Book Review: Hegel’s Social Ethics: Religion, Conflict, and Rituals of Reconciliation, by Molly Farneth

• Date: 01 February 2019
• DOI: 10.1177/0090591717750347
• Published date: 01 February 2019
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews 117

always are at risk of falling back into the state that causes despair, this is not

a politics of hope that offers any consolation, as Norris notes.

Returning to the question of democracy in the last paragraph of the last

page, Norris argues that democracy does not “accidentally and unfortunately

fall into rigidity, thoughtlessness, and conformity; rather, its essence is to

convert these” (222). It is worth pondering somewhat further the two thoughts

held in tension here, namely, that it is not accidental that democracy falls into

rigidity—hence it must be of its essence—yet its essence “is to convert”

rigidity and thoughtlessness. Hope that must enable such conversion could be

brought forth, Norris argues, by “national exemplars like King” (221). “But

in its absence, citizens must help inspire it in one another” (ibid.). The

requirement to live as exemplars for one another—in the absence of a Martin

Luther King—perhaps highlights a further condition of our lives: namely,

that our politics is no longer fashioned in the light of such great exemplars but

rather in the exemplars that we encounter every day, everywhere, in the all

too many examples of ordinary lives lost and recounted and encountered on

social media. But to be effective, these unacknowledged voices must be

acknowledged; just as Cavell argues and Norris notes (117), active disavowal

of those who do not speak for us is needed; it, in turn, requires self-

knowledge and outwardness. More than that, it requires that the difficult

articulations of claims themselves are explored and analyzed; that the obsta-

cles to them becoming visible and audible are acknowledged, at the same

time as those conditions are actively addressed, through a variety of means,

including the reading of texts canonical and those that challenge the canon.

Hegel’s Social Ethics: Religion, Conflict, and Rituals of Reconciliation, by Molly Farneth.

Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017.

Reviewed by: Brandon Hogan, Department of Philosophy, Howard University,

Washington, DC, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0090591717750347

Molly Farneth’s Hegel’s Social Ethics: Religion, Conflict, and Rituals of

Reconciliation is a clear, compelling, and relevant interpretation and exten-

sion of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Unlike similar projects, Farneth’s

book is readable. She offers a deep, penetrating interpretation of Hegel with-

out slipping into Hegelese. Farneth attempts to demonstrate that there is an

intimate connection between Hegel’s understanding of knowledge produc-

tion and his conceptions of ethics and communal life. Overall, the book does

a good job of explaining how Hegel’s insights can help us think more clearly