Drawing on the work of major philosophers in 18th and 19th-century German idealism, Thomas Raysmith critically examines G. W. F. Hegel-s justification that philosophy has a history. Contrary to Kant-s claims, Hegel not only considered philosophy as a discipline with its own history, but also elaborated a -logical structure- associated with the fundamental nature of thought itself, permitting a history of philosophy. Calling this structure -the structure of exemplarity-, Raysmith presents it as a dynamic reciprocity between universality, particularity and singularity. He provides a historical reconstruction of the shifting understanding of the fundamental nature of human thought from Kant, through J. G. Fichte and F. W. J. Schelling, to Hegel-s mature logic. He offers a systematic analysis based on close, critical readings of Hegel-s work, specifically his Science of Logic. Offering a compelling and novel reading of Hegel-s thought, Hegel and the Problem of the History of Philosophy is
