Hegel

Course Description

Hegel¿s Phenomenology of Spirit is a massive work of nearly 500 pages in the English translation. What makes it more difficult for teaching purposes is that each of these pages is a highly compact condensation of thought that requires considerable elaboration for adequate appreciation. Hegel himself found it unteachable, and attempted to present courses on particular aspects of the Phenomenology, such as his lectures on Philosophy, Art, and Religion, or on the State-topics that take up relatively limited spaces in the Phenomenology. In doing so he abandoned the essence of the Phenomenology, in which such topics should be considered as integrated in a totality of forms of an evolving consciousness. This course will provide a general understanding of the structure of this totality, while giving detailed attention to certain parts, with special attention to the Introduction, in which Hegel criticizes Kant¿s Critique of Pure Reason, the first chapter on Sense Certainty, and then the continuous dynamic that goes from the Life and Death Struggle to the Master-Slave Relation to the development of Stoicism, Skepticism, and the Unhappy Consciousness. We conclude with Hegel¿s examination of modern natural science in the chapter on ¿Observing Reason¿ that follows the Unhappy Consciousness of the Middle Ages. All course materials will be supplied.

Code

PHI 582

Credits

3

Subject

Philosophy