By calling Hegel a philosopher of qualified consummation you position yourself on one side of the identity/difference debate about how to characterize Hegel’s take on the absolute.

You align with those who privilege the identity. I align with those who privilege the difference.

The way this debate plays out is very much the way the old continental/analytic divide played out.

The identity folks are tagged as simple minded by the difference folks and the difference folks are tagged as obscure by the identity folks.

I see that in you comments about my reading.

You privilege your simple-mindedness as validly critical.

There is little I can do about this.

I pay attention to the identity folks, but what I am particularly interested in is the quality of their questions.

You can judge the depth of a philosophical outlook by paying attention to the questions that determine the outlook.

Your opting for consummation is one with your interest in the epistemological question of how cognition can justify its access to the world.

You are in my view trapped within the wrong question set having to do with oppositional issues, hence your interest in consummation.

• Alan