Half Hour Hegel: The Complete Phenomenology of Spirit (Lordship and Bondage, sec. 185-187)

In this seventy-fourth video in the new series on G.W.F. Hegel's great early work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, we continue our study of the second portion of the section "Self-Consciousness", i.e. "Lordship and Bondage", or the "Master-Slave Dialectic". I read and comment on paragraphs 185-187 of the text here.

The duplication or reciprocal attitude and action of self-consciousness does not at first result in a two-sided recognition of one self-consciousness by the other, and vice versa. Instead, both confront each other, as another, living individual. And each seeks in the other the certainty, or rather the truth of its own self-certainty, it has now lost and wants to regain.

In confronting the other self-consciousness, each self-consciousness shows that its being is not reducible to its mere life, that it is willing to risk its own life and to threaten the life of the other -- and realizes that the other is doing precisely the same as well. This brings the self-consciousnesses into a struggle to the death, in which each is not only seeking the death of the other, but the meaning of his or her own existence.

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.

My videos are used by students, lifelong learners, other professors, and professionals to learn more about topics, texts, and thinkers in philosophy, religious studies, literature, social-political theory, critical thinking, and communications. These include college and university classes, British A-levels preparation, and Indian civil service (IAS) examination preparation

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[ryanniinni]

You're an absolute gem for making these videos bud. I would never had been able to read this book without your help. Thank you for your commitment to public education in general

[epiccabbage]

I really appreciate that you provide context for some of Hegel's statements (such as the inherent inequality of relationships between humans)as his thought process can be obscure at times when one has only been exposed to the phenomenology among his works

[asmracademia]

I have been really struggling in my political theory class and these videos have helped me immensely. Thank you endlessly!

[ninjapanda]

Hi, thank you so much for these videos. They have been a massive help. If I understand correctly, it is precisely because each consciousness wants to be independent of the other and certain of their selfs(edit: also certain of themselves as more then objective form), something prohibited by the nature of self-consciousness through recognition, that they engage in life and death struggle?

you allude to a progress in the book that allows us to move past this way of relating to one another, but now I really can't see how this will happen... I guess I'll have to forge ahead

[ligottifan]

"Tragic structure of recognition." I love that phrase. It sums up 187 beautifully.

Also, don't want to misinterpret. Would it be accurate to say that Hegel rejects a "State of Nature" where there is innate equality? No criticism of this. If Hegel has a strong Aristotelian influence, then it makes sense he would examine the world as is and any cursory exam finds the world (Hegel's included) with deep inequalities. If Hegel rejects this I would see it more as in line with his Wissenschaft, his goal to create a true Science that embodies the world we live in and the world we live in has deep inequalities. My grandfather used to tell me that there is the way the world is and the way it can be but to get to the second you have to understand the first. I do not think (if this is Hegel's stance) that this excludes a movement towards a world with greater equality; in fact, it seems consistent with Hegel in that he would see greater equality as a developmental progression throughout history culminating in the full playing out of the Dialectic. (Did that make any sense at all????)

[SahramQ]

Great video as always! If university students would have money, they ought to give some recognition to your direction - for these lectures gives us so much. <3

One quick question to clarify and add to the need of an other as a "risker-of-life":
Is the abolishing of the other also related to the fact that part of my self-consciousness is, as a necessary mediation, in the other? Part of me exists in that other since through an other I get my truth, and for that reason my objective existence is the objective existence of the other too? And for the absolute abstraction of the self I need to abolish the other's objective essence too?

I think Pinkard's translation gives me this idea more than the Miller one as a non-native speaker.

[budcat]

Very interesting stuff, thank you Greg. Exploration of the unknown, or uncertainty, often involves a certain level of risk. Not to romanticize it too much. You wouldn't be as vulnerable in fencing if you are advanced enough to use double swords. You wouldn't be vulnerable in stick fighting if you knew double stick fighting, Eskrima. Just sayin'. Of course I got your comment.

[epiccabbage]

Is it fair to say the basic idea of these passages is that the individual self-consciousness seeks to affirm itself as the sole "for-itself", the only true subjectivity, and thus must deny the other?

[Retrogamer]

A Lacan reference was an interesting momentary diversion. Lacanism on wiki is a seed paradigm. Dr. Sadler, one assumes you will be beating your slave with that stick off screen. Some of us with frail sensibilities might be disturbed by the spectacle. :)

[Sakowsky]

What composition is played at the start of this video?

[QuintessentialQs]

Even if we are not talking about physical violence, and relegating this to the ideal. I see the apparent necessity or desire for violence.

I am I. A particular instance. But just like I can't understand any place until I understand more places and create a universal medium of placeness. I also cannot understand me as a self-conscious being, as an "I" until there is at least one other, between which we now share a universal medium. Without the other, I'm completely self-same. An empty tautology.

But we're not the same, they and I. We have differences. That implies tha there are details about my self which aren't essential to my selfhood because the other differs and still has selfhood. What must I strip from myself to find the essential? What if I strip it all and find nothing remains? That's truly a risk of life. At the same time, perhaps I must strip the other of all their difference and otherness in order to find the selfhood that lies within? And if I tear them apart until there's nothing left? No essentiality? Then they weren't really a self at all. Not like me.