{{Infobox academic | region = Western philosophy | era = Contemporary philosophy | image = | caption = | name = | birth_date = {{birth year and age|1962}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | school_tradition = German Idealism | institutions = | main_interests = | thesis_title = Agency and tragedy in Hegel's philosophy of action | thesis_url = https://www.proquest.com/docview/304089356 | thesis_year = 1993 | doctoral_advisor = Robert B. Pippin | academic_advisors = Paul Ricoeur, Leszek Kołakowski, Steven B. Smith, David Grene, Leon Kass, Otto Pöggeler, Ludwig Siep, Christoph Jamme | work_institutions = University of Boston | doctoral_students = | notable_ideas = | spouse = | education = University of Chicago (PhD) | awards = | website = https://www.bu.edu/philo/profile/c-allen-speight/ }} '''Charles Allen Speight''' (May 24, 1962) is a professor of philosophy and former chair of Department of Philosophy at Boston University.<ref>{{Cite news |last=SCC at Boston University |date=2016-03-25 |title=Professor in the Spotlight: Dr. C. Allen Speight |url=https://medium.com/@scc.bostonu/professor-in-the-spotlight-dr-c-allen-speight-b7de72302355 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170112174042/https://medium.com/@scc.bostonu/professor-in-the-spotlight-dr-c-allen-speight-b7de72302355 |archive-date=2017-01-12 |access-date=2025-05-24 |work=Medium}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=C. Allen Speight {{!}} Philosophy |url=https://www.bu.edu/philo/profile/c-allen-speight/ |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=www.bu.edu}}</ref>
== Life and work == Speight began his academic life at St. John’s College in Maryland studying journalism with an interest in political coverage. He received his doctorate at the University of Chicago, where he completed his dissertation on Georg Hegel, ''Agency and tragedy in Hegel's philosophy of action,'' in 1993.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Agency and tragedy in Hegel's philosophy of action / Library Catalog |url=https://catalog.lib.uchicago.edu/vufind/Turnstile/Challenge?context=eyJwb2xpY3lJZCI6ImdlbmVyYWwiLCJkZXN0aW5hdGlvbiI6IlwvdnVmaW5kXC9SZWNvcmRcLzE1MDE4OTgifQ== |access-date=2025-05-24 |website=catalog.lib.uchicago.edu}}</ref> Before coming to Boston University, He taught at St. Xavier University and the University of Chicago.<ref name=":0" />
In the book ''Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency'', he argues that Hegel's treatment of three literary genres, tragedy, comedy, and the Romantic novel (through the works of Sophocles, Diderot, Schlegel and Jacobi) actually trace three moments of human agency: retrospectivity, theatricality and forgiveness. Therefore, Hegel's philosophical project ''The Phenomenology of Spirit'' is actually understanding the issue of human agency in the modern world.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Speight |first=Allen |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/hegel-literature-and-the-problem-of-agency/94235F713945ECC583C03A172BF69268 |title=Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency |date=2001 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-79184-7 |series=Modern European Philosophy |location=Cambridge |doi=10.1017/cbo9780511612831}}</ref> The book has been the subject of a number of reviews by Martin Donougho,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Donougho |first=Martin |date=January 2003 |title=Allen Speight, Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), pp. xii + 154. ISBN 0521791847. £11.95. |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/hegel-bulletin/article/abs/allen-speight-hegel-literature-and-the-problem-of-agency-cambridge-cambridge-university-press-2001-pp-xii-154-isbn-0521791847-1195/31968CEB0E6E5D64C5B2C91FA00B2EBA |journal=Hegel Bulletin |language=en |volume=24 |issue=1–2 |pages=105–114 |doi=10.1017/S0263523200001865 |issn=0263-5232|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Terry Pinkard,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Pinkard |first=Terry |date=October 2002 |title=Allen Speight, Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/340682 |journal=Ethics |volume=113 |issue=1 |pages=176–179 |doi=10.1086/340682 |issn=0014-1704|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Pinkard |first1=Terry |last2=Speight |first2=Allen |date=2002 |title=Book Reviews |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/340682 |journal=Ethics |volume=113 |issue=1 |pages=176–179 |doi=10.1086/340682 |jstor=10.1086/340682 |issn=0014-1704}}</ref> Andreas Großmann,<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Großmann |first1=Andreas |last2=Speight |first2=Allen |date=2002 |title=Review of Hegel, Literature and the Problem of Agency. (Modern European Philosophy), SpeightAllen |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26589543 |journal=Hegel-Studien |volume=37 |pages=225–227 |jstor=26589543 |issn=0073-1587}}</ref> Michael Baur,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Baur |first=Michael |date=2003 |title=Hegel, Literature and the Problem of Agency (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/37603 |journal=Journal of the History of Philosophy |volume=41 |issue=1 |pages=134–135 |doi=10.1353/hph.2002.0092 |issn=1538-4586|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and Simon Lumsden.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2002-01-01 |title=Book Reviews |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09672550210121487 |journal=International Journal of Philosophical Studies |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=219–233 |doi=10.1080/09672550210121487 |issn=0967-2559|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
=== Selected publications ===
* {{Cite book |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612831 |chapter= |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511612831 |title=Hegel, Literature, and the Problem of Agency |date=2001 |last1= Speight|first1= Allen|isbn=978-0-521-79184-7}} * {{Cite book |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt7zt3cj |title=The Philosophy of Hegel |jstor=j.ctt7zt3cj |last1= Speight|first1= Allen|date=2008 |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |isbn=978-0-7735-3407-0}}
==== Translations ====
* {{Cite book |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511596858 |chapter= |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511596858 |title=Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel: Heidelberg Writings |date=2009 |last1=Hegel |first1=Georg Wilhelm Fredrich |isbn=978-0-521-83300-4 |editor-first1=Brady |editor-link=Brady Bowman |editor-first2=Allen |editor-last1=Bowman |editor-last2=Speight}}
== Honors and awards ==
* 2012: Fulbright Professor at Leuphana Universität of Lüneburg * 2002: Berlin Prize Fellow of the American Academy in Berlin * 1990: Fellow of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) * 1991-1992: Fulbright Scholar at the Hegel Archive of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum
== References == {{Reflist}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Speight, Allen}} Category:Boston University faculty Category:Hegel scholars Category:University of Chicago alumni Category:1962 births Category:Living people