Half Hour Hegel: The Complete Phenomenology of Spirit (Introduction, sec. 87-89)

In this thirty-eight video in the new series on G.W.F. Hegel's great early work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, I read and comment on the eighty-seventh, eighty-eightth, and eighty-ninth paragraphs of the text, finishing our study of the Introduction.

Hegel now considers an objection that could be raised about the nature of experience. In our ordinary life, it does not appear that our own consciousnesses work out their relations with the objects of knowledge in the dialectical manner outlined in the previous paragraphs. Instead of simply having one Object worked upon and revealed to be an object in-itself and also an object in-itself-and-for-consciousness, it seems that experience really involves running across second objects that are revealed to us contingently, by chance, externally to whatever dialectical process is occurring.

This is only an appearance, however, and according to Hegel, what transpires is really a reversal of consciousness, in which the new, second, seemingly unrelated or contingent object is taken up into the dialectic. In fact, this has been occurring throughout human history, and we are now at the point where we are able to observe these new developments of consciousness -- but from the vantage point of the finished process.

That is indeed what the Phenomenology of Spirit is supposed to provide us with, a systematic scientific perspective upon the totality, the All, which is thoroughly permeated with human consciousness. Accordingly the dialectical path to Science turns out to be Science itself.

In this video series, I will be working through the entire Phenomenology, paragraph by paragraph -- for each one, first reading the paragraph, and then commenting on what Hegel is doing, referencing, discussing, etc. in that paragraph.

This series is designed to provide an innovative digital resource that will assist students, lifelong learners, professionals, and even other philosophers in studying this classic work by Hegel for generations to come.

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[ligottifan]

I feel like a "tiny but privileged little speck!" :) :) :) I finished the Intro!!!! Freakin Sweet!!!
On to Consciousness Sense Certainty!!!

[GregoryBSadler]

And with this one. .  . we finish the Introduction to the Phenomenology. 

Next -- with the New Year -- we'll start looking at Sense-Certainty

[garybaste]

Wouldn't us being a tiny speck be exactly what would be negated in absolute spirit? I love this, this is a holy thing you have down mr. (dr.?) Sadler - thank you for sharing the depths of your wisdom and offering it as a resource to the uninitiated!!!

[SistoActivitatemAtm]

So, in regards to the lamb example, is this the progression?

A) "in itself object" I don't like lamb b) "chance object" has good lamb at party, c) "in itself for consciousness object/sublation" realizes previous lambs was poorly cooked, lamb is good

I thought the pure grasping Hegel talked about was in reference to the external/chance object? But in my interpretation of ur example it seems the pure grasping is in the for consciousness object

[lukemccrae]

Does Hegel’s notion of science up to this point include any necessary social network or peer review? It’s hard to think of science today without this social network, but he seems to be presenting knowledge as happening on an individual level

[Giannetta]

The "connection" between 'nothing' and 'becoming' I think should be stressed more in the part of the lecture on section 87. This, I think, in light also of the importance of the tradition behind. The essence of 'Becoming', in all the forms the Greeks may have thought it, is that 'the Nothing' is the beginning and the end of all 'Becoming'; but Hegel in an amazing move affirms instead 'Becoming' as a POSITIVE process and he does this exactly by incorporating that negativity that is the essence of becoming; Hegel affirms 'Becoming' as a POSITIVE process by incorporating that negativity in a process by which --through reality having become the content and the movement of Thought -- any contradiction (the essence of becoming) is continuously overcome, even the most fearful and essential contradiction—that one between a thing and nothing. Hope I got it right somehow...

[DouglasHPlumb]

I have another question for you Dr. Sadler. Are you a pluralist, monist or pragmatist ? Or am I over-categorizing ?

(I am reading the Frankfurt school and I think learning Hegel may help me with a wider perspective since Marx wanted to turn Hegel "upside down".) I wanted to read Hegel for other reasons, but thought now the time given my extreme interest in the Franfurters. Its a magnificent philosophy IMO, even though I am a monist.

[Winterwalker]

My issue here is if we are aware of this historical process, and that truth must be something that can be built. Why are we in this situation in the first place? What caused this mess? Was it like this? Perhaps Hegel explains this, but I understand why you call this text claustrophobic in a sense.

[RoyalAnarchist]

Dr. Sadler I remember the translator saying to not read the Preface until everything else has been read. This series began with the preface but would you say the translator has a point in recommending this?

[N_NY_M]

Perhaps one of the things that have been going through my mind as I watch all of ur awesome vids, Dr. Sadlar, is this continuous expansion of Gestalten into something greater and more knowledgable of the world as it stands to be in the spectrum of past history. However, I can't help but think of the opposite of science in the sense that Hegel presents, or in other words, the reversal of the Gestalten to regress rather than progress. Especially in that in both cases, regression and progression, there is a dialectic going on: notably in the presentation of the other. My question would be this: is there a way to distinguish between the two? How do we know, as we are moving from one Gestalt to the other, that we are indeed progressing and not regressing? I feel that even though in this Hegelian sense, one shouldn't simply reject the past Gestalten as simple false or idiotic modes of existence that our "stupid" ancestors used to have, but even with this notion we are patronizing the Gestalten of our ancestors as being inferior to our current Gestalten. Many times in history, one can say that we as humans regressed into a previous Gestalten and the perpetrators of that form of being thought that this regressed form is actual progression. I guess I am wondering why do we consider ourselves privileged and how do we know that perhaps history did end at some point, we are simply repeating it: maybe at Hegel's time, maybe at the ancient times and maybe even before the written history. What I am thinking is that we still need a criterion or a quality in judging the notion of experience itself: that it's not enough to simply state that it is worth changing our Gestalten when a new other is presented as we sometimes might assume that the new other is an actual object in itself whilst actually being an illusion.

[DouglasHPlumb]

How much would Hegel have known about natural science back then ? Would he have known Maxwells equations? differential equations, gravity/astronomy, etc ? Or was he more of a literary?

I know that back then they were "masters of all trades", but was Hegel into the a-priori based sciences ?

[BobanOrlovic]

So science to hegel is this adding of experiences by negating previous experiences, and by the fact that it does negate the previous experience, it means it's true?

[derekburfoot]

So your preference for lamb ways always encompassed within consciousness but it just required a trigger or situation for your knowledge to realize it. The experience is a growth of knowledge to obtain the truth that was always encompassed within consciousness

[lyndonbailey]

Is there anything inherent in the society of the day, or the culture or the religions that makes Hegels kaleidoscopic, Gestalt-ish point of view seem more natural or familiar?

[Giannetta]

I like the lectures very much, so I'm sorry I came across a bit pedantic in my previous observations

[benjaminhart]

By the time we're done, we'll be the space baby from Kubric's 2001

[lyndonbailey]

You did not like lamb.I thought I did not like red wine until I drank an expensive one lol

[lyndonbailey]

Absolute knowledge certainly sounds utopian