Hegel's Absolute: An Introduction to Reading the Phenomenology of Spirit

150 Pages·2007·3.91 MB·English

by  Donald Phillip Verene

H E G E L ’ S A B S O L U T E
SUNY series in Hegelian Studies
William Desmond, editor
H E G E L ’ S A B S O L U T E
An Introduction to Reading the
Phenomenology of Spirit
Donald Phillip Verene
State University of New York Press
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State University of New York Press, Albany
© 2007 State University of New York
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Verene, Donald Phillip, 1937–
Hegel's absolute : an introduction to reading The phenomenology of
spirit / Donald Phillip Verene.
p. cm. — (SUNY series in Hegelian studies)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6963-7 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-7914-6964-4 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831. Phänomenologie des
Geistes. 2. Spirit. 3. Consciousness. 4. Truth. 5. Phenomenology. I. Title.
II. Series.
B2929.V46 2007
193—dc22
2006003850
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
A quite special, though purely negative
science, general phenomenology
(phaenomenologia generalis), seems to be
presupposed by metaphysics.
—Kant to Lambert, September 2, 1770
Hegel had the stuff of one of the greatest
humorists among philosophers; Socrates
is the only other one who had a similar
method.
—Bertolt Brecht, Flüchtlingsgespräche, 1941

Contents
Preface ix
1. Hegel’s Preface: Reflection versus Speculation 1
2. Hegel’s “Introduction”: The Double Ansich 13
3. Hegel’s Reason: A Digression 25
4. Hegel’s System: Dialectic of “Andness” 31
5. The Beginning of the Phenomenology 41
6. Force, Understanding, and the Inverted World 49
7. Self-Consciousness of Masterhood and Servitude 55
8. Unhappy Consciousness 63
9. On Reading the Second “Half” of the
Phenomenology: An Overview of Reason and Spirit 71
10.Absolute Knowing 91
Appendix. Hegel’s Terminology 99
Works Cited 123
Index 129
vii

Preface
Hegel’s texts make unusual demands on the reader. This is espe-
cially true of the Phenomenology of Spirit, commonly regarded
as the most difficult text in the history of philosophy. What
Hegel intends cannot be presented as a summary of the results
of his investigations. The course of spirit’s development in all its
forms is re-created as a whole in Hegel’s exposition, and this full
path must be traveled by the reader. Hegel says: “The length of
this path has to be endured, because, for one thing, each
moment is necessary; and further, each moment has to be lin-
gered over, because each is itself a complete individual shape,
and one is only viewed in absolute perspective when its deter-
minateness is regarded as a concrete whole, or the whole is
regarded as uniquely qualified by that determination” (par. 29).
Spirit “has had the patience to pass through these shapes
over the long passage of time, and to take upon itself the enor-
mous labour of world-history” (ibid.). Hegel has had the
patience to bring these shapes together in his book and the
reader must have the patience to comprehend them page by
page. It is not sufficient for the reader to study the text from an
external point of view. One must make its science for oneself.
Hegel says: “What, therefore, is important in the study of sci-
ence, is that one should take on oneself the strenuous effort of
the notion [Begriff]” (par. 58). The reader must strive not sim-
ply to pass from one shape of spirit to the next but to aim to
know each one, to think through each one, in the manner of
the Begriff and grasp the process as a whole. This requires the
reader to acquire the mentality of speculative philosophy.
The greatest stumbling block to comprehending Hegel’s
work and studying his science is propensity to argumentation
(raisonnement). Hegel says: “Such reasoning adopts a negative
ix