Born in Moscow, 1902 and died in Brussels, 1968, studied philosophy in Germany in early twenties with Karl Jaspers and Edmund Husserl. He then moved to Paris at the hands of his compatriot Alexandre Koyré, where he continued his doctoral studies and expanded knowledge in physics and mathematics. From 1933 to 1939 he taught at the same Koyré- -replacing courses on Hegel's philosophy contained in this edition.

After World War II, Kojève get a position in the Office of International Economic Relations of the French government, and develops for the rest of his life a remarkable administrative career in the economic reconstruction of postwar Europe and in the creation of the European Union . Despite this commitment, the Franco-Russian author does not neglect in this period its purely intellectual work: Read reviews and articles - "but only on Sundays" comes about to say, maintains an intense debate with Leo Strauss on the nature of philosophy classical political (collected in from tyrannie [1954]) and prepares the publication of the first of three volumes of his Essai d'une histoire raisonnée of païenne philosophie (1968), among other activities. Kojève died that year while attending a workshop in Brussels.

Other works, published posthumously, are: La notion de l'autorité, Esquisse d'une phenomenology du droit or Le Concept, le Temps et le Discours.