Revisiting the European Union as Empire

"This outstanding book does many things. The book begins by connecting the…nineteenth-century critique of Hegel to the emergence of…analytic philosophy. The rejection of Hegel’s philosophy…is then in turn connected to the contemporary emergences of both a political science based on methodological positivism and a reading of Hegel…that separates his political philosophy from its logical and metaphysical antecedents… [It] offers a reading of Hegel’s Encyclopaedia Logic as an attempt to resolve the ancient problem of universals…[and] provides an original account of Hegel’s political philosophy [as a] ‘resolution to the problem of universals in political terms’… [Goodfield] concludes the book by arguing that…our [political] ‘responses to metaphysical problems are inescapably metaphysical’. Thus, it is only through a return to Hegel…that a war of position might be waged.… Goodfield’s phenomenal book deserves to be read closely and taken seriously by philosophers and political scientists, as well as anyone interested in Hegel and his influence on contemporary philosophical discussion."

Matthew Smetona, Assistant Professor in the Intellectual Heritage Program at Temple University, USA.