Abstract
Commenting upon Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit involves a process of reappraisal. Hegel in the Phenomenology of Spirit appraises the claims of consciousness, and these claims are judged ultimately in the light of the achievement of a self-sustaining mode of consciousness. A review of Hegel’s phenomenological understanding of consciousness if it is not to be conducted according to external criteria, is bound to track and evaluate Hegel’s appraisal of consciousness and, in doing so, will be undertaking a reappraisal of Hegel’s assessment of consciousness.
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R. Pippin, “You Can’t Get There From Here: Transition Problems in Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit,” F. Beiser ed., The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), p. 53.
G.W.F. Hegel, Phenomeenologie des Geistes,Werke 3, (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1970). For a lively English translation, see G.W.F. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind, translated by Sir James Baillie, (London and New York: George, Allen and Unwin, 1971), p.247. For concise, perceptive commentary on Hegel’s conception of infinity see T. Pinkard, Hegel’s Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994), p. 360.
Harris takes Plato to be the inspiration for this correspondence theory of truth. For distinct treatments of the relationships between Hegel and Plato’s metaphysics and epistemologies, see the following. M. Rosen, Hegel’s Dialectic and its Criticism, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982). G.K.Browning, “Transitions to and from Nature in Hegel and Plato,” Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, no.26, Autumn/Winter, 1992. J.N. Findlay, “Hegelianism and Platonism,” in J.J. O’Malley, K.W. Algozin and F.G. Weiss (eds), Hegel and the History of Philosophy, (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1974).
Bubner distinguishes his interpretation of this relation between philosophy and history in Hegel from that of Heidegger. See R. Bubner, Dialektik und Wissenschaft, (Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1962).
Kenneth Westphal suggests a similarly nuanced reading of the relationship between the community and the individual in Hegel’s social ethics in his article, “The Basic Context and Structure of Hegel” Philosophy of Right in F.C. Beiser (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Hegel, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 1993), p. 236–237. See also, H. Brod, Hegel’s Philosophy of Politics — Idealism, Politics and Identity, (San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1992).
For a concise alternative treatment of Hegel’s organicism, see Ibid., pp. 236, and G.K. Browning, “Plato and Hegel: Reason, Redemption and Political Theory,” in History of Political Thought, Vol. VIII (3), 1987, pp. 377–393.
G.W.F. Hegel, Introduction to the Lectures on the History of Philosophy, translated by T.M. Knox and A.V. Miller, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985), 1892, Vol.1. p.6.
See H. Marcuse, Reason and Revolution, (London, Routledge Kegan and Paul: 1941) and M. Oakeshott, On Human Conduct, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975). For a discussion of Rorty and Macintyre and the relationship between Hegel’s approach and recent “historicist” tendencies in philosophy, see the article, Robert Stern, “Hegel and the New Historicism,” Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, nos. 21/22, 1990.
For a revisionist treatment of the British Idealists, which sees them as developing something like contemporary, non-metaphysical views of Hegel see, Robert Stern, “British Hegelianism: A Non-Metaphysical View,” Bulletin of the Hegel Society of Great Britain, No. 31, Spring/Summer 1995.
K.L. Reinhold, Elemente der Phänomenologie oder Erlauterung des rationalen Realismus durch seine Anwendung auf die Erscheinungen in Beytrage zur leichtem Ubersicht des Zustands der Philosophie beym Anfang (d. 19. Jh., Heft 4: 1802).
This is a decidedly revisionist account of Hegel’s ethics and of his treatment of Kantian ethics. For a more traditional account in which Hegel is seen as dissolving ethics into sociology see W.H. Walsh, Hegelian Ethics, (London and New York: Macmillan, 1969).
For an account of Hegel’s appreciation of Plato’s dialectic see chapter 1 in G.K. Browning, Plato and Hegel: Two Modes of Philosophising about Politics (New York: Garland Press, 1991).
A treatment of the Phenomenology of Spirit which sees it as primarily a vehicle for aiding non-philosophical forms of consciousness can be found in I. Soll, An Introduction to Hegel’s Metaphysics, (Chicago and London: Chicago University Press, 1969).
An example of such a tendentious reading of Hegel is A. Kojeve, Introduction to the Reading of Hegel, trans. J.H. Nichols, (New York: Basic Books, 1960). A classic statement of the constant but necessary revision of the past in the light of changing cultures and values is to be found in R.G. Collingwood, “Epilegomena,” The Idea of History, edited with an Introduction by Jan Van Der Dussen, (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994).
A non-metaphysical account of Hegel’s political theory is given in Z.A. Pelczynski, “Introduction,” Hegel’s Political Writings,(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1964). See also the discussion in the opening chapter of M. Tunick, Hegel’s Political Philosophy — Interpreting the Practice of Legal Punishment, (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1992).
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Browning, G.K. (1997). Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: A Reappraisal. In: Browning, G.K. (eds) Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit: A Reappraisal. International Archives of the History of Ideas / Archives Internationales D’Histoire des Idées, vol 149. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-8917-8_1
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