Kojève, Alexandre (1902–1968)

Russian-born French philosopher and interpreter of the German idealist philosopher, Georg Hegel. He gave a series of influential lectures on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) at the École des Hautes Études in Paris (1933–39), which were attended by a number of French intellectuals, including Georges Bataille, Raymond Queneau, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, and the psychoanalyst, Jacques Lacan. His lectures were later published as Introduction à la lecture de Hegel/Introduction to the Reading of Hegel in 1947.

Kojè studied philosophy in Germany in the 1920s, but was never a professional academic, and published very little during his lifetime. His interpretation of Hegel's work was centred on the themes of death; the ‘struggle for recognition’ (outlined in Hegel's account of the ‘master–slave’ relationship in the Phenomenology of Spirit); and the end of history. In particular, he took quite seriously Hegel's claim that history had come to an end, and, after arguing that this end could be situated in post-World War II Europe, concluded that philosophy had become a redundant activity. He subsequently gave up teaching philosophy and, in the latter part of his life, worked as an official for the Economic Community in Brussels.

Kojèe's posthumously published works include a study of Kant, and the Esquisse d'une phénoménologie du droit/Sketch for a Phenomenology of Right (1980).