PHIL 607 Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit
A close reading of Hegel's first mature statement of his philosophic system, a work he called his "voyage of discovery." Among points to be considered: What does Hegel mean by "science of the experience of consciousness" as the history of the "shapes and forms" of consciousness itself? How does this science contain a probing criticism of modern philosophy, one which proceeds "as the path of doubt, or, more authentically, as the path of despair" toward an affirmation of reason? How does this path of thought arise out of problems in Kantian and post-Kantian philosophy? How does it attempt to reconcile modern thought and institutions with Christianity?