The Phenomenology of Mind [Paperback]

Georg Wilhelm Friedri Hegel (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 814 pages
• Publisher: Books on Demand
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0608119342
• ISBN-13: 978-0608119342
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,761,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easily one of the most important books ever written, a good alternative translation, June 12, 2006

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Nathan Andersen "film lover, philosophy profe... (Florida) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Phenomenology of Mind (Philosophical Classics) (Paperback)

I just noticed the other review of this book, giving it one star and claiming it is not worth the effort; I wanted to add something to counterbalance that review. First, the other reviewer is right that this is a very difficult book to read on your own, especially if you don't have a significant background in philosophy. But that is not necessarily an objection to the book. It would be silly for me to criticize a book of theoretical physics just because I didn't have the background necessary to understand it (and wasn't prepared or willing to learn from others who do). In spite of the difficulty, this is a very important book. In terms of scope and level of insight it is almost without parallel in the history of philosophy.

The argument begins with an investigation of the experiential basis of objective knowledge, proceeds to show that our experience of objects is rooted in our understanding of ourselves and that this is inseparable from our relationships with other people. The text aims to show the interconnections between a wide range of social and historical or institutional forms of knowing and acting, and concludes with a demonstration that thinking is inseparable from the intersubjective and socialized formations of reality it aims to describe (and that the history of these formations is essentially a history of the thinking that gave rise to them, i.e. that "thinking and being are one").

On another note, it is worth celebrating the fact that Baillie's translation is now back in print and being published by Dover. While not technically as accurate as the more popular Miller Translation of the Phenomenology of Spirit, the Baillie version is a nice complement that in many cases reads more clearly than Miller's and serves as a helpful tool to illuminate difficult or obscure passages (Note that in spite of the apparently different title, this is the same book as the Miller translation that Oxford publishes under the title "The Phenomenology of Spirit" -- just a different translation choice for the German word "Geist" = "Mind" or "Spirit"). There is, though, no getting around the fact that this book is in many places difficult and obsure, and becomes clear only with great difficulty. The payoff for such effort is enormous. (A helpful guide to reading Hegel, called "Reading Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit" by John Russon, was recently published.)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A memorable bear of a book, January 7, 2010

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not a natural "Bob Bickel" (huntington, west virginia United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Phenomenology of Mind (Philosophical Classics) (Paperback)

I took an undergraduate course in social and political philosophy at Penn State in 1968. The syllabus listed four books as required reading: Marcuse's One-Dimensional Man, DeBeauvoir's The Ethics of Ambiguity, Plato's Republic, and Hegel's The Phenomenology of Mind. None of the books was light reading, and findiing common themes that intimated their kinship for inclusion on the same reading list was not at all easy. Of the four, the one that was far and away the most difficult was Hegel's Phenomenology.

Fortunately, the instructor and his teaching assistant took Hegel very seriously, and they spent a good deal of time helping their students understand his extrordinarily convoluted and determinedly dense prose offerings. Otherwise, I can think of only one member of the class of about thirty students (definietly not me!) who would have been able to get through The Phenomenoloy with even a modicum of understanding.

As it was, I still had trouble grasping the way the instructor wanted us to understand crucial ideas such as the unhappy consciousness and the master-slave relationship. Nevertheless, perhaps because I was majoring in sociology and had taken a couple of courses in social psychology, Hegel's treatment of the emergence of an individuated self struck me -- and still strikes me -- as simply brilliant. In the beginning, one experiences one's self as everything. There is no other. Inevitably, however, resistance is encountered, and the notion of an other -- something alien to the all-econmpassing self -- becomes apparent. This, in its most basic Hegelian form, is alienation, meaning in the abstract, the reality of otherness. The dialectical process, involving repeated encounters with, and accommodations to otherness results in the emergence of a concrete, self-aware, and individuated consciousness that knows that alien social terrain is inescapable.

The very idea of an individuated self and the necessity of its emergence had not occurred to me before I read The Phenomenology. It is, after all, something we take for granted, recognizing it unself-consciously, but without awareness. The fact that Hegel could use the dialectical method to identify and explain its emergence was, in my view, a manifestation of unqualified genius in speculative philosophy.

It remains true, however, that those who complain that Hegel could have written with much greater clarity, making The Phenomenology accessible to a broader eighteenth century (and now a twenty-first century) audience have a point. Perhaps Hegel anticipated that his only readers would be scholars such as himself, but even in his day, that was not the case. After all, Kant had earlier written the Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics to assist readers with The Critique of Pure Reason.

As it is, I cant imagine getting though The Phenomenology without a good deal of help. Having come to terms with The Phenomenology, however, one will recognize Hegel's influence on important twentieth century authors, such as Geogre Herbert Mead and Muzafer Sherif. Their understanding of the emergence of an individuated self is deeply indebted to The Phenomenology of Mind.

Exposure to the difficulty of using the dialectical method, even before Marx made it an instrument of philosophical materialism, is also informative. It makes it easier to see why Lenin said of the brilliant Bukharin, "he never understood the dialectic." The dialectical method is definitely elusive, slippery, and at odds with usual ways of thinking. Even for brilliant people the dialectical method can pose problems.

Hegel's later work is easier to read, but it is, I think, of mainly antiquarian value, especially for those interested in studying German idealism. With some assistance, however, The Phenomenology of Mind will leave a lasting impression, providing insights that will inform the rest of one's life.

3.0 out of 5 stars Technical note on this edition, August 27, 2010

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d_oakley - See all my reviews

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This review is from: The Phenomenology Of Mind (Kindle Edition)

For some reason an Author alphabetization on my Kindle places this item under "Georg" instead of under "Hegel".