First Three Lectures of Self-Consciousness Published

We've now moved into the Self-Consciousness section, gradually making our way to the most-often-commented-upon portion of the Phenomenology -- the dialectic of Master and Slave (or as it's sometimes translated, Lordship and Bondage).

We've got a bit of dialectical development to cover before we arrive at the rather exciting topics just preceding the Master-Slave relations -- the doubling of self-consciousness, the struggle to the death for recognition -- and even before that, Hegel has to get us to the point where those can become in some way necessary.  He has to explore the nature of Life and Desire.

Here are the first three lectures, focused on the earliest paragraphs of the new section:

• Lecture 66 - sec. 166
• Lecture 67 - sec. 167  
• Lecture 68 - sec. 168-169

We'll have more coming out in the course of this week, and hopefully will be into the first bits of the Master-Slave section by the end of September!

Major Announcement - Consciousness Section Finished!

If you've been keeping up with the video series, you know that we've now covered five portions of the work -- the Preface, the Introduction, and then the three sections of Consciousness:  Sense-Certainty, Perception, and Force and the Understanding.  The very last installment for that last section -- video number 65 so far --  was released earlier this week.

We've reached an important turning point both in the written work of the Phenomenology itself and in this Half Hour Hegel project.  So, I'd like to take a bit of time to look back and reflect upon the latter, and to talk about why the former matters as well.

New Patreon Milestone Passed!

I'm happy to write that we have now passed another milestone point in the Half-Hour Hegel series project Patreon campaign.  A total of 21 supporters so far have pledged over $75 per video produced and posted -- a strong measure of support for the intensive work required in creating the Half Hour Hegel videos.

I'd pledged, for my own part, that once we reached this level of commitment, I'd start holding monthly, free, open-access Google Hangouts in which I'd address Hegel-related matters not only for Patreon supporters of the project, but anyone who wanted to join the Hangout. 

I've already been holding more exclusive monthly Google Hangouts as a perk for Patreon supporters who pledged $3 or more per video -- so far I've held four of them, in which I answered questions from quite literally "all over the map" (right now, we've got supporters on three continents for the project!)  Now, thanks to the generosity of our supporters, we'll be opening up similar monthly Hegel Q&A sessions to the general public! 

So if you're interested in joining in one or more of those Hangouts, watch for them. Dates and times will be posted on my Facebook page events, my Google+ profile (then go to events), and on our ReasonIO site.

Sixty Lectures In!

I've been a bit remiss in writing in this blog over this month.  If you've been following along with my activities on my other social media (particularly my Facebook page or my Google+ stream), you know why:  a research residency with the Institute for St. Anselm Studies, followed by a Metaphysics Colloquium, lots of writing work, capped off by the Aquinas Leadership Congress.

Still, I've been shooting, editing, uploading, and releasing Half Hour Hegel videos -- 4 in the month of June -- plowing our way through the twists and turns of the "Force and the Understanding" section.  We're making good progress, and should be through it by the end of July, I expect.

Here's all of the video lectures in Force and the Understanding up to this point -- somewhere between 4 and 5 hours. 

• Lecture 52 - sec. 132-135
• Lecture 53 - sec. 136
• Lecture 54 - sec. 137-139 
• Lecture 55 - sec. 140-142
• Lecture 56 - sec. 143-144
• Lecture 57 - sec. 145-147
• Lecture 58 - sec. 148-150
• Lecture 59 - sec. 151-152
• Lecture 60 - sec. 153-154 

Answer to a Good Question: Sartre and Hegel

One of the most productive aspects of holding monthly online Q&A sessions as a perk for my Patreon supporters of this project is getting asked questions that really do need to be asked and answered, given that the main purpose of the video series (and the associated activities) is to help people productively study and learn Hegel's Phenomenology.

It's occurred to me that I ought to start writing down the responses that I give, for two main reasons.  First, they're not being recorded in these sessions, and every once in a while, I surprise myself by coming up with an interesting response or explanation.  Second, and more importantly, with quite a few of the questions, if one person is asking them, they're likely to bear upon issues that many other people wonder about as well.

This first one was asked by Thao Nguyen -- and it's a question I've addressed before in a different setting (in one of my 10 Short Clips videos) -- about the relation between Jean-Paul Sartre's and G.W.F. Hegel's use of the same terminology, specifically the "in-itself" and "for-itself".  Are both philosophers in effect meaning the same thing when they use these terms in the course of their magna opera, Being and Nothingness and the Phenomenology of Spirit?