An Interpretation of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

Abstract

“Phenomenology of Spirit”has an another title, namely the‘science of the experience of consciousness’.Corresponding to this twofoldness of the title, the Phenomenology is, on the one hand, the metaphysics of Subjektität (i.e. of subject-object relationship), and on the other, the metaphysics of intersubjectivity.In I, II and III of the Phenomenology, the fundamentals of the metaphysics of Subjektität are explained with regard to sense, perception and understanding respectively.In V-A, these fundamentals are developed within the element of reason as the synthesis of subject and object.In V-B, C, through the frustration of the metaphysics of Subjektität, Hegel's argument leads to the universal reason which is to grasp the concept of recognition (Anerkennen), as a basis for the metaphysics of intersubjectivity.In IV, the metaphysics of intersubjectivity was generally considered from the viewpoint of the concept of recognition.And this general consideration is developed further in VI as the manifold forms of recognition. Conscience, the highest form in VI, is the conclusion also in VII, and this conscience is the leading thread to the Absolute Knowing.Martin Heidegger defined Hegel's Phenomenology as the metaphysics of Subjektität. This definition is valid only for the introduction, I, II, III and V-A of Hegel's Phenomenology, but the rest (especially IV and VI) belongs to the metaphysics of intersubjectivity. This is the first point to which the present writer is intending to draw special attention in the interpretation of Hegel's Phenomenology.The foundation of the metaphysics of Subjektität appears first in VII-A-a (the religion as Light), and it is, in short, based on Hegel's interpretation of the Christian dogma of Creation. This is the second point to which attention is called.