                           20020130.00

     I read a doctoral thesis as I read any other writing,
mindful of the special constraints that academic requirements
make of the writer. As I read, I learn about the subject, about
the author, about the social and intellectual environment and, it
goes without saying I learn about myself.

     However much I value the explicit exposition of Hegel's
thought, its leaves me perplexed. Should I say that it is
unpersuasive to me, or should I say that I don't understand it. I
have Hegels complete works (in German) on my bookshelves, and I
have spent many hours trying to assimilate it and to understand
it; and I do have an interpretation of it, but a contingent one.
Not an immediate, but a mediate interpretation; that finds the
readers of these texts to resemble the inventors of a largely
undefined language whose meaning is determined anew within their
communities.

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