Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit': A Reader's Guide PDF
Preview Hegel's 'Phenomenology of Spirit': A Reader's Guide
Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit ReadeR’s Guides Reader’s Guides are clear, concise and accessible introductions to key texts in literature and philosophy. Each book explores the themes, context, criticism and influence of key works, providing a practical introduction to close reading, guiding students towards a thorough understanding of the text. They provide an essential, up-to-date resource, ideal for undergraduate students. Reader’s Guides available: Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Christopher Warne Aristotle’s Politics, Judith A. Swanson Badiou’s Being and Event, Christopher Norris Berkeley’s Principles of Human Knowledge, Alasdair Richmond Berkeley’s Three Dialogues, Aaron Garrett Deleuze and Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus, Ian Buchanan Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition, Joe Hughes Derrida’s Writing and Difference, Sarah Wood Descartes’ Meditations, Richard Francks Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, David Edward Rose Heidegger’s Being and Time, William Blattner Heidegger’s Later Writings, Lee Braver Hobbes’s Leviathan, Laurie M. Johnson Bagby Hume’s Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Andrew Pyle Kant’s Critique of Aesthetic Judgement, Fiona Hughes Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason, James Luchte Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, Paul Guyer Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling, Clare Carlisle Locke’s Second Treatise of Government, Paul Kelly Mill’s On Liberty, Geoffrey Scarre Mill’s Utilitarianism, Henry R. West Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, Christa Davis Acampora and Keith Ansell Pearson Nietzsche’s On the Genealogy of Morals, Daniel Conway Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, Douglas Burnham Plato’s Republic, Luke Purshouse Plato’s Symposium, Thomas L. Cooksey Rawls’s A Theory of Justice, Frank Lovett Rousseau’s The Social Contract, Christopher D. Wraight Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, Sebastian Gardner Schopenhauer’s The World as Will and Representation, Robert L. Wicks Spinoza’s Ethics, J. Thomas Cook Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Arif Ahmed Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, Roger M. White Forthcoming: Deleuze and Guattari’s A Thousand Plateaus, Eugene W. Holland Deleuze and Guattari’s What is Philosophy?, Rex Butler Machiavelli’s The Prince, Miguel Vatter Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Clancy Martin iv a ReadeR’s Guide Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit stephen houlGate LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY Bloomsbury Academic An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 50 Bedford Square 175 Fifth Avenue London New York WC1B 3DP NY 10010 UK USA www.bloomsbury.com First published 2013 © Stephen Houlgate, 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Stephen Houlgate has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as Author of this work. No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be accepted by Bloomsbury Academic or the author. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. ISBN: HB: 978-0-8264-8510-6 e-ISBN: 978-1-4411-8085-8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Houlgate, Stephen. Hegel’s Phenomenology of spirit: a reader’s guide/Stephen Houlgate. p. cm. – (Reader’s guides) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-0-8264-8510-6 (hardcover) – ISBN 978-0-8264-8511-3 (pbk.) – ISBN 978-1-4411-8085-8 (ebook (pdf)) – ISBN 978-1-4411-3455-4 (ebook (epub)) 1. Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770–1831. Phänomenologie des Geistes. 2. Spirit. 3. Consciousness. 4. Truth. I. Title. B2929.H68 2012 193–dc23 2012012761 Typeset by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India Contents Preface ix Note on the text xi 1 Context 1 Speculative logic and Kantian critique 2 The role of phenomenology 5 Phenomenology, immanence and scepticism 7 Logic in phenomenology 8 2 Overview of themes 15 Consciousness and its immanent criterion 15 The experience of consciousness 18 The object of experience 21 The role of the ‘we’ 23 The end and the beginning of phenomenology 29 3 Reading the text 31 Consciousness 31 Sense-certainty 31 Perception 45 Force and understanding 57 Self-consciousness 83 Desire and recognition 83 The life and death struggle and master–slave relation 93 Stoicism, scepticism and the unhappy consciousness 102 viii Contents Reason 123 Observing reason 123 Active, self-conscious reason 134 Individuality that is actual in and through itself 139 Spirit 145 True spirit 146 Self-alienated spirit 151 Self-certain spirit 165 Religion 173 Natural religion 174 The religion of art 176 Manifest religion 182 Absolute knowing 185 4 Reception and influence 191 Notes 195 Guide to further reading 203 Index 209 pReFaCe The purpose of this book is to provide a guide to reading Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. There are many fine commentaries that explore the historical background to, and philosophical relevance of, Hegel’s text, but this guide aims specifically to help students follow the twists and turns of that text itself. My guiding principle is that the Phenomenology sets out a single, continuous, logical argument, whose details are to be taken seriously. It has to be admitted that this argument is, at times, horribly convoluted. I have made every effort, however, to present the argument as clearly as possible, and I hope that, with the help of this book, students will be able to understand and assess it for themselves. Due to the considerable length of the Phenomenology, it is not possible in this guide to provide a detailed account of each stage of Hegel’s argument. I have chosen, therefore, to give detailed accounts of the first four chapters of the book, which set out the development of consciousness and self-consciousness. These are the chapters with which most students are likely to start, and they also contain the famous analyses of sense-certainty, the master–slave relation and the unhappy consciousness. The remaining chapters on reason, spirit, religion and absolute knowing are also important and fascinating, but space is limited. My hope, therefore, is that students can learn from my account of the first four chapters to make headway in Hegel’s text on their own, and that they will then be able to engage with the missing details from chapters five to eight by themselves. My aim throughout this guide has been to explain how the argument of the Phenomenology proceeds and, by implication, why it might be deemed successful. I have not, therefore, considered
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