More Videos in Observing Reason

At this point, we've made some real headway into the first substantive portion of the Reason section of the Phenomenology.  I'd wager that we're now at the halfway point, and should be finished with that section, "Observation of Nature" sometime in May.

With these video lectures - and in these paragraphs - Hegel is leading us through some of the common conceptions of the natural science of his time, as applied to organisms, i.e. beings whose end lies in themselves, in continuing and augmenting their own being through their own action.

Here are the next three videos in this section:

• Lecture 107 - paragraphs 262-265
• Lecture 108 - paragraphs 266-269
• Lecture 109 - paragraphs 270-271

Public Q&A Session Open Now

Swamped with various work projects, I jut noticed that I've neglected to post about the upcoming Half Hour Hegel Q&A session - carried out through Google Hangouts.

Well, it's not actually upcoming now -- I've just opened the Hangout.  So if you're interested, come on in.  Here's the link.  Come join us for some conversation about Hegel!

Continuing Through Observation of Nature

We're now six video lecture installments into this lengthy, and first substantive, portion of the Reason section of the work.  Since the section extends all the way to paragraph 297, we haven't yet made it to the halfway point of "Observation of Nature."  Quite likely, working through that entire portion of the work will require around 20 or so videos.

Already at this point, Hegel has led us into an integrated sequence of perspectives as a phenomenologist who is observing the dialectical development of reason in its observational activity: law, physical phenomena, ends, organisms, and teleological relations. We're not done with any of them, though, at this point. . .

Here are the next three videos in this section:

• Lecture 104 - paragraphs 252-255
• Lecture 105 - paragraphs 256-258
• Lecture 106 - paragraphs 259-261

Starting Observing Reason - Observation of Nature

After the four videos (covering paragraphs 231-239) working through the very beginning of the Reason section, and the one video (paragraphs 240-243) for the first bit of Observing Reason, we are now moving right into the first substantive subsection - Observation of Nature.

That subsection is going to take quite a few videos, since it extends all the way to paragraph 297.  We're making good progress this March, however - halfway to our goal of six commentary videos per month - and if we keep up this pace, it feasible that we'll move into the next section sometime in May.

In any case, here are the three videos in this section thus far:

• Lecture 101 - paragraphs 244-246
• Lecture 102 - paragraphs 247-249
• Lecture 103 - paragraphs 250-251

Hegel's Views on Stoicism (part 1)

Last fall - October to be precise - after finishing up the Master-Slave dialectic, we transitioned over into the last section of Self-Consciousness, the fascinating sequence of Stoicism, Skepticism, and the Unhappy Consciousness.  Not all that long after we started making our way through the Stoicism material, I took a pause for international Stoic Week, releasing my customary seven videos (focusing that year mainly on Cicero).  Then, shortly afterwards, I taught an online 4-week course on the great Stoic philosopher, Epictetus.

I kicked around the idea in some of our Q&A hangouts of writing a bit on Hegel's own views on Stoicism.  I was getting some queries about that, asking some important questions - What is Hegel's take on Stoicism?  Why does he view it the way he does?  Why does it comes at that point in the Phenomenology?  Is his interpretation fair to the Stoics or not?  I suppose that some of my regular viewers and readers were likely wondering how I could be rather enthusiastically interpreting both Hegelian philosophy and Stoic philosophy at the same time! (That might be a good topic to discuss in a different time and place. . . )

Long having wanted to do some writing about Hegel's views on Stoicism, and never quite finding the time for it, I decided to clear enough to at least get started on an initial entry, in hopes of writing a follow-up next month when (at least by my calendar) I'm not quite so busied by other matters.  So, here it is. . . or at least the first portion of it.