Title:  Hegel’s Philosophy of Drives Author: James Muldoon Series: New Studies in Idealism Imprint: Noesis Press 146 pp. soft cover USD 20.00 ISBN 978-1934542453 The Davies Group, Publishers 2014 Hegel’s Philosophy of Drives demonstrates the importance and centrality of the concept of the drives to Hegel’s thought and reveals the ways in which a focus on this concept transforms our understanding of the Hegelian project. It examines the drives as they are developed throughout Hegel’s writing, exploring the dynamic and affective dimensions of human existence. Hegel shows that drives are not merely pathological distractions from the moral law or natural and fixed determinations of an inert human nature. Human drives are themselves plastic, malleable and susceptible to transformation through a process of education and cultural development   Hegel connects the actualisation of freedom in concrete social institutions to the transformation of individuals’ immediate and natural drives into fully mediated cultural ones. The Hegel that emerges in this book is neither an antiquated thinker of the past nor a visionary of a future to come. He is a critical thinker of the present – both his and our own. The book is also an excellent introduction to the development of Hegel’s thinking and provides an overview of the major points of his ethical and political thought.  Table of Contents Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 The Unification of Love Critique of Transcendent Law The Ethical Structure of Love and Life Punishment as Fate and the Necessity of Transgression The Fate of Jesus’s Followers and the Limits of Love Chapter 3 The Drive to Reconciliation A Logic of Experience The Force of the Concept A Drive to Reconciliation Chapter 4 The Transformation of the Drives Toward a Modern Polis The Actualisation of Freedom The Development of a System of Needs The Hegelian State Appendix: A Brief History of the Concept of the Drives Notes Bibliography