LARTS 308 — Hegel’s Phenomenology

3 credits
Spring
Aaron Jaffe

Prerequisite: LARTS 112 . In this class we will be reading G. W. F. Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. The text, published in 1807, is a work of systematic philosophy, and a classic in the development of what has been termed German Idealism. Hegel was widely regarded as a pre-eminent German philosopher in his time, and multiple schools of Hegelian thinking flourished after his death in 1831. Indeed, much of continental philosophy can be understood as responding to the ideas, methods, problems, and solutions posed by Hegel in this text. The Phenomenology touches on nearly all branches of philosophy and Hegel’s legacy is alive through it today, as it informs branches of contemporary analytic philosophy, radical political theory, philosophies of action, normativity, and even logic. The text attempts a developmental ordering of Geist or “Spirit” by telling a story about the emergence of forms of consciousness. In doing so the Phenomenology seeks to clarify the problems posed and only partial solutions offered by different modes of picturing the world and our position within it. While long, and at times baroque and difficult, the text is immensely rewarding. I will be acknowledging different interpretative strains, but ask that you read only the primary text for this semester.