Kojève’s planetary approach to Greek philosophy

Abstract This article discusses the second volume of Kojève’s Essai d’une historie raisonnée de la philosophie paienne dedicated to Plato and Aristotle. In particular it examines the strange emphasis and interpretation that Kojève gives of the central role played by astral theology in the philosophy of both Plato and Aristotle. The astral theology of the classical Greek philosophers was given pride of place by Werner Jaeger’s reconstruction of Aristotle’s development in the 1920s. The article discusses Kojève’s motivations, centrally that of distinguishing philosophy from mathematical physics as the seat of true knowledge, for considering Plato and Aristotle as “theologians.” It then advances a hypothesis about the relation between Kojève’s theological interpretation of Plato and Aristotle and its relation to his conception of Hegel’s philosophy.