Phenomenology of Spirit eBook

"Hegel's Phenomenology was written, so the story goes, on the eve of Napoleon's destruction of the Holy Roman Empire and at the beginning of the German 'Wars of Liberation.' The book itself is no less dramatic or revolutionary. It is Hegel's grandest experiment, changing our vision of the world and the very nature of the philosophical enterprise. "In the rightfully famous Preface, Hegel lays out the principles that define the rest of his work and so much philosophy to follow. In the Introduction, he briefly summarizes the argument that completes Kant's philosophical revolution, rendering skepticism a dead issue and idealism an inspiring call to change and self-realization. In 'Consciousness,' he anticipates some of the most radical insights of contemporary epistemology, defending Kant and Fichte and moving beyond them to the work of the later Wittgenstein. In 'Self-Consciousness,' he provides a model of self and self-identity which begins a new era in philosophy, inspiring Marx and Sartre and so many others. And as he develops his symphony of 'Reason,' Hegel puts into harmony ethics and autonomy, ancient philosophy and tragedy, Byronic Romanticism, German poetry, the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, the concept of virtue, the history of religion (including an ambiguous defense and critique of modern Christianity), the beginnings of a new philosophy of science and Kant's moral philosophy. All are tied together with the dazzling if sometimes bewildering leaps in logic that have come to be known as `Hegel's dialectic.' "No one can read this book without feeling that he or she is encountering not only an important historical document but a living example of the finest powers of the philosophical imagination." Robert C. Solomon, Professor of Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin