Alexandre Kojeve and the Specters of Russian Philosophy

Recounts KojEve's key role in the pivotal exchange of ideas between Eastern and Western European intellectuals in the early twentieth century This book shines critical new light on the story of Alexandre KojEve's intellectual origins and his role in the emigration of Russian philosophy into the West in the early twentieth century. Trevor Wilson illustrates how KojEve, at once adversarial to the insular communities of EmigrE philosophy and yet dependent on their networks and ideas for professional success, navigated the specters of the Russian tradition in pursuit of an autonomous self-definition as a philosopher and intellectual.

Alexandre KojEve and the Specters of Russian Philosophy analyzes the philosopher's complicated relationship to the interwar diaspora and the complex role played by the Russian tradition in his intellectual formation. Wilson examines KojEve's early writings in the EmigrE press on Russian religious philosophy, Soviet politics, and Eurasianism and argues for their enduring relevance for understanding KojEve in his mature period. Crucially, he contextualizes KojEve's famed seminars on Hegel and examines how KojEve's thought became embedded in the politics of the Cold War. Based on newly transcribed and translated archival material, he highlights a previously unacknowledged, transnational exchange of ideas between Eastern and Western European intellectuals and shows how it played a pivotal role in twentieth-century intellectual history-and its legacy in the twenty-first.