The Phenomenology of Spirit
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
| Revision as of 21:16, 19 January 2014 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) ← Previous diff |
Revision as of 16:28, 28 May 2014 Jahsonic (Talk | contribs) Next diff → |
||
| Line 21: | Line 21: | ||
| Sometimes Hegel used the terms, immediate-mediate-concrete, to describe his triads. The most abstract concepts are those that present themselves to our consciousness immediately. For example, the notion of [[Pure Being]] for Hegel was the most abstract concept of all. The negative of this infinite abstraction would require an entire Encyclopedia, building category by category, dialectically, until it culminated in the category of Absolute Mind or Spirit (since the German word, '[[Geist]]', can mean either 'Mind' or 'Spirit'). | Sometimes Hegel used the terms, immediate-mediate-concrete, to describe his triads. The most abstract concepts are those that present themselves to our consciousness immediately. For example, the notion of [[Pure Being]] for Hegel was the most abstract concept of all. The negative of this infinite abstraction would require an entire Encyclopedia, building category by category, dialectically, until it culminated in the category of Absolute Mind or Spirit (since the German word, '[[Geist]]', can mean either 'Mind' or 'Spirit'). | ||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | * ''[[The Crisis of European Sciences and Transcendental Phenomenology]]'' | ||
| {{GFDL}} | {{GFDL}} | ||
Revision as of 16:28, 28 May 2014
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807) is one of Friedrich Hegel's most important philosophical works. Translated as The Phenomenology of Spirit or The Phenomenology of Mind due to the dual meaning in the German word Geist, it formed the basis of Hegel's later philosophy and marked a significant development in German idealism after Kant. Focusing on topics in metaphysics, epistemology, physics, ethics, theory of knowledge, history, religion, perception, consciousness, and political philosophy, the Phenomenology is where Hegel develops his concepts of dialectic (including the Master-slave dialectic), absolute idealism, ethical life, and sublation. The book had profound impact in Western philosophy (particularly in the development of Marxism), and has been praised and blamed for the development of existentialism, communism, fascism, death of God theology, and historicist nihilism.
In English; the German word Geist has connotations of both spirit and mind in English. It is one of Hegel's most important philosophical works; he himself regarded it as the foundation of his later works. Roughly taking the form of a Bildungsroman, it explores the nature and development of its protagonist--mind/spirit--showing how it evolves through a process of internal contradiction and development from the most primitive aspect of sense-perception through all of the forms of subjective and objective mind, including art, religion, and philosophy, to absolute knowledge that comprehends this entire developmental process as part of itself. Thus it also lays out an entire system of metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy.
Hegelian dialectic
The famous dialectical process of thesis-antithesis-synthesis has been controversially attributed to Hegel.
- Whoever looks for the stereotype of the allegedly Hegelian dialectic in Hegel's Phenomenology will not find it. What one does find on looking at the table of contents is a very decided preference for triadic arrangements. ... But these many triads are not presented or deduced by Hegel as so many theses, antitheses, and syntheses. It is not by means of any dialectic of that sort that his thought moves up the ladder to absolute knowledge.--Walter Kaufmann, Hegel: A Reinterpretation, § 37, Anchor Books, 1966
However, that does not mean that Hegel rejected a triadic process. Despite the popular misrepresentation of Hegel's triadic method which denies that Hegel used triads in his writings, Professor Howard Kainz (1996) affirms that there are "thousands of triads" in Hegel's writings.
However, instead of using the famous terminology that originated with Kant and was elaborated by J. G. Fichte, Hegel used an entirely different and more accurate terminology for dialectical (or as Hegel called them, 'speculative') triads.
Hegel used two different sets of terms for his triads, namely, abstract-negative-concrete (especially in his Phenomenology of 1807), as well as, immediate-mediate-concrete (especially in his Science of Logic of 1812), depending on the scope of his argumentation.
When one looks for these terms in his writings, one finds so many occurrences that it may become clear that Hegel employed the Kantian using a different terminology.
Hegel explained his change of terminology. The triad terms, 'abstract-negative-concrete' contain an implicit explanation for the flaws in Kant's terms. The first term, 'thesis,' deserves its anti-thesis simply because it is too abstract. The third term, 'synthesis,' has completed the triad, making it concrete and no longer abstract, by absorbing the negative.
Sometimes Hegel used the terms, immediate-mediate-concrete, to describe his triads. The most abstract concepts are those that present themselves to our consciousness immediately. For example, the notion of Pure Being for Hegel was the most abstract concept of all. The negative of this infinite abstraction would require an entire Encyclopedia, building category by category, dialectically, until it culminated in the category of Absolute Mind or Spirit (since the German word, 'Geist', can mean either 'Mind' or 'Spirit').
See also
