Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit

It is difficult to imagine a more ambitious or even hubristic philosophy than that of G.W.F. Hegel. Even Hegel’s most contemptuous critics agreed with his faithful disciples on one count: he simply could not be ignored. It is hardly an exaggeration to say that much of 19th Century European intellectual history is a story about those who were with and against Hegel’s “Absolute Idealism,” grounded in a logic he called “dialectics.” Marxism, the Kierkegaardian and Nietzschean versions of existentialism, phenomenology, the rise of scientific positivism, and materialism are all, in an important sense, transformations of, reactions to, or attempts to get free of Hegel’s all-encompassing system.

This class will focus largely on a close reading of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit and a few supplementary texts. The Phenomenology is a kind of dialectical Bildungsroman in which the protagonist is Reason itself. It traces Reason’s life from its first infantile and naïve attempts to grasp the world directly through the senses, through its increasingly mature and self-aware stages—science, morality and religion, communal life and the state—until it reaches final apotheosis in “absolute knowing.” We’ll make our way slowly through key sections of this fascinating, unusual, and challenging work in an attempt to understand the structure of Hegel’s dialectical method and the core claims of his system alongside his distinctive views on epistemology, metaphysics, morality, and political life.

Note:
There *is* no physical Brooklyn Institute. We hold our classes all over (thus far) Brooklyn and Manhattan, in alternative spaces ranging from the back rooms of bars to bookstores to spaces in cultural centers, including the Center for Jewish History, the Goethe-Institut, and the Barnard Center for Research on Women. We can (and do) turn any space into a classroom. You will be notified of the exact location when you register for a class.

Instructors will contact students approximately one week prior to the first class with reading assignments and details about the course location.