History & Truth in Hegel's Phenomenology

by Westphal, Merold

• ISBN13: 9780253334220
• ISBN10: 0253334225
• Edition: 3rd
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1998-10-01
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

ÒThis fairly small book must take its place as the best introductory study of HegelÕs Phenomenology available.Ó ÑPhilosophy and Phenomenological ResearchÒWestphalÕs book is a comprehensive guide to the argument of the entire phenomenology. . . . will repay close study by serious undergraduate and graduate students of philosophy.Ó ÑChoiceThis detailed interpretation of HegelÕs Phenomenology of Spirit seeks to show that the unity of this classic work may be found in the integration of its transcendental and sociological-historical themes. Merold Westphal argues that the key to this unity lies in HegelÕs radical discovery that transcendental subjectivity has a social history and that absolute knowledge is a historically conditioned and essentially collective or social event. His distinctive interpretation emphasizes the relevance of HegelÕs Phenomenology to contemporary philosophical issues.

Table of Contents

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION	ix	(8)
INTRODUCTION	xvii	(4)
GUIDE TO FOOTNOTES	xxi
CHAPTER ONE The Task of the Phenomenology: A) The Introduction	1	(24)
1A. Critical philosophy as the fear of error and the fear of truth	2	(6)
1B. Phenomenology as the way of doubt and despair	8	(6)
1C. Phenomenology as criticism without presuppositions	14	(11)
CHAPTER TWO The Task of the Phenomenology: B) The Preface	25	(34)
2A. The present standpoint of Spirit	25	(11)
2B. The life-world of critical philosophy	36	(7)
2C. The medical function of philosophy: a) midwifery	43	(3)
2D. The medical function of philosophy: b) socioanalysis	46	(13)
CHAPTER THREE The Knowledge of Nature: A) Sense Perception	59	(34)
3A. "The truth is the whole" as hermeneutical guide	59	(7)
3B. The mediated character of sense perception	66	(6)
3C. Language, sense certainty, and Feuerbach's critique	72	(8)
3D. Language and the double mediation of theoretical consciousness	80	(4)
3E. Sense certainty and the Phenomenology as a whole	84	(9)
CHAPTER FOUR The Knowledge of Nature: B) Natural Science	93	(28)
4A. Preliminary sketch of Hegel's phenomenological philosophy of science	93	(4)
4B. The supersensible character of scientific thought	97	(5)
4C. The tautological character of scientific explanation	102	(8)
4D. The transcendental source of science's supersensible tautologies	110	(11)
CHAPTER FIVE The Concept of Spirit	121	(32)
5A. The official introduction to Spirit	121	(9)
5B. The priority of love over life and labor	130	(8)
5C. Spirit and ethical life	138	(15)
CHAPTER SIX The Career of Spirit	153	(34)
6A. The legal self as the destiny of the ancient world	153	(7)
6B. The revolutionary self as the destiny of Christendom	160	(13)
6C. The conscientious self as the destiny of the post-revolutionary world	173	(14)
CHAPTER SEVEN Religion	187	(24)
7A. Spirit as the object of religious knowledge	187	(7)
7B. Spirit as the subject of religious knowledge	194	(7)
7C. Vorstellung as the form of religious knowledge	201	(10)
CHAPTER EIGHT Absolute Knowledge	211	(20)
8A. The withering away of religion and the Marxian critique	211	(7)
8B. Science and eternity	218	(5)
8C. The Phenomenology and the System	223	(8)
INDEX	231