Hegel solved modernity’s self-justification problem too completely through Absolute reason

Evidence

But he conceives subjectivity as ‘a structure of self-relation’ identical not with finite individual persons but with the Absolute whose self-development underlies human history: modernity is the age where the Absolute attains self-consciousness through the agency of finite subjects. As Habermas puts it, ‘as absolute knowledge, reason assumes a form so overwhelming that it not only solves the problem of a self-reassurance of modernity, but solves it too well.’ The conscious human action that is the stuff of history becomes, by virtue of the ruse of reason, the means by which, independently of the intentions of the actors, the Absolute achieves its ends. — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 264

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘ruse of reason’ making conscious action serve the Absolute’s ends relates to the reader’s Marxist frame — Marx’s own inversion of Hegel on determinism and agency. — connects to: Hegel alone achieved consciousness of contradictions within a single system; Philosophy of praxis transforms Hegelian immanentism into absolute historicism and humanism; Modernity’s need for self-justification arises from the collapse of traditional norms — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism: A Marxist…, 264 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Hegel alone achieved consciousness of contradictions within a single system #expands (0.85)
• Modernity’s need for self-justification arises from the collapse of traditional norms #expands (0.82) — Alex Callinicos, Against Postmodernism, 264
• The Institute’s posture denied certainty about the Absolute while insisting on truth’s authority. #qualifies (0.78)
• Philosophy of praxis transforms Hegelian immanentism into absolute historicism and humanism #complicates (0.75)
• Individual experience regained its epistemic authority after Hegel’s era #complicates (0.75) — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia, 12