Modernism as a Philosophical Problem

Library Journal

Pippin's ``modernism'' is the ideology behind empirical science, liberal democracy, and universal reason. Arnold Toynbee first noticed that modernism was in danger in his landmark A Study in History . Lately, it has been flayed by philosophers (Derrida, Foucault) and others who see it as a bourgeois ``first world'' doctrine. Pippin thinks there is an alternative: Hegel rejected every kind of external constraint on what humans ought to believe (postulating limitations even to empirical science and morality based on Kant's objective universal reason), but he showed us our interdependence and so gave us a basis for community. Pippin claims Hegel's logic is imperfect and imperfectible, and he is skeptical of the time-transcending Absolute Spirit and the notion of objective historical progress serving to undergird human rights. He thus leaves the oppressed to appeal to the communal reasoning of their oppressors. This difficult book will challenge those who believe in objective reason.-- Leslie Armour, Univ. of Ottawa, Canada