Lyotard and Hegel: what is wrong with modernity and what is right with the philosophy of right

Abstract

Lyotard's critique of Hegel is shown to be problematic. It purports to show that Hegel's philosophical absolutism is a dated example of modern absolutist social theory, but it succumbs itself to univocalism in its reading of Hegel. While Hegel's absolutist rhetoric disguises the contestability of his theorising, his subtle, nuanced reading of modernity and social theory offers a more constructive and powerful approach to the continuing problems of modernity and the contemporary world than is acknowledged by Lyotard.