ABSTRACT
Yet, nothing in the history of dialectical philosophy makes it inherently a philosophy of the
double or the dyad;7 and closer reading of these thinkers reveals a complex, plural, and circum-
ferential vision of what Hegel called the ‘manifold self-differentiating expanse of life’ (1979
[1807], p. 121). Here, I will comment at most length on Hegel, with passing mention of Marx
and of Darwin, a figure often overlooked in the history of dialectical thought-but important
to mention, given his influence on theories of evolutionary world politics (EWP). As we
know, both Hegel and Darwin were products of Anglo-European empires and their racist theo-
rizations of world history are themselves subject to dialectical critique. Yet, these thinkers sim-
ultaneously fashioned ideas that potentially undercut their racialized hierarchies and telos. To set
up this account of dialectics, some philosophical excursus is required.
