Hegel's Phenomenology of spirit : not missing the trees for the forest / Howard P. Kainz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kainz, Howard P.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831. Phänomenologie des Geistes.

Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich.

Phenomenology.

Physical Description:

xi, 118 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, [2008]

Summary:

In most commentaries on Hegel's Phenomenology the emphasis has been on presenting the totality as a chain of phenomenological developments leading up inexorably to the final chapter on "Absolute Knowledge." In other words the "mission" of the commentator has been to make sure that the reader does not "miss the forest for the trees," as the saying goes-getting so wrapped up in individual "moments" that he or she misses the all-important dialectical movement of the work. In Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Howard P. Kainz provides a masterful tour of some of the "trees" that are of interest in their own right and keys to the ongoing appreciation of this classical work.

Contents:

1 The Phenomenon of Language in Hegel's Phenomenology 1

Language vs. Meaning in Sense-Certainty 2

Language Expressing the Discrepancy between Inner and Outer 4

Law, as the Universal Language for Social Consciousness 4

The Language of Flattery, Creating What it Extols 5

The Language of Disintegration, Recording Cultural Contradictions 7

Enlightened Freedom and the Revolutionary Inhibition of Language 8

Conscience as Necessarily Expressed in Language 9

Expressions of Conscience leading to Moral Relativism 10

Non-expression of Conscience leading to Moral Disintegration 11

Expressions of Mutual Forgiveness and the Emergence of Absolute Spirit 12

Classical Literature as Gathering Together the Dispersed and Scattered Moments of the Inner Essential World and the World of Action 12

2 Character Types in the Phenomenology 17

The Master Consumer 17

The Unhappy Consciousness 20

The Disillusioned Hedonist 22

The Moral Sentimentalist 23

The Knight of Virtue 24

Prestigious v. Disreputable Consciousness-Types 25

The Revolutionary 27

The Beautiful Soul 30

3 Phenomenological Themes 33

Heraclitean Flux 33

Intersubjectivity 37

Rational Reality 39

Invalidity of Kant's Categorical Imperative 40

Natural Law 42

Victory by Social Osmosis 43

The Church of Consciences 44

The Fulfillment of Religion in Philosophy 47

4 Kierkegaard and the Phenomenology 51

Borrowings 53

Speech as oriented exclusively towards universality 53

Stoical withdrawal into self 54

An Interesting Parallel 55

Reinterpretations 55

The Three Stages 55

Determinate Negation 56

Faith 57

The "Task" 58

The Unhappy Consciousness 59

Transformation of a Servile Consciousness 60

The "outer" as expression of the "inner" 61

Sensuality as a result of Christianity 62

The Knight of Faith 63

5 Hegel's Unsystematic Systematization 65

Haering's Thesis 65

Discernments of Unity 66

Hegel's Intermittent Recapitulations: Labarriere's Analysis 68

Hegel's Major Recapitulations 71

The Final Emerging Organizational Patterns 78

6 The Phenomenology and Literature 81

Literature Incorporated in the Phenomenology 81

The Phenomenology Developing a Philosophy of Literature 83

The Phenomenology as Literature 84

Hegel as Story-Teller 86

Literary Devices Utilized by Hegel 88

Irony 88

Paradox 91

Metaphor 91

Syzygy 92

Anomalies 95

Humor and Satire 98

7 "Absolute Knowledge" and the History of Modern Philosophy 99

Interpretations of Absolute Knowledge 100

The Importance of the Subject-Object Problematic 101

The Emergence of Absolute Knowledge from Modern Philosophy 103

Absolute Knowledge as the Golden Mean Between Philosophical Extremes 108.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 111-113) and index.

ISBN:

9780739125854

0739125850

OCLC:

183392486