The Birth of Theory

Abstract

Andrew Cole's The Birth of Theory has been hailed in its blurb as an ‘exciting and groundbreaking’ book which will ‘transform our reading of Hegel and revitalize dialectics for the twenty-first century’. Such is the praise lavished by Fredric Jameson, Michael Hardt, Mladen Dolar and Eduardo Cadava. Cole's thesis has many aspects: he claims that ‘theory’ originated with Hegel; that Hegel's dialectic is rooted in medieval thought; that the master–slave dialectic is essentially ‘feudal’; and that Hegel's dialectic is a way of thinking not only in historical terms but also in ‘figural’ terms. What makes Hegel so seminal and original, according to Cole, is that his dialectic has a medieval lineage which itself goes back to Plotinus. Hegel was ‘the first modern philosopher to recognize the dialectic in medieval thought and bring it back to philosophical prominence’. In doing so, he took ‘an extreme intellectual risk’ which, however, paid off since it opened the way to ‘theoretical innovation’ and rendered philosophy ‘new, lastingly modern, and enduringly critical’ (p. 24). Cole argues, against the grain of Hegel's own comments, that Hegel's dialectic is ‘distinctly medieval’ and cannot be traced back to Plato or even Aristotle (pp. 26–33). According to Cole, ‘identity’ and ‘difference’ in their mutual relation are the basic categories of the dialectic, and neither Plato nor Aristotle sees them as integrally related. In contrast, Plotinus thinks dialectically through these categories. Cole finds this dialectic of identity and difference ‘codified’ in other figures of Neoplatonism, such as Proclus, and then enfolded into Christian contemplative practice in Pseudo-Dionysus and central to Nicholas of Cusa's exposition of the Trinity. Cole also sees Nietzsche as ‘part of a specialized dialectical tradition’ who can be ‘productively grouped’ with Hegel and Plotinus (pp. 5 and 19).