Hegel's Life and Times: Political and Philosophical Context

Hegel: Phenomenology of Spirit

In this course, Professor Robert Stern (University of Sheffield) explores Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. The course begins with a discussion of Hegel's life and times and the political and philosophical context in which he lived, before introducing his overall philosophical vision or system. In the fourth and fifth modules, we turn to the Phenomenology itself, giving an account of its position in Hegel's philosophical system, and introducing its overall structure. In the modules that follow, the go through the Phenomenology section by section—from the Preface and the Introduction, through Consciousness and Self-Consciousness, Reason, Spirit, Religion, and Absolute Knowing. In the final module, we turn to the reception of the Phenomenology in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as some of the critical issues that relate to it.

Hegel's Life and Times: Political and Philosophical Context

Hegel is sometimes said to have lived an uneventful life in eventful times. In this module, we consider some of the influences on his philosophy, looking in particular at the political, cultural and philosophical context. On this last point, we spend some time discussing the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, whose transcendental idealism had (according to Kant, at least) put metaphysics on the secure path of science. Kant's successors, however, including Hegel himself, had reasons to be doubtful.