Freedom and Reflection

Christopher Yeomans is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Purdue University. He works on Hegel and late modern philosophy, and in the philosophy of action.

• Acknowledgements ; Abbreviations ; Part I: Introduction ; Chapter 1: Hegel and Free Will ; 1.1: Hegel and the Traditional Problem of Free Will ; 1.2: Hegel's Theory of Free Will ; Chapter 2: The Problem of Expression as the Problem of Reflection ; 2.1: Introduction ; 2.2: Internal and External Determination in the Doctrine of Being ; 2.3: Internal and External Determination in the Concept of Reflection ; 2.4: Elements of the Theory of Reflection in Hegel's Moral Psychology ; 2.5: The Shape of the Project ; Part II: Agency as Self-Explanation ; Chapter 3: The Externality of Explanations and the Problem of an Infinite Regress ; Chapter 4: Self-Explanation as the Basic Form of Explanation ; 4.1: Ground as Expression ; 4.2: Internal and External Determination in Explanations ; 4.3: The Argument for Explanation as a Three-Term Relation ; 4.4: The Role of Conditions as the Third Term in Explanation ; 4.5: The Infection of Internality by the Conditions ; 4.6: Holism about Explanation ; Chapter 5: The Agent as a Locus of Self-Explanation ; Part III: Agency as True Necessity ; Chapter 6: The Necessity of Action and the Problem of Alternate Possibilities ; Chapter 7: Modality in Hegel's Logic ; 7.1: Modality as the Structure of Self-Expression ; 7.2: Contingency as a Unity of Actuality and Possibility ; 7.3: The Modal Continuum ; 7.4: The Necessity of Alternate Possibilities ; Chapter 8: Agency as True Necessity ; 8.1: Willkur and Wille ; 8.2: The Modal Argument for Hegel's Conception of the Free Will ; Part IV: Agency as Teleological Reciprocal Interaction ; Chapter 9: The Mechanistic Challenge and the Problem of Passivity ; Chapter 10: Teleology, Mechanism and Causation ; 10.1: The Question of Priority ; 10.2: Productivity as Expression ; 10.3: Freedom as Substance-Causation ; 10.4: The Passivity of Mechanical Causation ; 10.5: Causation as Reciprocal Interaction ; 10.6: Reciprocal Interaction as Freedom ; 10.7: The Teleological Form of Reciprocal Self-Determination ; Chapter 11: Teleological Agency ; 11.1: Arguments Against Determinism ; 11.2: A Teleological Philosophy of Action ; Chapter 12: Conclusion ; Bibliography ; Index ; Notes

Christopher Yeomans, in his first and very impressive book Freedom and Reflection: Hegel and the logic of agency, bravely takes Hegel at his word, and builds an interpretation of one of the most interesting and recently much-discussed components of Hegel's philosophy, his theory of agency and action, on a thorough and detailed discussion of the parts of the Logic that, Yeomans argues, are essential in understanding and defending that position.