German Classical Philosophy

Philosophy of G.W.F. Hegel

Phenomenology of Spirit

In the preface to Phenomenology of Spirit, the author expresses his intention to facilitate the approach of philosophy to the realm of science, striving for a state in which it may truly be regarded as knowledge, moving beyond mere love of knowledge. He believes the time has come to elevate philosophy to the status of a science. The scientific nature of philosophy is closely tied to its quest for truth. Attaining truth is not a momentary act; rather, it constitutes a process. The advancement toward truth unfolds through a series of stages experienced by consciousness, and the exposition of these stages forms the systematic framework sought in scientific inquiry. This concerns the form of philosophy, but what is its essence, its subject matter?

In revealing the specificity of philosophy, Hegel follows the modern European tradition that emphasizes issues of consciousness, knowledge, and cognition. Unlike the natural sciences, philosophy does not confront any empirical “physicality” to be studied. Its domain is that of thought and knowledge. One might immediately object that other sciences exist in the form of knowledge or thought as well. This is true, yet the content of thoughts in special sciences pertains to empirical reality, finite objects, and phenomena, while philosophy engages with “thoughts about thoughts,” or, as it is often put, it is a reflection on the process of thinking. Hegel posits that philosophical reflection on thought progresses alongside the history of human knowledge, and only by looking back can we pinpoint the phases of this movement.

As in all modern European philosophy, we find in Hegel a distinctive relationship with reason. However, for Hegel, reason is not merely one of the faculties of human beings. Reason, in his view, assumes a trans-individual form. The unfolding of the cognitive process throughout human history, from generation to generation, manifests reason that was previously in a latent state, akin to an embryo.

The form in which reason reveals itself in philosophy is the concept. The concept is a key term in Hegel's system of thought. For him, the “concept” is not simply one form of thinking, as it might be seen from the standpoint of classical logic. Its precise meaning must be sought in relation to closely associated categories such as “consciousness,” “knowledge,” “cognition,” and so forth. Therefore, before we proceed further, we must clarify some key terms.

According to Hegel, consciousness encompasses all spiritual phenomena characteristic of human beings, ranging from sensations and volitional abilities to the highest intellectual manifestations, or to “rational consciousness.” Human consciousness is active and dynamic, marked by a will to knowledge with its implicit purpose. This purpose is nothing other than the essence of consciousness, initially concealed and later revealed in the development of the individual and the history of society. In essence, this corresponds to the concept of consciousness as such. Hegel refers to manifested consciousness as spirit. Knowledge is inherent to consciousness as spirit. Hegel asserts that philosophy is primarily concerned not with any form of knowledge but with the movement of knowledge in which consciousness recognizes itself or reveals itself as spirit. He understands that consciousness is the means by which individuals engage with the surrounding world, that people rely upon it to know nature, develop science, and purposefully utilize its products. However, he deliberately abstracts from the burden of consciousness laden with “concreteness”; he is interested precisely in the instrument of comprehension and appropriation of the world. This instrument possesses a unique property: it is capable of self-reflection, self-consciousness, and it advances in stages alongside the phases of development of its subject matter. To elucidate this, Hegel often employs various examples. For instance, he reminds us of the acorn: “Where we wish to see the oak with its mighty trunk, its sprawling branches, and the abundance of its leaves, we express dissatisfaction when instead we are shown the acorn.” However, it is essential to understand that within the acorn, “in its latent form,” lies the essence of the oak, its concept, which subsequently unfolds in reality.

The self-development of consciousness occurs because experience convinces it of the disparity between the object and the concept, both of which are specific characteristics of the same consciousness. This aspect requires clarification. The issue is that at each stage of its development, consciousness forms a concept about itself, that is, a thought regarding its essence; yet, since the development is not yet complete, this interim “concept” is not a true concept. The subject here consists of the “products” of consciousness's activity, which it initially presents as its essence. However, over time, it becomes evident that the object is not in reality what it seems to be, that it does not correspond to the “concept” (the interim concept) formed about it (that is, about the “concept” of the object). A contradiction arises, prompting consciousness to move further. At each stage, it compares the object with the concept (as a certain measure) until, at the culmination of all acts of consciousness, the object and concept converge. The central theme of exploration in Phenomenology of Spirit is the experience of consciousness on its path to fully grasping its concept.

For Hegel, the phenomenology of spirit is a science, yet from his subjective perspective, he does not create it. The science, so to speak, historically grows alongside the stages of the development of spirit. Thus, the “formation of science or knowledge” in Phenomenology of Spirit is merely presented.

Structurally, this work is divided into three parts: consciousness, self-consciousness, and the absolute subject, corresponding to three fundamental stages of cognition. The stage of “consciousness” is characterized by immersion in sensibility and objectivity, thus we are dealing with “objective consciousness” here. At the stage of “self-consciousness,” consciousness differentiates objects from the self. Objective consciousness and self-consciousness relate to one another as the objective and the subjective, the conjunction of which, or the convergence to identity, gives rise to reason (“rational consciousness”). Following the phase of self-consciousness, reason achieves the rank of self-conscious reason, or spirit. Ultimately, at the conclusion of historical wanderings, spirit, through forms of social consciousness (art, religion), reaches “absolute knowledge,” its concept, or science as the understanding of itself in the concept. The science attained by the evolution of spirit is precisely philosophy. Concluding Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel states that this book is the history of spirit understood in the concept, a peculiar recollection of absolute spirit concerning the path of self-knowledge it has traversed, regarding its “Golgotha.”