The Phenomenology of Spirit

The Phenomenology of Spirit
Title page of the first edition
AuthorGeorg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Original titlePhänomenologie des Geistes
TranslatorJames Black Baillie
LanguageGerman
SubjectPhilosophy
Published1807
Publication placeGermany
Published in English
1910
Media typePrint
OCLC929308074
193
LC ClassB2928 .E5
Original text
Phänomenologie des Geistes at Project Gutenberg
TranslationThe Phenomenology of Spirit at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

The Phenomenology of Spirit (German: Phänomenologie des Geistes) is the most widely discussed philosophical work of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel; its German title can be translated as either The Phenomenology of Spirit or The Phenomenology of Mind. Hegel described the work, published in 1807, as an "exposition of the coming to be of knowledge".[1] This is explicated through a necessary self-origination and dissolution of "the various shapes of spirit as stations on the way through which spirit becomes pure knowledge".[1]

The book marked a significant development in German idealism after Immanuel Kant. Focusing on topics in metaphysics, epistemology, ontology, ethics, history, religion, perception, consciousness, existence, logic and political philosophy, it is where Hegel develops his concepts of dialectic (including the lord-bondsman dialectic), absolute idealism, ethical life and Aufhebung. It had a profound effect in Western philosophy, and "has been praised and blamed for the development of existentialism, communism, fascism, death of God theology and historicist nihilism".[2]

  1. ^ a b Hegel 2018, p. 468, Appendix.
  2. ^ Pinkard 1996, p. 2.