For two centuries, Western philosophy has operated in the shadow of Hegel. It is a very long shadow, and each new generation of philosophers has since devised new ways to step out of it. While some attempt this through new theoretical concepts, others simply drape his thinking in mockery and scorn. Bertrand Russell does not only call Hegel's absolute idealism and his system "absurd." Slavoj Žižek, in his monumental book bursting with ideas, does not even attempt to step out of this shadow, but he does not make himself comfortable in it either. His motto is not: Back to Hegel! But rather: We must be more Hegelian than the master himself, in order to understand and critique the breaks and upheavals in reality, albeit under completely changed historical conditions.