Half Hour Hegel: The Complete Phenomenology of Spirit (Preface, sec 4-6)

In this third video in the new series on G.W.F. Hegel's great early work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, I read and comment on the fourth, fifth, and sixth paragraph of the text, from the Preface. In these sections, Hegel discusses the workings and development of culture. He also elaborates the inherent requirement for philosophy, as science, to be systematically development. Then, he begins his criticism of approaches to philosophy and the Absolute in terms of intuition.

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.

The introductory music for the video is: Solo Violin - BWV 1004 - Partita for Violin No. 2 - Recorded in Brooklyn June 26, 2011 specifically to be dedicated to the Public Domain

#Hegel #Phenomenology #Philosophy #Idealism #German #Dialectic #Spirit #Absolute #Knowledge #History

[helmutglavar]

Your –‘becoming cultured’ is a very good explanation for the German term Bildung. I am a native German speaker and always have troubles explaining it. There is no simple corresponding English term for Bildung. The term culture by itself is not a satisfying translation Bildung rather means formation or education not reducible to institutional education. Bildung is a formation process of understanding, of culture.

[trenthogan]

Thank you Dr. Sadler. This is an enormous undertaking you have embarked on but so very important and helpful.

[lapollod]

If I wasn't so poor a student (solely financially, I'm enriched educationally by your readings!) I would so donate you a fiver x

[Tompsykhe]

As a Bergson reader I'm more than intrigued by Hegels critique of intuition. From my reading of Bergson I've come to the conclusion that a critique of mediation as being relative knowledge and the stating of intuition as proper metaphysical knowledge is understandable only by acknowledging that it's a critique directed towards Kant, and concerning the Empiricism/Racionalism debate, prior to Hegel. In this way, Bergson goes forward to state that even though metaphysics would be the "science that dispenses the symbol to grasp the absolute", it nevertheless requires intuition to be "philosophical" in the sense that a working with symbols or mediation must aspire to reconstruct conceptualy the reality of movement (becoming). I'm not saying that Bergson and Hegel agree, but I can see there's a shared motivation on thinking the unfolding of reality and giving thought the lingering aspect towards "the thing" (that has, I think, a certain empirical/lived -not empiricist- foundation) and the need for thought to become conceptual in order to be strictly philosophical. Anyways, thank you very much Mr. Sadler! Your work is very inspiring.

[damiansacco]

Dude thank you very much this is amazing. Thanks for publishing all this for free im speechless

[jamesmorgan]

These videos are some of the only ones on YouTube that I can't watch at x2 speed.

[ismaelspechtintuition]

Thanks a lot Professor Sadler for all your work and love for teaching. Greetings from Brazil.

[novascotianmusician]

I deeply appreciate what you're doing here with these videos. I hope you follow it through, I will be along for the ride

[ZootTM]

A short defense of 'mindfulness', plus a comment on its pitfalls:
In Buddhism and derived secular mindfulness practices, "perceptions" mean the experience as mediated by general principles, which is to be broken up by mindfulness practices through revealing the mediatedness of our 'substantial life''. Mindfulness can this way help us "making the familiar strange" and enable real understanding.
On the other hand, most mindfulness practicioners I have met have an impoverished understanding of the mediated immediacy of substantial life. They think through mindfulness they can get in touch with some enigmatic inner core, which is truly immediate and not mediated by profane and unenlightened conditions of the social world. They think their practice will ultimately allow them to see behind the facade of everday experience and confer upon them "enlightened spontaneity". I can only infer from your excellent first three lessons and my encounters with Adorno that this is not at all what Hegel has in my mind. "Enlightenment", if we want to use that term, can only be achieved through "Durcharbeitung" and discursive thought, not by trying to go to some realm of pure immediacy.

[GregoryBSadler]

The next three paragraphs of the Phenomenology -- where Hegel outlines what the "true shape of truth" must be....

[thebeautypart]

I think this is a potential model for future exegesis of many texts. I really look forward to the next installments.

[Philiopantheon]

I just found these sets of short but enormously intricate and enjoyable lecture!! Cant really thank you enough Dr. Gregory:) bless you sir

[williamkibler]

Im here for the moral philosophy but happy to interlock with such great critical thinking. Thank you for this halfway house for the intellectually disoriented. big man in the sky knows I need it

[LifeUhFindsAWay]

These are amazing, thank you so much! (I just got into philosophy as a hobby a couple of years ago, and these are extremely wonderful for someone without academic resources)

[CompilerHack]

Thank you. You made this very accessible, and also kinda validated the difficulty the reader feels when reading the dense and as a result almost mockingly small text.
Edit: corrected wording.

[deepashukla]

@Gregory B. Sadler Thank you for this series. it is very helpful for those who really want to understand Hegel's phenomenology. Marvelous work.

[mandys]

on paragraph 6~ i had recently thought about unmediated, direct experience. i agree with what hegel says then, because language is the mediator, and without it, without thought, there is a sort of suspended unexplainable sensation, but thats all that can be remembered. for example, terrence mckenna went down the amazon river on a boat, and all he could experience was GREEN- green, and more green. then, the next trip, two ethnobotanists came along, and soon he knew ans saw many specific types of plants due to their naming of them. Until we have names and words for things, we cannot see them. people do not trust mediation, ; it is interesting to ask why

[rajdeepvijayaraj]

Wow! This is amazing work professor! Thanks a lot. Greetings from India.

[scientificmystic]

I would love to read one of hegel's student's notes for his lectures. Must have been hell for them

[MrBstrang]

I like how you broke these down to an examination of each paragraph.  It's easy to get lost in broad expressions and not realize your lost especially when you don't fully understand integral specific parts of this text.