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In an era when philosophy often fragments into competing schools and fashionable skepticism, Philosophy without Foundations returns to one of its most challenging figures to recover a powerful, unifying vision. Through a series of tightly argued and strikingly original essays, William Maker reexamines Hegel not as an abstract metaphysician of the past, but as a rigorously critical thinker whose insights remain vital for confronting the dilemmas of modernity.
Rejecting conventional interpretations, Philosophy without Foundations presents Hegel as a non-foundational and non-metaphysical philosopher, one whose dialectical method opens new possibilities for understanding reason, knowledge, and philosophical method itself. From the problem of beginning philosophy without presuppositions to the role of systematic science, the discussion unfolds with clarity, precision, and intellectual force.
The second part extends this reappraisal into contemporary debates, offering provocative engagements with hermeneutics, Marxism, postmodernism, and transcendental argumentation. Along the way, Maker challenges prevailing assumptions and invites readers to reconsider the place of philosophy in a fractured intellectual landscape.
Written for the thoughtful general reader as well as the seasoned philosopher, Philosophy without Foundations does not demand agreement, it demands reflection. As it unsettles familiar conclusions and reveals overlooked implications, it exemplifies philosophy at its most alive: critical, demanding, and deeply relevant.
"The author offers a forthright, closely-reasoned, often pungently-worded series of arguments, often developing considerable persuasive momentum for considering Hegel as a non-metaphysical, non-foundational thinker, and for recognizing the continuing relevance of Hegel to ongoing philosophical discussion. Ever since the late 1960s contemporary philosophy has been rediscovering the 'radical' Hegel buried under lazy interpretations from the past. This book advances this project and demonstrates aspects of its relevance in a cogent and compelling manner." — Chip Sills, U.S. Naval Academy
"Maker writes for the general philosophic reader and not for the reader already converted to his point of view. I was consistently made aware of implications of a point of view that I thought I had already pretty much grasped in full. I found myself forced to rethink matters that I thought I had settled for myself." — Alan Ponikvar, College of Staten Island
William Maker is Associate Professor of Philosophy in the Philosophy and Religion Department at Clemson University.
Preface
A Note on the Text
Introduction
Part One. The Relevance of Hegel
1. Reason and the Problem of Modernity
2. Philosophy as Systematic Science
3. Hegel's Phenomenology as Introduction to Systematic Science
4. Beginning Philosophy without 'Beginnings'
5. Philosophy and Dialectical Method
6. On the Presumed Blasphemy of Hegelian Absolutism
Part Two. The Transcendence of Contemporary Philosophy
7. Hegel and Hermeneutics
8. The Critique of Marx and Marxist Thought
9. The Dead End of Postmodernism
10. The Renewed Appeal to Transcendental Arguments
11. The Problematic Role of God in Modern Epistemology
Notes
Index