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Phenomenology of Spirit
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Themes
The Science of Logic and Absolute Knowing
How do humans think? How do they make sense of the external world? What is the origin of knowledge? Philosophers in epistemology seek answers to these questions. Hegel saw these explorations as part of a greater structure of consciousness. Rather than separating the science of knowing and the philosophy of being, Hegel sought to converge both intellectual realms in a system of logic. However, Hegel deviates from his contemporaries by criticizing universal laws in science. He argues that laws deny and ignore the specificity of individual human experience. For Hegel, consciousness is unique and varied, and the collective study of conscious experience leads to absolute knowing.
While Hegel touts the need for a science of logic that can be applied to cognition and consciousness, the closest he comes to a structure in this text is the reiteration of Fichte’s work on thesis-antithesis-synthesis. In this model, a concept is explored through its conflicts and negation. A higher level of human consciousness is achieved when the conflict is reconciled. Hegel applies this triadic form to each level of consciousness: sense-certainty, self-consciousness, reason, spirit, religion, and absolute knowing. Phenomenology of Spirit serves as a grounding text for qualitative research, a form of research which emphasizes individual human experience. Hegel argues that reality, or the external object, can only be understood through experience. Humans are incapable of seeing the world for what it really is, because their perception is impacted by their own biases, beliefs, and backgrounds. Hegel uses Fichte’s model to examine experience through its distinctions and negations and to find mutuality.
Hegel presents unity and mutuality as the goal of elevated human consciousness. Synthesis occurs when conflicts are resolved or when humans hold two truths at once, such as knowledge of one’s own existence and awareness that others also contain self-consciousness. The final chapter explores absolute knowing, but it is Hegel’s shortest and least-developed chapter. Absolute knowing represents a final stage of growth in consciousness in which the object and the subject are unified, and the self enters a stage of complete actualization: “The goal, Absolute Knowing, or Spirit that knows itself as Spirit, has for its path the recollection of the Spirits as they are in themselves” (493). Once again, Hegel holds the unity of people and their collective care and respect for one another in the highest regard, arguing that this type of community and Spirit represent the greatest level of human consciousness.
The Evolution of Truth and Consciousness
In traditional philosophical works, the writer begins by explaining the theory that preceded the work and how it relates to, or deviates from, the upcoming text. In Hegel’s work, he opens by suggesting that this is a waste of effort. There is no point to expanding upon earlier philosophies because it is inevitable that Hegel would be both influenced by and in divergence from those who came before. Hegel argues that philosophy is like a flower. Each philosopher contributes a petal until eventually the flower blooms to reveal a comprehensive and complex understanding of human experience and reality. The same is true for consciousness. While Hegel seeks to develop a science of logic that can explain human consciousness, he notes that human experience is varied and individual, and that philosophers must consider this before attempting to impose universal laws upon phenomenology.
An example of the evolution of consciousness is found in Hegel’s three-part construction of human consciousness. Knowledge begins with sensory impressions left by objects in the external world. Perception of those senses analyses differences and similarities, making sense of external objects. The last form of cognition is understanding, which unites perceptions to create Notions. In Hegel’s view, consciousness evolves and grows over time, becoming more defined and complex. This structure of development is carried throughout the text. Human consciousness moves from sensory experience to self-consciousness to reason to Spirit to religion to absolute knowing. Each level of elevated consciousness holds its own tiers as humans grapple with the triadic form of thesis-antithesis-synthesis.
Transcendent consciousness is one which sees the self in the other. Hegel returns to this idea repeatedly in the text. The pinnacle of reason, observation, and consciousness is the recognition of the self in the other. When considered as a triadic form, Hegel’s theory of consciousness begins broadly as a Being whose understanding of the world is absorbed with no distinction between the subject and the object. Then, through negation and antithesis, the Being begins to see a distinction and conflict between the subject and object, forming the second point of the triadic form. Finally, through synthesis and reason, the Being sees the self in the object, returning to a collective and universal understanding: “Self-consciousness found the Thing to be like itself, and itself to be like a Thing” (211). This completes the dialectic model that grounds Hegel’s theory. As people, both as individuals and members of a community, reconcile conflict in their understanding, they move toward elevated levels of understanding and absolute knowing.
Self-Awareness and the Spirit
Philosophical studies of ontology and epistemology attempt to understand the nature of being and knowledge. Consciousness, or the knowledge of one’s existence, has a storied history of scientific, religious, and philosophical debate. Various models of German idealism propose that reality is a construction of human consciousness. Without cognition, reality ceases to exist. Hegel argues that humans are not born with an innate knowledge of their Being and that consciousness comes from the interaction between the individual’s mind and the external cognitive subject: experience. A child learns consciousness through continual interaction with, and observation of, the external world. Encountering the other—people and things that are not the self—draws a distinction between the self and everything else through negation. Hegel claims that humans gain self-awareness first through the realization that there are things that live for themselves, independent of the individual.
He traces the development of self-awareness through a hierarchical structure of consciousness. Hegel’s philosophy on consciousness and being is unique in its consideration of social context. In Part 2, he develops his theory for the lord-bondsman dialectic. He argues that when two individuals meet one another, one of three relationships emerges: the master exerts power over the slave, the slave exerts power over the master, or the two find mutual equality. The final relationship of mutuality is the foundation for self-awareness and the transcendence of absolute knowing. In each tier of consciousness, Hegel emphasizes unity as the apex of the structure. In reason, consciousness is increased when conflicts in antithesis move toward synthesis. In Spirit, consciousness is elevated when an individual’s ethical consciousness is in alignment with the ethical consciousness of the community.
Hegel’s use of the term “Spirit” blends religious, philosophical, and scientific ideas. The term “spirit” has spiritual roots, echoing the Holy Spirit of the Christian Bible, but it is also a part of philosophical tradition. Post-Kantian philosophers searched for a unified spirit of culture and government which connects to a spiritual sense of self. The three moments of Spirit which Hegel describes in this chapter recall the three figures comprising the Holy Trinity: God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. The first, connected to God, is substance, which is described as the external reality: Substance, as “the universal essence and End” (266). The second is individualized reality, or experience, which can be seen as a symbol of Jesus’s life on Earth in Christian mythology. The third, aligned with the Holy Spirit, is the collective ethical consciousness. Spirit is described in Chapter 6 as a form of community consciousness. When the community becomes self-aware, it develops unified systems of faith and knowing.
Although Hegel reveals forms of consciousness that move beyond Spirit—religion and absolute knowing—these levels of consciousness still require Spirit. Hegel asserts that elevated consciousness seeks the benefit and equality of all, because it recognizes the self in the other. For the philosopher, true self-awareness means acknowledging and caring for the self-awareness of others.
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