Alexandre Kojeve

Immanuel Kant's philosophical system, Kojeve argues, is haunted by the Thing-in-itself as the ultimate expression of 'bourgeois hypocrisy' and its internally divided reason, split between action and discourse. Making a case for the post-historical moral imperative to turn away from infinite progress and the practical justification of the ideas of God and the immortality of the soul, Kant outlines the material conditions of possibility for revolutionary action within the twin horizons of accomplished and recollected history.

A teacher to Jacques Lacan, André Breton, and Albert Camus, Koj?ve defined art as the act of extracting the beautiful from objective reality. His poetic text, “The Concrete Paintings of Kandinsky,” endorses nonrepresentational art as uniquely manifesting beauty. Taking the paintings of his renowned uncle, Wassily Kandinsky, as his inspiration, Kojeve suggests that in creating (rather than replicating) beauty, the paintings are themselves complete universes as concrete as the natural world. Koj?ve’s text considers the utility and necessity of beauty in life, and ultimately poses the involuted question: What is beauty? Including personal letters between Kandinsky and his nephew, this book further elaborates the unique relationship between artist and philosopher. An introduction by Boris Groys contextualizes Kojeve’s life and writings.