Instructor: Alex Steinberg
Note: The supplementary readings are not required but merely suggestions that may enhance your experience of the Phenomenology.
1) Background and Problematic of Hegel’s Phenomenology: Discussion of purpose of the class and method. Historical background, philosophical background, the difficulty of Hegel, a peek at the conflicting assessments and interpretations of Hegel. The problems that the Phenomenology addresses. Introduction to the Introduction of the Phenomenology.
Reading: Paragraphs 73-89 (p46- 57)
Date: Oct. 4, 2005
2) Introduction – the method of scientific cognition. Discussion of method of cognition and the nature of truth. How do we establish criteria for truth? Hegel’s reply to skepticism and postmodernism.
Reading: Paragraphs 73-89 (p46- 57)
Also Concluding remarks from Preface: Paragraphs 67-70 (p41-45)
Supplementary reading: “The Hegel Myth and its Method” by Walter Kauffman, from Hegel Myths and Legends, edited by Jon Stewart, p. 82.
Date: Oct. 11, 2005
3) The journey from certainty to truth. From sense certainty to Perception to the Understanding. From inner to outer. The sensible and the supersensible. Why the philosophies based on common sense lead to an “inverted world” in which sweet is sour.
Reading: Paragraphs 90-99 (p58- 61) and paragraphs 157-165 (P96-103)
Supplementary Reading: Karl Marx Capital, Vol I, p 163-177 “Fetishism of the Commodity and Its Secret”
Date: Oct. 18, 2005
4) Lordship and Bondage. Desire marks the appearance of the social world. From the relations of domination and servitude to mutual recognition.
Reading: Paragraphs 166-196 (p104-119)
Date: Oct 25, 2005
5) The byways of Freedom: Stoicism, Skepticism and the Unhappy Consciousness. The tortured road leading from the philosophers of Ancient Greece and Rome to St. Augustine and medieval Christianity.
Reading: Paragraphs 197-230 (p119-138)
Date: Nov. 1, 2005
6) The ethical world – ancient Athens and Greek tragedy. From original harmony to inner conflict. The tragedy of Antigone. The Woman as bearer of Divine Law.
Reading: Paragraphs 438-476 (p263-289)
Supplementary Reading: Sophocles, Antigone
Date: Nov. 8, 2005
7) Culture and the self alienation of spirit. From noble deeds to flattering words. Culture and class in 18th Century France. Rameau’s Nephew as prototype of the enlightened cynical bohemian.
Reading: Paragraphs 484-526 (p294-321)
Supplementary Reading: Diderot, Rameau’s Nephew
Date: Nov. 15, 2005
8) The French Revolution. Part I. The battle between Superstition and Enlightenment.
Reading: Paragraphs 538-573 (p328-349)
Date: Nov. 22, 2005
9) The French Revolution. Part II. The pyrrhic victory of the Enlightenment. The dramatic climax of the Phenomenology: Absolute freedom and terror. Triumph and tragedy of Rousseau and Robespierre.
Reading: Paragraphs 574-595 (p349-363)
Date: Nov. 29, 2005
10) The Moral world view. The World Spirit crosses the Rhine. Morality as an answer to the nihilism of Absolute Freedom and Terror. Kant and the antinomies of formal morality. The Beautiful Soul and Romanticism.
Reading: Paragraphs 596-671 (p364-409)
Date: Dec. 6, 2005
11) Absolute Spirit: From natural religion, to religion as art to revealed religion. The Incarnation as the death of god. Absolute Knowing. Philosophy as a Self-Reflective Community and the aufheben of religion.
Reading: Paragraphs 750-759 (p454-460), and 784-787(p475-478),
and Paragraphs 727-787 (p479-493)
Date: Dec 13, 2005
12) Summing up -The Preface. The place of the Phenomenology of Spirit in the history of Western Spirit. What have we accomplished? Post-Hegelian reflections.
Reading: Preface: Paragraphs 1-72 (p1-45)
Date: Dec 20, 2005