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- Dec 26, 2018Srivats,Thanks, again, for sharing from Crites, so that I can again criticize him. The typical restatement of the composition of Hegel's Phenomenology (1807) is wholly inadequate.Let's look at Hegel's material Situation in Life for a clearer portrait. Hegel was over 35 years old, and he was still a "Privatdocent," an unsalaried lecturer. His best college chum, Fred Schelling, five years younger than Hegel, was a published author and a college professor.Finally Hegel caught a break. His father died and left him a little money. Schelling advised him -- if he wanted to boost his career in Academics, he had to publish a book. It was a gamble. Hegel did not have enough money to take several years away and write -- and he did not have enough money to miss Recognition with his first book. The pressure was on.Hegel's first book, his Phenomenology, had to be his very best shot -- it had to include all the most advanced ideas that he had developed throughout his entire life so far.Any notion that Hegel planned his entire life's work at this time, and carefully planned his Phenomenology as the "start" of his System, which he would later roll out with his Science of Logic, and then his Encyclopedia, is unrealistic.On the contrary -- Hegel was anxious about the success of this first work. His future career depended on it -- and he could not foresee the future clearly. That is one reason that Hegel's book is hard to read -- it was hurried -- it was rushed.As Pascal once wrote, "My letter is so long because I did not have the time to write a shorter one." That is the actual phenomenon we observe in Hegel's Phenomenology. Hegel should have edited the book several more times, both to shorten it and to clarify its sentences. HOWEVER, HE DIDN'T HAVE THE TIME OR THE MONEY TO DO THAT.Furthermore, since there was some desperation in this act, Hegel did not "start his system at the beginning" as one would hope -- but instead, he rushed immediately to the Ending of his System. This is clearly shown in his Encyclopedia (1820-1830) where Hegel places the Phenomenology near the end of that complete outline -- while he placed his Science of Logic first in that outline.Napolean Schlamolean. The real reason for the unedited feeling of Hegel's Phenomenology is that it required a lot more editing -- but Hegel ran out of time and money. Time's up!All best,--Paul-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On Saturday, December 22, 2018, 8:35:55 PM CST, R Srivatsan r.srivats@... [hegel] <hegel@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Here's a remarkably insightful and deeply significant excerpt from Crites own speculative take on the PhenomenologyquoteWe may lament the fact that the system Hegel had in view in that Preface never got written, but the further question arises whether Hegel was able to compose a system on these terms. If there was in the Jena systematic manuscripts the ambivalence we have suggested between an experience-negating and experience-appropriating conception of the system, it may well be that the firm commitment to the experience-appropriating type expressed in that Preface was a commitment he found impossible to execute. In that case Napoleon's intervention may have been timely, sparing Hegel the embarrassment of the inability to follow through on his announced conception of science. It is possible, indeed, that the science of phenomenology is inimical to any sort of putatively final systematization: that Hegel's Phenomenology is an alternative to the system, implying quite a different conception both of spirit and of a science of spirit. In that case Hegel's actual accomplishment in the Phenomenology will have a significance quite different from what he intended for it when he wrote it as a propaedeutic to the system. Such a divergence between intention and actual accomplishment is, after all, a characteristic of Hegelian irony, particularly if the accomplishment should turn out to be more significant than the intention that informed it.end quoteIt goes beyond modern totalizing thinking, and beyond postmodernism to boot, adhering faithfully to Hegel's own concept.Srivats--R Srivatsan
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