During the international congress on “Wirklichkeit”, (www.hegelpd.it/hegel/conferenc..., that took place in Padua on 3rd-5th June 2015, sponsored by the Hegel-Vereinigung, the distinguished philosopher Robert B. Pippin gave an interview to Hegelpd’s staff.
Robert Pippin is the Evelyn Stefansson Nef Distinguished Service Professor in the John U. Nef Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Philosophy, and the College at the University of Chicago. He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and of the American Philosophical Society.
Robert Pippin works mainly in the area of the modern German philosophical tradition, with a particular focus on Kant and Hegel. His research interests also include issues in critical theory, ethics, political philosophy, epistemology, metaphysics, aesthetics, theories of self-consciousness, theories of modernity, and the problem of freedom, on which he has published several contributions. His studies also focus on the relation between philosophy and literature. His latest book, entitled After the Beautiful: Hegel and the Philosophy of Pictorial Modernism, investigates the relevance of Hegel’s theory of art for the understanding of pictorial modernism.
Recently, the volume “Hegel on Philosophy in History” (www.cambridge.org/it/academic/...) has been published, honouring Professor Pippin and collecting important contributions by many prominent international philosophers.
(Link: home.uchicago.edu/~rbp1/index....)
In the interview that we present here, Professor Pippin discusses the following topics:
1) The relevance of the study of Hegel’s philosophy for the various contemporary philosophical (and not strictly philosophical) debates.
2) The significance and appropriateness of talking about a genuinely American philosophical tradition.
3) The importance of Hegelian studies for American philosophy and for contemporary American culture in general.