Installment 2 Georg Hegel

  

"The Phenomenology of Spirit"  Chapters 1-4

Chapters 1-3

In these chapters Hegel outlines the fundamental nature and conditions of the human knowledge. He says that our minds have tension between an individuals unique knowledge of things and the universal concepts. These two things represent the first and the second of the modes of consciousness. The first mode of consciousness is meaning or sees certainty as he calls it. The second mode of consciousness is perception and the third mode of consciousness is understanding. For Hegel the third mode of consciousness was the most important part of our minds.


Chapter 4

Hegel starts by bringing in ideas about consciousness in general in this chapter. He believes that consciousness of "objects" and people or as he states "subjects" proves that we do have self awareness because the "subject" can perceive the "object". He uses the word "subject" to not only refer to the person, but as the person who is perceiving that other object. Later in the chapter Hegel went a step further to say that "subjects" are also "objects" to other "subjects". What he is trying to get at basically is that a subject can become aware of oneself by seeing him or her through another subjects prospective of them. Hegel tries to explain that consciousness is a struggle or on going battle between two individuals that are bound together as unequal BUT have the same dependent variable that holds them together. He makes an example of a bondsman and a servant that are unequal BUT both have the same dependent variable... the Lord. And sense the Lord is all powerful both the servant and the bondsman are "objects" not "subjects" in his eyes. So basically its just a battle of consciousness.