Chapter 2 - “Science of the phenomenology of spirit”: Hegel's program and its implementation

Summary

Hegel's Phenomenology, now turning 200, has ceased to be an odd stumbling block in the historical memory of present-day philosophy. In recent years, significant work has contributed to the exploration and appropriation of Hegel's text. Someone who started studying this work more than half a century ago, as I did, can only envy those approaching the text today. Thanks to a discussion among experts that has increased in intensity and international scope over the past thirty-five years, belginners can now turn to excellent collections of essays. Sustained unitary interpretations have illuminated the whole extent of the enterprise. An encompassing and erudite essay has clarified the full complexity of its underlying idea. Invigoratingly controversial and easily accessible studies have illuminated various parts of the work in more detail, and the context of these individual topics within the Hegelian oeuvre, life, and influence has been revealed in comprehensive accounts that in many respects mutually complement and correct each other.

The tendency towards crudely one-sided interpretations, such as those that dominated the scene in the middle of the twentieth century, is hardly visible today. Someone who sets out now to discover a substantial truth or to find himself in the Phenomenology does not run the risk of falling prey to the misinterpretations that were at one time very pervasive.