Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

New Date and Time Aug 29 1pm

Suggested Reading -- The Enlightenment and Terror (para. 582-595)

Note, you are welcome to join the discussion whether or not you have finished the suggested reading. :-)

Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit endures as a work of philosophy that inspires dread due to its purported difficulty, while exerting an enigmatic pull both as a dare to readers and as an ever replenishing well of ideas.

The difficulty of reading Hegel is the stuff of legend. Schopenhauer famously called Hegel a “charlatan”, Adorno proclaimed the Phenomenology of Spirit to be “incomprehensible”, while Bertrand Russell deemed Hegel to be “the hardest to understand of all the great philosophers”.

Yet Hegel’s Phenomenology helped shape currents of philosophical and political thought in the 19th century, no less undergirding Marxian thought through the latter’s inversion of idealism into dialectical materialism. Russell founded analytical philosophy by rejecting Hegelian thought. In analytical philosophy circles, Hegel’s name induces grimaces and elicits consternation. Though more recent currents suggest a warming to the utility of his thought, as evinced by Robert Brandom’s interpretive tome: A Spirit of Trust: A Reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology.

Amidst all the brouhaha surrounding the philosopher, the Phenomenology of Spirit continues to inspire scholarship and lay interest, and our precarious historical moment justifies renewed interest in its ideas.

Our approach tends toward slow reading and interpretation. We will attempt to build on the conceptual problems discussed across meetings, recapitulating conceptual cleavages and elements that require continued attention.

If you're new to the group, you may want to familiarize yourself with the Preface in addition to reading the Introduction, though it's not required. Consulting secondary literature is up to the discretion of the participant.