Thursday, January 22, 2004
(12:00 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Book Report: Phenomenology of Spirit
I have now read Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit in its entirety. Since one of the requirements for absolute knowing is reading and thoroughly understanding the Phenomenology, I can't claim to have attained absolute knowledge yet. I didn't do nearly enough to keep his various terms rigorously defined in my mind, and sometimes his meaning completely escaped me. For instance, there was a passage in which the translator placed the word "shapes" in scare quotes, and I could not for the life of me track down exactly why that was.
No one expects me to start giving lecture courses on Hegel right this minute, I'm sure, but I am becoming more conscious of my tendency to read too quickly. The only time I considerably slow down is when I am writing a line-by-line commentary. Reading slowly and in great detail doesn't seem worth it unless I am going to have something concrete and finalized; otherwise, just putting the words into my head and letting my unconscious do its magic is good enough for me.
The best parts, in my opinion, were those in which he was discussing the classical world, both because I am more familiar with the subject matter and because he seemed to have some truly penetrating insights. Much of the work anticipated Nietzsche (most notably the idea that "God is dead"), and I would like to return to Nietzsche sometime soon with those insights in mind. Before doing any comparative work, it would likely behoove me to gain a better understanding of Hegel in-and-for-himself.
To that end, I will likely finish up Kojève's Introduction to the Reading of Hegel within the next week, as well as re-reading selected passages from the Phenomenology in anticipation of a paper on Lacan and Hegel. Depending on my endurance level, I will try a couple other secondaries, probably Kaufmann's book on Hegel and Jean Hyppolite's Genesis and Structure of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. I am also in possession of Hegel's Philosophy of History and Philosophy of Right, as well as several essays in which Derrida addresses Hegel -- including, somewhat mysteriously, Glas. As of this moment, it would probably make sense to turn this into some kind of directed study, so I would have something to show for my intellectual labor.
This post was boring; I apologize.
