg
|caption = 
|name = Alexandre Kojève
|birth_date = {{birth date|1902|04|28|df=y}}
|birth_place = Moscow, Russian Empire
|death_date = {{death date and age|1968|06|04|1902|04|28|df=y}}
|death_place = Brussels, Belgium
|alma_mater = [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]]<br>[[University of Heidelberg]]
|institutions = [[École pratique des hautes études]]
|school_tradition = {{Unbulleted list|item_style=white-space: nowrap | [[Neo-Hegelianism]] | [[Existential phenomenology]] | [[Marxism]] }}
|main_interests = [[Philosophy of history]]
|notable_ideas = Subjects of [[Desire (philosophy)|desire]]<ref>Butler 1987, p. xxvi.</ref>
|signature =
|birth_name=Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kozhevnikov}}
'''Alexandre Kojève''' ({{IPAc-en|k|oʊ|ˈ|ʒ|ɛ|v}} {{respell|koh|ZHEV}}, {{IPA-fr|alɛksɑ̃dʁ kɔʒɛv|lang}}; 28 April 1902 – 4 June 1968) was a Russian-born French philosopher and statesman whose philosophical seminars had an immense influence on [[20th-century French philosophy]], particularly via his integration of [[Hegelianism|Hegelian]] concepts into twentieth-century [[continental philosophy]].<ref>Butler 1987, p. ix.</ref><ref>[[Vincent Descombes]], ''Modern French Philosophy'', Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp. 158–9.</ref> As a statesman in the French government, he was instrumental in the formation of the [[European Union]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}

==Life==
[[File:Alexandre Kojève.jpg|thumb|Kojève in Berlin, 1922.]]

Kojève was born '''Aleksandr Vladimirovich Kozhevnikov''' ({{lang-rus|Алекса́ндр Влади́мирович Коже́вников|p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr vlɐˈdʲimʲɪrəvʲɪtɕ kɐˈʐɛvnʲɪkəf}}) in the Russian Empire to a wealthy and influential family. His uncle was the [[Abstract art|abstract artist]] [[Wassily Kandinsky]], about whose work he would write an influential essay in 1936. He was educated at the [[Humboldt University of Berlin|University of Berlin]] and the [[Heidelberg University|University of Heidelberg]], both in Germany. In Heidelberg, he completed in 1926 his PhD thesis on the Russian religious philosopher [[Vladimir Solovyov (philosopher)|Vladimir Soloviev]]'s views on the union of God and man in Christ under the direction of [[Karl Jaspers]]. The title of his [[thesis]] was ''Die religiöse Philosophie Wladimir Solowjews'' (''The Religious Philosophy of Vladimir Soloviev'').

Early influences included the philosopher [[Martin Heidegger]] and the historian of science [[Alexandre Koyré]]. Kojève spent most of his life in France and from 1933 to 1939 delivered in Paris a series of lectures on [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel]]'s work ''[[The Phenomenology of Spirit|Phenomenology of Spirit]]''. After the Second World War, Kojève worked in the French Ministry of Economic Affairs as one of the chief planners to form the [[European Economic Community]].

Kojève studied and used [[Sanskrit]], Chinese, [[Classical Tibetan|Tibetan]], Latin and [[Classical Greek]]. He was also fluent in French, German, Russian and English.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Frost |first=Bryan-Paul |date=2011-03-01 |title=James H. Nichols, Jr., Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History |journal=Society |language=en |volume=48 |issue=2 |pages=192–194 |doi=10.1007/s12115-010-9402-7 |s2cid=142729759 |issn=1936-4725}}</ref>

Kojève died in 1968, shortly after giving a talk to civil servants and state representatives for the European Economic Community (now the [[European Union]]) in Brussels on behalf of the French government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Auffret |first=Dominique |title=Alexandre Kojève |date=2002 |isbn=978-2253943204 |pages=414–5 |publisher=Grasset |language=fr}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=van Batenburg |first=Robbert Alexander |date=5 April 2023 |title=Alexandre Kojève and his Quest to Actualize the 'Universal and Homogenous State' |url=https://history.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/van-Batenburg-Robbert_thesis.pdf |journal=[[Columbia University]] |pages=57 |access-date=8 August 2023 |archive-date=10 August 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230810230233/https://history.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/van-Batenburg-Robbert_thesis.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

== Philosophy ==
=== Hegel lectures ===
{{Hegelianism}}
Although not an orthodox [[Marxism|Marxist]],<ref name="Kołakowski">[[Leszek Kołakowski|Kołakowski, Leszek]]. ''Main Currents of Marxism''. Trans. P. S. Falla. New York and London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2005. {{ISBN|0-393-06054-3}}. p. 929.</ref> Kojève was known as an influential and idiosyncratic interpreter of Hegel, reading him through the lens of both [[Karl Marx]] and [[Martin Heidegger]]. The well-known [[end of history]] thesis advanced the idea that [[Ideology|ideological]] history in a limited sense had ended with the [[French Revolution]] and the regime of [[Napoleon]] and that there was no longer a need for violent struggle to establish the "rational supremacy of the regime of rights and equal recognition". Kojève's end of history is different from [[Francis Fukuyama]]'s later thesis of the same name in that it points as much to a [[Mixed economy|socialist-capitalist synthesis]] as to a triumph of [[liberal capitalism]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Kojeve |first=Alexandre |title=Capitalisme et socialisme: Marx est Dieu; Ford est son prophète. (Capitalism and socialism: Marx is God; Ford is his prophet) |date=Spring 1980 |journal=[[Commentaire]] |volume=9}}.</ref><ref>{{Citation | last = Howse | first = Robert | quote = The End of History does not itself resolve the tension within the idea of equality — the ideal of equal recognition that is rationally victorious with the End of History embodies elements of market justice, equal opportunity, and "equivalence" in exchange (the "bourgeois" dimension of the French Revolution). But it also contains within it a socialist or social democratic conception of equality of civic status, implying social regulation, welfare rights, and the like. | title = Kojeve's Latin Empire | url = http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3437146.html | access-date = 2008-04-14 | journal = Policy Review | issn = 0146-5945 | issue = 126 | year = 2004| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080318163058/http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3437146.html| archive-date= 18 March 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>

Kojève's lectures on Hegel were collected, edited and published by Raymond Aron in 1947, and published in abridged form in English in the now classic ''[[Introduction to the Reading of Hegel|Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit]]''. His interpretation of Hegel has been one of the most influential of the past century. His lectures were attended by a small but influential group of intellectuals including [[Raymond Queneau]], [[Georges Bataille]], [[Maurice Merleau-Ponty]], [[André Breton]], [[Jacques Lacan]], [[Raymond Aron]], [[Michel Leiris]], [[Henry Corbin]] and [[Éric Weil]]. His interpretation of the [[master–slave dialectic]] was an important influence on [[Jacques Lacan]]'s [[mirror stage]] theory. Other French thinkers who have acknowledged his influence on their thought include the [[Post-structuralism|post-structuralist]] philosophers [[Michel Foucault]] and [[Jacques Derrida]].

=== Friendship with Leo Strauss ===
Kojève had a close and lifelong friendship with [[Leo Strauss]] which began when they were philosophy students in Berlin. The two shared a deep philosophical respect for each other. Kojève would later write that he "never would have known [...] what philosophy is" without Strauss.<ref>Lilla 2001, p. 131.</ref> In the 1930s, the two began a debate on the relation of philosophy to politics that would come to fruition with Kojève's response to Strauss' ''On Tyranny''.

Kojève, a senior statesman in the French government, argued that philosophers should have an active part in shaping political events. On the other hand, Strauss believed that philosophy and politics were fundamentally opposed and that philosophers should not have a substantial role in politics, noting the disastrous results of Plato in [[Syracuse, Sicily|Syracuse]]. Philosophers should influence politics only to the extent that they can ensure that philosophical contemplation remains free from the seduction and coercion of power.<ref name="Strauss"/>

In spite of this debate, Strauss and Kojève remained friendly. In fact, Strauss would send his best students to Paris to finish their education under Kojève's personal guidance. Among these were [[Allan Bloom]], who endeavored to make Kojève's works available in English and published the first edition of Kojève's lectures in English, and [[Stanley Rosen]].

== Political views ==
=== Marxism ===
According to his own account shortly before his death, Kojève was a communist from youth, and was enthusiastic regarding Bolshevik revolution. However, he "knew that the establishment of communism meant thirty terrible years.", so he ran away.<ref name="LapougeKojeve">{{cite web |last1=Lapouge |first1=Gilles |last2=Kojève |first2=Alexandre |title=« Les philosophes ne m'intéressent pas, je cherche des sages », une conversation avec Alexandre Kojève |url=https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2020/12/25/conversation-alexandre-kojeve/ |website=Le grand continent |date=25 December 2020 |access-date=26 July 2023 |archive-date=26 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726091106/https://legrandcontinent.eu/fr/2020/12/25/conversation-alexandre-kojeve/ |url-status=live }}</ref> From now on, he once claimed in his letter to [[Tran Duc Thao]], dated October 7, 1948, that his "... course was essentially a work of propaganda intended to strike people's minds. This is why I consciously reinforced the role of the dialectic of Master and Slave and, in general, schematized the content of phenomenology."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kojève |first1=Alexandre |last2=Thao |first2=Trân Duc |title=Exchange between Trân Duc Thao and Alexandre Kojève |journal=Graduate Faculty Philosophy Journal |date=2009 |volume=30 |issue=2 |page=349 |doi=10.5840/gfpj200930224 |url=https://www.pdcnet.org/gfpj/content/gfpj_2009_0030_0002_0349_0354}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Nichols |first1=James H. |title=Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History |date=2007 |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield|Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.]] |location=New York |page=82 |isbn=9780742569768 |edition=1st |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2QMfAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA82}}</ref> His articles from 1920s, talked positively about the USSR, saw it as something developing new. In an article to magazine Yevraziya, a left [[Eurasianism|Eurasianist]] journal, he praised the CPSU's struggle against bourgeois philosophy, arguing that it would lead to something new, whether one calls it proletarian or not:<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kojève |first1=Alexandre |title=Philosophy and the Communist Party |journal=[[Radical Philosophy]] |date=2021 |issue=211 |pages=31–33 |url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/philosophy-and-the-communist-party |access-date=26 July 2023 |archive-date=26 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726085603/https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/philosophy-and-the-communist-party |url-status=live }}</ref>

{{Blockquote
|text="(...) Marxist philosophy can express the world view of the new ruling class and new culture, and every other philosophy is subject to destruction. (...) Everything currently taking place in the USSR is so significant and new that any assessment of the Party's cultural or ‘philosophical’ politics cannot be founded on preconceived cultural values or preformed philosophical systems. (...) the question of the Party's ‘philosophical politics’ can be assessed, it seems, not entirely negatively. (...) Toward the end of the nineteenth century Western thought effectively concluded its development [...] turning into a philosophical school of ‘scholasticism’ in the popular, negative sense of the term. (...) being a philosopher, one can nevertheless welcome ‘philosophical politics’ leading to the complete prohibition of the study of philosophy. (...) The Party is fighting against bourgeois culture in the name of proletarian culture. Many find the word ‘proletariat’ not to their taste. This is after all only a word. The essence of the matter does not change, and the essence consists in the fact that a battle is raging with something old, already existing, in the name of something new, which has yet to be created. Anyone who will welcome the appearance of a truly new culture and philosophy – either because it will be neither Eastern nor Western, but Eurasian, or simply because it will be new and lively in contrast to the already crystallised and dead cultures of the West and East – should also accept everything that contributes to this appearance. It seems to me, for the time being of course, that the Party’s policies directed against bourgeois (that is, ultimately Western) culture is really preparation for a new culture of the future. (...)"
}}

[[Mark Lilla]] notes that Kojève rejected the prevailing concept among some European [[intellectual]]s of the 1930s that [[capitalism]] and [[democracy]] were failed artifacts of [[Age of Enlightenment|the Enlightenment]] that would be destroyed by either [[communism]] or [[fascism]].<ref>Lilla 2001, pp. 123–124.</ref>

While initially somewhat more sympathetic to the [[Soviet Union]] than the United States, Kojève devoted much of his thought to protecting [[Western Europe|western European]] autonomy, particularly relating to France, from domination by either the Soviet Union or the United States. He believed that the capitalist United States represented [[Right Hegelians|right-Hegelianism]] while the state-socialist Soviet Union represented [[Young Hegelians|left-Hegelianism]]. Thus, victory by either side, he posited, would result in what Lilla describes as "a [[Rationality|rationally]] organized [[bureaucracy]] without [[Social class|class distinctions]]".<ref>Lilla 2001, p. 124.</ref>

=== Stalin and the Soviet Union ===
Kojève's views of Stalin, while changing after World War II, was positive. Kojève's interest for Stalin, however, might have been continued, whether positive or negative, after World War II. According to [[Isaiah Berlin]], a contemporary of Kojève and his friend, during their meeting in Paris c. 1946-1947, they talked about Stalin and the USSR. Berlin comments on his relations with Stalin, saying "(...) Kojéve was an ingenious thinker and imagined that Stalin was one too. (...) He said that he wrote to Stalin, but received no reply. I think that perhaps he identified himself with Hegel, and Stalin with Napoleon. (...)"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Berlin |first1=Isaiah |last2=Jahanbegloo |first2=Ramin |title=Conversations with Isaiah Berlin |date=1991 |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |isbn=0-684-19394-9 |page=65 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit0000berl/page/65/ |access-date=26 July 2023}}</ref>

The most important result of this era was Kojève's work addressed to Stalin, ''Sofia, filo-sofia i fenomeno-logia'' (''[[Sophia (wisdom)|Sophia]], Philo-sophy and Phenomeno-logy''), a manuscript of more than 900 pages that was penned between 1940-1941.<ref name="Weslati">{{cite journal |last1=Weslati |first1=Hager |title=Kojève's letter to Stalin |journal=[[Radical Philosophy]] |date=2014 |issue=184 |page=7 |url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/wp-content/files_mf/rp184_article1_weslati_kojeveslettertostalin.pdf |access-date=2023-07-26 |archive-date=2023-12-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231223015640/https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/wp-content/files_mf/rp184_article1_weslati_kojeveslettertostalin.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In that manuscript, according to [[Boris Groys]], Kojève defended his thesis that the "''universal and homogeneous state in which the Sage can emerge and live is none other than Communism''" and "''scientific Communism of Marx–Lenin–Stalin is an attempt to expand the philosophical project to its ultimate historical and social borders''". According to Groys, "Kojève sees the end of history as the moment of the spread of wisdom through the whole population – the democratization of wisdom; a universalization that leads to homogenization. He believes that the Soviet Union moves towards the society of wise men in which every member will have self-consciousness."<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Groys |first1=Boris |title=Romantic bureaucracy: Alexander Kojève's post-historical wisdom |journal=[[Radical Philosophy]] |date=2016 |issue=196 |page=32 |url=https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/wp-content/files_mf/rp196_dossier_groys_romanticbureaucracy18.pdf |access-date=26 July 2023 |archive-date=26 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726085603/https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/wp-content/files_mf/rp196_dossier_groys_romanticbureaucracy18.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref>

According to Weslati, several versions of ''Sofia'', including a typesetted copy, had been completed in the first week of March 1941, and one of them was given to Soviet vice consul in person by Kojève. Soviet consul "... promised to send the letter with the next diplomatic bag to Moscow." However, "[l]ess than three months later, the embassy and its contents would be put to the torch by Nazi troops."<ref name="Weslati" /> It's not known whether Kojève's work had reached the USSR or was burned with the embassy.

In 1999, ''[[Le Monde]]'' published an article reporting that a French intelligence document showed that Kojève had spied for the [[Soviets]] for over thirty years.<ref>{{Cite news|url = https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/09/16/la-dst-avait-identifie-plusieurs-agents-du-kgb-parmi-lesquels-le-philosophe-alexandre-kojeve_3569776_1819218.html?xtmc=kojeve_espion&xtcr=5|title = La DST avait identifié plusieurs agents du KGB parmi lesquels le philosophe Alexandre Kojève|newspaper = Le Monde.fr|date = 16 September 1999|access-date = 12 April 2021|archive-date = 12 April 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210412185406/https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1999/09/16/la-dst-avait-identifie-plusieurs-agents-du-kgb-parmi-lesquels-le-philosophe-alexandre-kojeve_3569776_1819218.html?xtmc=kojeve_espion&xtcr=5|url-status = live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url = https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-stalinist-behind-the-treaty-of-rome/|title = Russian Stalinist who invented Europe|date = 22 March 2017|access-date = 12 April 2021|archive-date = 12 April 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210412185823/https://www.politico.eu/article/russian-stalinist-behind-the-treaty-of-rome/|url-status = live}}</ref>

[[File:Kandinsky - Drei Elemente (1925).jpg|thumb|''[[Three Elements]]'', by [[Wassily Kandinsky]] (1925). The painting belonged to Kojève and later to his widow Nina.]]
Although Kojève often claimed to be a [[Stalinist]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.richardwebster.net/thecultoflacan.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020910203351/http://www.richardwebster.net/thecultoflacan.html|url-status=usurped|archive-date=September 10, 2002|title=The Cult of Lacan: Freud, Lacan and the mirror-stage|author=Richard Webster|work=richardwebster.net|quote=From Kojève Lacan learnt not only a version of Hegel but also the techniques of seduction and intellectual enslavement with which this charismatic teacher, who defined himself as a 'Stalinist of the strictest obedience', enthralled and mesmerized his students.|year=1994|access-date=2010-09-29}}</ref> he largely regarded the Soviet Union with contempt, calling its social policies disastrous and its claims to be a truly classless state ludicrous. Kojève's cynicism towards traditional Marxism as an outmoded philosophy in industrially well-developed [[Capitalism|capitalist]] nations prompted him to go as far as idiosyncratically referring to capitalist [[Henry Ford]] as "the one great authentic Marxist of the twentieth century".<ref name="Nichols-P90">Nichols, James H. ''Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History''. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2007. {{ISBN|0-7425-2777-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7425-2777-5}}. p. 90.</ref> He specifically and repeatedly called the Soviet Union the only country in which 19th-century capitalism still existed. His Stalinism was quite ironic, but he was serious about Stalinism to the extent that he regarded the utopia of the Soviet Union under Stalin and the willingness to purge unsupportive elements in the population as evidence of a desire to bring about the end of history and as a repetition of the [[Reign of Terror]] of the French Revolution.<ref>Geroulanos, ''An Atheism That Is Not Humanist Emerges in French Thought'', pp. 133–134.</ref>

=== Kojève and zionism ===
According to [[Isaiah Berlin]], Kojève was not fond of the idea of a state of Israel. Berlin's several different accounts, like the ones published in the Jewish Chronicle in 1973, in [[The Jerusalem Report]] in October 1990, and in his interview with [[Ramin Jahanbegloo]] in 1991 (also published as a book), are about his meeting with Kojève.

According to the 1973 account, "ten years ago or more" he was "dining in Paris with a distinguished historian of philosophy who was also a high official of the French Government", namely, Kojève.<ref name="BerlinIsrael1">{{cite web |last1=Berlin |first1=Isaiah |author1-link=Isaiah Berlin |title=Israel: A Nation among Nations |url=https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib135.pdf |website=The Isaiah Berlin Virtual Library |access-date=26 July 2023 |pages=1–3 |date=1973 |archive-date=26 July 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726085607/https://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/published_works/singles/bib135.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> 1990 account also records that they were talking in [[Russian language|Russian]].<ref name="BerlinIsrael2">{{cite journal |last1=Berlin |first1=Isaiah |last2=Furstenberg |first2=Rochelle |title=Reflections of a Zionist Don |journal=[[The Jerusalem Report]] |date=1990 |volume=1 |issue=1 |page=51 |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/218740009 |access-date=26 July 2023 |id={{ProQuest|218740009}} |quote=(...) There was a French philospher called Monsieur Kojève. He was originally Russian. We talked Russian. He was a very interesting man. He said to me: "You're a Jew. The Jewish people probably have the most interesting history of any people that ever lived. And now you want to be Albania?" And I said, "Yes, we do. For our purposes, for Jews, Albania is a step forward.}}</ref> While talking, the issue of Israel and zionism was also discussed. Kojève, who "was plainly taken aback" at Berlin's defence of zionism, asked Berlin:<ref name="BerlinIsrael1" />

{{Blockquote
|text="[...] Jews [...], with their rich and extraordinary history, miraculous survivors from the classical age of our common civilisation – that this fascinating people should choose to give up its unique status, and for what? To become [[Albania]]? How could they want this? Was this not [...] a failure of national imagination, a betrayal of all that the Jews were and stood for?"
}}

In return, according to the interview with Jahanbegloo, Berlin replied: "For the Jews to be like Albania constitutes progress. Some 600,000 Jews in Romania were trapped like sheep to be slaughtered by the Nazis and their local allies. A good many escaped. But 600,000 Jews in Palestine did not leave because Rommel was at their door. That is the difference. They considered Palestine to be their own country, and if they had to die, they would die not like trapped animals, but for their country."<ref name="BerlinIsrael3">{{cite journal |last1=Jahanbegloo |first1=Ramin |title=Conversations with Isaiah Berlin |journal=[[Jewish Quarterly]] |date=1991 |volume=38 |issue=3 |page=19 |doi=10.1080/0449010X.1991.10705799|doi-broken-date=2024-01-11 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0449010X.1991.10705799 }}</ref><ref name="BerlinIsrael4">{{cite book |last1=Berlin |first1=Isaiah |last2=Jahanbegloo |first2=Ramin |title=Conversations with Isaiah Berlin |date=1991 |publisher=[[Charles Scribner's Sons]] |location=[[New York City|New York]] |isbn=0-684-19394-9 |page=86 |edition=1st |url=https://archive.org/details/conversationswit0000berl/page/86 |access-date=26 July 2023 |quote=(...) The purpose of Zionism is normalization; the creation of conditions in which the Jews could live as a nation, like the others. Alexandre Kojève, whom I spoke of before, once said to me: ''“The Jews have the most interesting history of any people. Yet now they want to be what? Albania? How can they?”'' I said: “For the Jews to be like Albania constitutes progress. Some 600,000 Jews in Romania were trapped like sheep to be slaughtered by the Nazis and their local allies. A good many escaped. But 600,000 Jews in Palestine did not leave because Rommel was at their door. That is the difference. They considered Palestine to be their own country, and if they had to die, they would die not like trapped animals, but for their country.” That’s what I mean. I don’t want Jews to stop living where they live. If they do not mind being a minority, that is in order. There is nothing wrong with being a minority. Some people feel minorities to be a disturbing element—T. S. Eliot, for example, or the French ''intégralistes'' who influenced him. Minorities are often a valuable stimulus to the majority, a leaven, a source of fermentation. But nobody should be forced to be a minority. If you don’t want to belong to a minority, and you want a normal life, you can fully attain it only in a country whose culture is yours. This path must be opened.}}</ref> "We reached no agreement.", records Berlin.<ref name="BerlinIsrael1" />

== Critics ==
In a commentary on [[Francis Fukuyama]]'s ''[[The End of History and the Last Man]]'', the [[Traditionalist conservatism|traditionalist conservative]] thinker<ref name=Cowling1990pxxix>{{cite book |last1=Cowling |first1=Maurice |title=Mill and Liberalism |date=1990 |publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|at=[https://books.google.com/books?id=k_RjyJSr_z0C&pg=PR29 xxix]}}</ref><ref name="Garnett2013pp113-115">{{cite book |last1=Garnett |first1=Mark |title=Conservative Thinkers: The Key Contributors to the Political Thought of the Modern Conservative Party |last2=Hickson |first2=Kevin |date=2013 |publisher=Manchester University Press |location=Manchester and New York |at=113–115}}</ref> [[Roger Scruton]] calls Kojève "a [[Misanthropy|life-hating]] Russian at heart, a self-declared Stalinist, and a [[Civil service|civil servant]] who played a leading behind-the-scenes role in establishing both the [[General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade]] and the [[European Economic Community]]" and states his opinion that Kojève was "a dangerous [[psychopath]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The trouble with Islam, the European Union - and Francis Fukuyama |url=https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trouble_3605jsp/ |access-date=2022-07-09 |website=openDemocracy |language=en |archive-date=2022-05-23 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220523060732/https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/trouble_3605jsp/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

== His works ==
Kojève's correspondence with [[Leo Strauss]] has been published along with Kojève's critique of Strauss's commentary on [[Xenophon]]'s ''[[Hiero (Xenophon)|Hiero]]''.<ref name="Strauss">{{citation |last=Strauss |first=Leo |title=On Tyranny |editor-last=Gourevitch |editor-first=Victor |editor2-last=Roth |editor2-first=Michael S.}}.</ref> In the 1950s, Kojève also met the rightist legal theorist [[Carl Schmitt]], whose "Concept of the Political" he had implicitly criticized in his analysis of Hegel's text on "Lordship and Bondage" {{Additional citation needed|date=February 2021}}. Another close friend was the Jesuit Hegelian philosopher [[Gaston Fessard]], whom with also had correspondence.

In addition to his lectures on the ''Phenomenology of Spirit,'' Kojève's other publications include a little noticed book on [[Immanuel Kant]] and articles on the relationship between [[Hegelianism|Hegelian]] and [[Marxist philosophy|Marxist thought]] and Christianity. His 1943 book ''Esquisse d'une phenomenologie du droit'', published posthumously in 1981, elaborates a theory of justice that contrasts the aristocratic and bourgeois views of the right. ''Le Concept, le temps et le discours'' extrapolates on the Hegelian notion that wisdom only becomes possible in the fullness of time. Kojève's response to Strauss, who disputed this notion, can be found in Kojève's article "The Emperor Julian and his Art of Writing".<ref>Published in {{citation |title=Ancients and Moderns: Essays on the Tradition of Political Philosophy in Honor of Leo Strauss |year=1964 |editor-last=Cropsey |editor-first=Joseph |publisher=Basic Books}}, as well as in the above-mentioned edition of Strauss's ''On Tyranny.''</ref> Kojève also challenged Strauss' interpretation of [[the classics]] in the voluminous ''Esquisse d'une histoire raisonnée de la pensée païenne'' which covers the [[Pre-Socratic philosophy|pre-Socratic]] philosophers, [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]], as well as [[Neoplatonism]]. While the first volume of the previous work was still published during his life-time, most of his writings remained unpublished until recently. These are becoming the subject of increased scholarly attention.

The books that have so far been published are the two remaining volumes of the ''Esquisse d'une histoire raisonnée de la pensée païenne'' (1972, 1973 [1952]), ''Outline of a Phenomenology of Right'' (1981 [1943]), ''L'idée du déterminisme dans la physique classique et dans la physique moderne'' (1990 [1932]), ''Le Concept, le Temps et Le Discours'' (1990 [1952]), ''L'Athéisme'' (1998 [1931]), ''The Notion of Authority'' (2004 [1942]), and ''Identité et Réalité dans le "Dictionnaire" de Pierre Bayle'' (2010 [1937]). Several of his shorter texts are also gathering greater attention and some are being published in book form as well.

=== Bibliography ===
* Alexander Koschewnikoff, ''Die religiöse Philosophie Wladimir Solowjews''. Heidelberg Univ., Dissertation 1926.
* Alexander Koschewnikoff, ''Die Geschichtsphilosophie Wladimir Solowjews''. Sonderabdruck. Bonn, Verlag von Friedrich Cohen, 1930.<br>A short article based on the dissertation.
* Alexandre Kojevnikoff, ''La métaphysique religieuse de Vladimir Soloviev''. Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie religieuses. Novembre-décembre 1934. Année: 14. № 6.<br>Alexandre Kojevnikoff, ''La métaphysique religieuse de Vladimir Soloviev (suite et fin)''. Revue d'Histoire et de Philosophie religieuses. Janvier-avril 1935. Année: 15. № 1-2.<br>Famous two parts article based on the dissertation.
** Alexandre Kojève (transll. Ilya Merlin, Mikhail Pozdniakov), ''The Religious Metaphysics of Vladimir Solovyov''. [[Palgrave Macmillan]]. 1st Ed., 2018. {{ISBN|978-3-030-02338-6}}.<br>Translated from the French edition.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''[[Introduction to the Reading of Hegel|Introduction à la Lecture de Hegel]]''. Paris, Gallimard, 1947.
** Alexandre Kojève, ''Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the Phenomenology of Spirit'', edited by [[Allan Bloom]], Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980.<br>An abridged translation edited by Allan Bloom, roughly half of the original book. According to the translator's note: "The present translation includes slightly under one half of the original volume: the pasages translated correspond to pp. 9-34, 161-195, 265-267, 271-291, 336-380, 427-443, 447-528, and 576-597 of the French text." (p.&nbsp;XIII)
** Alexandre Kojève (transl. Joseph J. Carpino), ''The idea of death in the philosophy of Hegel''. Interpretation: a journal of political philosophy. Winter 1973. Vol.: 3. No.: 2-3. Pages: 114-156.<br>Includes the complete text of the last two lectures of the academic year 1933-1934, published in French text as an appendix named ''L'idée de la mort dans la philosophie de Hegel'' (pp.&nbsp;527–573).
** Alexandre Kojève (transl. Ian Alexander Moore), ''Interpretation of the general introduction to chapter VII [The religion chapter of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit]''. Parrhesia: A Journal of Critical Philosophy. 2014. No.: 20. Pages: 15-39. [http://parrhesiajournal.org/parrhesia20/parrhesia20_kojeve.pdf Online].<br>Includes the fourth and fifth lectures of the academic year 1937-1938.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Outline of a Phenomenology of Right'', Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2000.
* Alexandre Kojève, "The Emperor Julian and His Art of Writing", in Joseph Cropsey, ''Ancients and Moderns; Essays on the Tradition of Political Philosophy in Honor of Leo Strauss'', New York: Basic Books, p.&nbsp;95-113, 1964.
* Alexandre Kojève, "Tyranny and Wisdom", in Leo Strauss, ''On Tyranny - Revised and Expanded Edition'', Chicago: University of Chicago Press, p.&nbsp;135-176, 2000.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Esquisse d'une doctrine de la politique française'' (27.8.1945). Published in ''La règle du jeu'' 1 (1990). English translation by Erik De Vries: Outline of a Doctrine of French Policy. In ''Policy Review'' 2004, p.&nbsp;3-40, online [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083759/http://www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/3436846.html].
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Düsseldorfer Vortrag: Kolonialismus in europäischer Sicht''. In: Piet Tommissen (Hg.): ''Schmittiana. Beiträge zu Leben und Werk Carl Schmitts''. Band 6, Berlin 1998, pp.&nbsp;126–143. English translation and comment, incl. Schmitt-Kojève correspondence: Erik De Vries: ''Alexandre Kojève — Carl Schmitt Correspondence and Alexandre Kojève, "Colonialism from a European Perspective"''. In: ''Interpretation'', 29/1 (2001), pp.&nbsp;91–130.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Essai d'une histoire raisonée de la philosophie païenne''. Tome 1–3. Paris, 1968; 1997.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Kant''. Paris, 1973.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Le concept, le temps et le discours''. Paris, 1991. English translation by Robert B. Williamson: ''The Concept, Time and Discourse''. St. Augustine's Press, South Bend IN, 2013.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''L'empereur Julien et son art d'écrire''. Paris, 1997.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Les peintures concrètes de Kandinsky''. Paris, 2002 (1936).
* Alexandre Kojève, ''La notion d'autorité''. Paris, 2004. English translation by Hager Weslati: ''The Notion of Authority''. Verso, 2014.
* Alexandre Kojève and Auffret D., ''L'idée du determinisme dans la physique classique et dans la physique moderne''. Paris, 1990.
* Alexandre Kojève and Bibard L., ''L'athéisme''. Paris, 1998.
* Alexandre Kojève, ''Oltre la fenomenologia. Recensioni (1932-1937)'', Italian Translation by Giampiero Chivilò, «I volti», n. 68, Mimesis, Udine-Milano, 2012. {{ISBN|978-88-5750-877-1}}.

==See also==
* [[Jean Wahl]]
* [[Post-Kojèvian discourse]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{citation |last=Butler |first=Judith |author-link=Judith Butler |title=[[Subjects of Desire: Hegelian Reflections in Twentieth-Century France]] |year=1987 |publisher=Columbia University Press |location=New York |isbn=0-231-06450-0 }}
* {{citation |last=Lilla |first=Mark |author-link=Mark Lilla |chapter=Alexandre Kojève |title=The Reckless Mind. Intellectuals in Politics |year=2001 |publisher=New York Review Books |location=New York |isbn=0-940322-76-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780940322769 }}

==Further reading==
* Bibard, Laurent, ''la Sagesse et le Féminin'', L'Harmattan, 2005
* {{citation |last=Agamben |first=Giorgio |author-link=Giorgio Agamben |title=The Open: Man and Animal |year=2004 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |isbn=0-8047-4737-7 }}
* {{citation |last=Anderson |first=Perry |author-link=Perry Anderson |chapter=The Ends of History |title=A Zone of Engagement |year=1992 |publisher=Verso |location=New York |isbn=0-86091-377-5 |pages=279–375 }}
* {{citation |last=Auffret |first=D. |title=Alexandre Kojeve. La philosophie, l'Etat, la fin de l'histoire |year=2002 |publisher=B. Grasset |location=Paris |isbn=2-246-39871-1 }}
* Chivilò, Giampiero; Menon, Marco (eds.) (2015), Tirannide e filosofia: Con un saggio di Leo Strauss ed un inedito di Gaston Fessard sj, Venezia: Edizioni Ca' Foscari, pp.&nbsp;335–416, {{ISBN|978-88-6969-032-7}}
* {{citation |last=Cooper |first=Barry |author-link=Barry F. Cooper |title=The End of History: An Essay on Modern Hegelianism |year=1984 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto |isbn=0-8020-5625-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/endofhistoryessa0000coop }}
* {{citation |last=Darby |first=Tom |title=The Feast: Meditations on Politics and Time |year=1982 |publisher=Toronto University Press |location=Toronto |isbn=0-8020-5578-8 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/feastmeditations0000darb }}
* {{citation |last=Devlin |first=F. Roger |title=Alexandre Kojeve and the Outcome of Modern Thought |year=2004 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham |isbn=0-7618-2959-8 }}
* {{citation |last=Drury |first=Shadia B. |author-link=Shadia B. Drury |title=Alexandre Kojeve: The Roots of Postmodern Politics |year=1994 |publisher=St. Martin's Press |location=New York |isbn=0-312-12089-3 }}
* {{citation |last=Filoni |first=Marco |title=Il filosofo della domenica: La vita e il pensiero di Alexandre Kojève |year=2008 |publisher=Bollati Boringhieri |location=Turin |isbn=978-88-339-1855-6 }}
* {{citation |last=Filoni |first=Marco |title=Kojève mon ami |year=2013 |publisher=Nino Aragno |location=Turin }}
* {{citation |last=Fukuyama |first=Francis |author-link=Francis Fukuyama |title=The End of History and the Last Man |year=1992 |publisher=Macmillan |location=New York |isbn=0-02-910975-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/endofhistorylast00fuku_0 }}
* {{citation |last=Geroulanos |first=Stefanos |title=An Atheism That Is Not Humanist Emerges in French Thought |year=2010 |publisher=Stanford University Press |location=Stanford |isbn=978-0-8047-6299-1 }}
* {{citation |last=Kleinberg |first=Ethan |title=Generation Existential: Heidegger's Philosophy in France, 1927-1961 |year=2005 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca |isbn=0-8014-4391-1 |url=https://archive.org/details/generationexiste00klei_0 }}
* {{citation |last=Kovacevic |first=Filip |author-link=Filip Kovacevic |title=Kožev u Podgorici: Ciklus predavanja o Aleksandru Koževu |year=2014 |publisher=Centar za građansko obrazovanje |location=Podgorica, Montenegro |isbn=978-86-85591-29-7}}
* {{citation |last=Nichols |first=James H. |title=Alexandre Kojeve: Wisdom at the End of History |year=2007 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham MA |isbn=978-0742527775 }}
* {{citation |last=Niethammer |first=Lutz |title=Posthistoire: Has History Come to an End? |year=1992 |publisher=Verso |location=New York |isbn=0-86091-395-3 }}
* {{citation |last=Rosen |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Rosen |title=Hermeneutics as Politics |year=1987 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/hermeneutics_rose_1989_000_11043311/page/87 87–140] |isbn=0-19-504908-X |url=https://archive.org/details/hermeneutics_rose_1989_000_11043311/page/87 }}
* {{citation |last=Rosen |first=Stanley |author-link=Stanley Rosen |chapter=Kojève |title=A Companion to Continental Philosophy |year=1999 |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |location=London |isbn=978-0-631-21850-0 }}
* {{citation |last=Rossman |first=Vadim |author-link=Vadim Rossman |title=Alexandre Kojeve i jego trzy wieloryby |publisher=Europa |issue=nr 94 |location=Poland |pages=7–12 |date=2006-01-18 }}
* {{citation |last=Roth |first=Michael S. |author-link=Michael S. Roth |title=Knowing and History: Appropriations of Hegel in Twentieth-Century France |year=1988 |publisher=Cornell |location=Ithaca |isbn=0-8014-2136-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/knowinghistoryap00roth }}
* {{citation |last=Singh |first=Aakash |title=Eros Turannos: Leo Strauss & Alexandre Kojeve Debate on Tyranny |year=2005 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham |isbn=0-7618-3259-9 }}
* {{citation |last=Strauss |first=Leo |author-link=Leo Strauss |title=On Tyranny |edition=Rev. and expanded |year=2000 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |isbn=0-226-77687-5 }}
* {{citation |last=Tremblay |first=Frédéric |author-link=Frédéric Tremblay |article=Alexandre Kojève, The Religious Metaphysics of Vladimir Solovyov, transl. by I. Merlin and M. Pozdniakov, Palgrave Pivot, 2018 |title=Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions |year=2020 |volume=51 |issue=1 |pages=181–183}}
* {{citation |last=Vidali |first=Cristiano |title=Fine senza compimento. La fine della storia in Alexandre Kojève tra accelerazione e tradizione. (Preface by [[Massimo Cacciari]]) |year=2020 |publisher=Mimesis |location=Milano-Udine |isbn=978-8857565606 }}

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
* [https://archive.org/details/introductiontore0000kojv ''Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: lectures on the phenomenology of spirit''] English text
* [http://www.iep.utm.edu/k/kojeve.htm Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060927140201/http://www.swgc.mun.ca/animus/2000vol5/selcer5.pdf "The Discursivity of the Negative: Kojève on Language in Hegel" by Daniel J. Selcer]
* [http://www.isfp.co.uk/russian_thinkers/alexandre_kojeve.html "Biography of Alexandre Kojève" by Bryan-Paul Frost]

{{Continental philosophy}}
{{Authority control}}
<!--Please stop adding the "Marxist" categories. Kojeve was not a Marxist: see the section on Kojeve's actual views.-->

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kojeve, Alexander}}
[[Category:1902 births]]
[[Category:1968 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century atheists]]
[[Category:20th-century French philosophers]]
[[Category:Atheist philosophers]]
[[Category:Critics of Marxism]]
[[Category:European Union]]
[[Category:Existentialists]]
[[Category:Emigrants from the Russian Empire to France]]
[[Category:Hegelian philosophers]]
[[Category:Scholars of ancient Greek philosophy]]
[[Category:Phenomenologists]]
[[Category:Philosophers of history]]
[[Category:Political philosophers]]
{{Навигационная таблица/Портал/Английская Википедия}}
[[Категория:Английская Википедия]]
[[Категория:Википедия]]
[[Категория:Статья из Википедии]]
[[Категория:Статья из Английской Википедии]]