Final Four Videos In "The Moral View of the World"

We're making progress through this last big portion of the Spirit section, "Spirit That Is Certain of Itself: Morality."  With these four videos, we finish up the first portion of that section, "The Moral View of the World".

Who does Hegel have in mind here?  One might well think that his dialectical criticism is directed primarily at Immanuel Kant. But really, there's a much broader tendency in culture to identifying morality and duty over against our natural human inclinations and drive, and their satisfaction in happiness - more so in Hegel's time perhaps than in our own - that his discussion really bears upon.

Here are those four videos completing that section:

• Lecture 257 - paragraphs 604-605
• Lecture 258 - paragraphs 606-607
• Lecture 259 - paragraphs 608-610
• Lecture 260 - paragraphs 611-615

Hegel Q&A and Discussion Session Later Today

Every month, I hold two online Hegel Q&A and discussion sessions.  One of them - for anyone in the general public  - is coming up later today, at 4 PM Central Time.  Here's the link you can use to get into the session, if you'd like to attend.

Everyone is welcome.  You don't need to have a background in Hegel, German Idealism, or even philosophy more broadly - just an interest to learn, to discuss, or even to lurk and listen!

I do give top priority to anyone who has questions or comments specifically about Hegel, so if you've got some, don't be shy - we'll address those right off.

I also offer a second Hegel Q&A and discussion session each month as a perk for Patreon supporters of the Half Hour Hegel project.  If that's something you're interested in - supporting my ongoing work - here's the link for that.

A Humorous Review of Hegel's Phenomenology

One of my Facebook followers sent a photo of a hilarious Amazon review of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit my way.  There have been so many mentions of that work as a sort of Bildungsroman for human consciousness that, quite frankly, I avoid that cliche.  (Spirit isn't really some juvenile coming of age - since there's no other big-S Spirits around to provide it a culture to come of age within - that's just to start).

There definitely is a narrative running through this work - after all, it's about this complex, ongoing, dialectical development of human consciousness through its own history, right?  And it arrives at a final point, the "end of history".  But that's all very big-picture, universal.

What if you misread the work as about a particular individual?  Then you'd get something like this perhaps:

First Four Videos in "The Moral View of the World"

We've now entered a new - and final - section of the Spirit part of the work - Morality.  This is the culmination of the previous three big sections of Spirit.  The first one introduced and explored ethical life, leading eventually into a form a self-alienated Spirit - Culture.

The complexities of culture then led us into a new section, one that Hegel takes as unique - at that point in time - to the West, that of the Enlightenment.  That in turn took us into the Absolute Freedom and Terror section, and that. . .  finally into Morality.

This entire section will grapple with the conception of duty or obligation, and how its demands intersect with those of nature, happiness, and actuality.

There is actually a very short introductory set of paragraphs, the commentary on which is here:

• Lecture 252 - paragraphs 596-598

And then, following those, we've got the first four lectures in the section itself

• Lecture 253 - paragraphs 599
• Lecture 254 - paragraphs 600-601
• Lecture 255 - paragraphs 602
• Lecture 256 - paragraphs 603

Public Q&A and Discussion Later Today

Each month, thanks to the underwriting of my Patreon supporters of the Half Hour Hegel project, I hold a online Q&A and discussion session, completely open to the general public (we also host another just for Patreon supporters as well).

We use this FreeConferenceCall link - clicking it takes you right to the ReasonIO "meeting wall", and then it's just another click (and perhaps downloading the app), and you're in!

We'll be meeting later on today, Tuesday, July 10, from 5-6 PM Central Time - so make sure to check the time difference if you're in another time zone.

You needn't  know anything about Hegel in order to participate. We do a good bit of Q&A in these sessions - and I give priority in the discussion to any Hegel-related questions participants ask.  So if you've been reading Hegel, or following along with the videos, or even just want to know what all this Hegel talk is about, feel free to join us. 

Hopefully I'll see some of you readers of this blog, and followers of the Half Hour Hegel project there.  Again, here's the link you can use to join.