Half Hour Hegel: The Complete Phenomenology of Spirit (Preface, sec 7-9)

[@thebeautypart2817]

You can have True Detective. I've found my new favorite show.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Imagine Woody reading Hegel aloud. . . . .

[@GregoryBSadler]

Next installation of the Half Hour Hegel series. People are getting rather excited about these course videos -- lots of questions and comments -- but keep in mind that, with this guy, matters hopefully start to become more clear as we progress on through the sections!

[@DrINTJ]

Great effort in deciphering the riddles of Hegel's arguably lazy writing.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, as someone who knows how difficult it can be to write philosophy well -- and the stuff I do isn't even an attempt at original work -- there's no way I'm going to agree with the characterization of Hegel's writing as "lazy." Glad you enjoy the videos

[@mandys1505]

Gregory B. Sadler Hegel has been impenetrable for me to read, though i've tried several times. His words are densely laid , and now that they are becoming comprehensible to me, I begin to see why he is so important. But the best thing is that what he is saying is central to what is needed at my thought processing core, at this moment in my development. So, thank you Dr Sadler, for this gift.

[@theodorosgalanos9663]

Mohammad Alshafey /you can call him many thing but lazy is certainly not on of them ;)

[@GregoryBSadler]

@Mike Fuller There's plenty of things we experience outside of the human mind, including other people

[@zarathustra8789]

My good sir, thank you so much for these videos. Your channel is definitely one of my favorite places to visit on the internet and I only discovered it when I accidentally stumbled upon your Sartre's Nausea videos. I am now hooked on this Half Hour Hegel series, as the clarity of your speech together with the deep exploration of Hegel's words, always make for an interesting and extremely insightful probe. If I had you as a professor, I wouldn't skip any of your lectures, that's for sure. Please, keep up the excellent work! Best regards, from a Portuguese man, studying in Cambridge. PS: Since you mentioned the "transcendentalists" on this one, perhaps you could do one of these days, a couple of videos about Thoreau or Emerson? "Walden or The Life in the Woods" is definitely one of my favorite books, it would be interesting to see it dissected and interpreted by you.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Pedro Silva You're very welcome! So. . . transcendentalists. . . . that would be fun to do. Finding the time is always the main issue. I very much enjoyed visiting Portugal years back -- just mainly the cities, unfortunately (Oporto, Coimbra, Braga, and Lisboa), since it was a shorter stay. Beautiful language, which someday, when I have the time, I plan to learn properly, at least to be able to read. . .

[@zarathustra8789]

Gregory B. Sadler Wow, glad and impressed that you've visited my country and some of its lovely cities, thank you for the kind words about them and the language. Curiously, our dear Spinoza, that you often quote, has Portuguese ancestry too. I sincerely hope you do learn (if you know another Latin derived language such as Italian or Spanish, should be easier for you), as perhaps you'll get intoxicated by the genius in Camões poetry and Fernando Pessoa's thinking. Best regards!

[@mttwmacneil]

Dr. Sadler, Thanks for the (surely) massive amount of work for the undertaking of explaining Hegel, in depth. Very enjoyable stuff and very well explained. Your passion for the text comes through from the first video!

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome - yes it's quite a bit of work. Probably about two more years to go on the project

[@Hesham-kw2su]

I cant stress how thankful and greatful i am, really appreciate the effort and the great exceptional project you have done to yourself and to the other, thank you.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You are very welcome!

[@ZootTM]

In addition to the contemporary examples such as mindfulness, it is also useful looking at the 'modes of Spirit' Hegel might have in mind. I'm far from being an expert on this, but the following poem by Novalis, one of the leading figures of German Romanticism, written seven years before the Phenomenology, may illustrate the world of Hegel's adversaries: "When figures and numeric shapes, No longer show us moons or apes; When those who merely kiss and sing, Trump scholars taught in everything; When to free life the world retreats, And in the world this free heart beats; When then anew by light and shade, True clarity will be displayed; When we in fairy tales and verse, See history from its first birth; Then at One secret word's delight, This whole wrong being will take flight." -Novalis, 1800 It would also be interesting to see what Hölderlin, Hegel's roommate has written. He is also a major point of reference for Heidegger, but I haven't read any of the poet's works.

[@abdallahac3024]

Just got into Hegel and I cannot emphasise how much I was in need of a playlist like this. Thank you! Watching this video whilst sitting in the library with a pencil, underlining as I read a copy of Hegel’s PoS.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad the videos are useful for you

[@JohnGough1]

Just wanted to say thank you for taking the time to do these - absolutely critical absolutely wonderful - much appreciated

[@GregoryBSadler]

You’re welcome!

[@olgajaworska7430]

Thank you for your PHENOMENAL work! It really helps me with my exam prep

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad it was helpful for you

[@mannycaves4946]

Thanks for sharing the wealth my friend.

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Manuel Caves You're welcome!

[@kevincrouch6562]

Going thru the phenomenology as I recover from open heart surgery. I would say Professor Sadler is the Bill Nye of philosophy but that would be giving Bill too much credit.

[@GregoryBSadler]

I definitely wouldn't want to be associated with Nye!

[@noor5x9]

Oh, why is that? (I don't know if it should be obvious. Genuinely have no clue) @@GregoryBSadler

[@GregoryBSadler]

@@noor5x9 Why are you particularly curious about what some person you don't know said three years about some other person you don't know?

[@noor5x9]

@@GregoryBSadler If it is for some personal slight I'm less curious, but if you dislike some of his ideas I was hoping that that might teach me something about how academics in different fields may relate to each other That, or I was just there for the gossip, I don't know. Either way if you prefer not to answer that's okay too

[@GregoryBSadler]

@@noor5x9 Yes, that strikes me as pretty much gossip not worth wasting time on at this point

[@jajaperson]

spending an hour and a half watching and summarising each day so hopefully about six months from now I will be a fully initiated hegelian

[@GregoryBSadler]

That's quite a commitment

[@wxyxx4795]

Dr. Sadler, your explanation and commentary are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much! As a philosophy newbie, I would never find myself reading and understanding any philosophic works (definitely not Hegel because his ideas are poorly and densely laid). I got attracted to Hegel's idea because I felt very confused about the way how people do things in current social science fields of study such as economics, political science, sociology. In the realm of social science, a theory is the only tool we can understand the world, and contradictions among different theories are everywhere, and it feels like the entire field somehow lacks the "synthetic" process (in Hegel’s term). I am not saying these theories are bad; in fact, I agree with most of the thought process and reasoning behind each theory that a theory with its premises is the best tool we can offer given current circumstance. Every theory is built on premises or assumptions. For example, neoclassical economics assumes people are self-interested actors, supply and demand will meet at an equilibrium etc. What this way of thinking produces are cheap stuff that don’t lead us to the truth because I can easily disregard and change a theory through discrediting and modifying its premises. I think we need to understand the world through the notion of “overdetermination that each aspect of society is approached as the combined effect of all the other aspects of that society” not the notion of reductionism that everything can be explained in a cause-and-effect relationship or through a general theory. Hegel makes a clear distinction between seeking truth through notions/concepts and seeking truth through intuitions. Do you consider a theory in the social science as a notion or as an intuition? Also, Hegel previously says that philosophy should "be providing edification rather than insight" but in this chapter, he tells people to not only rely on edification. Why?

[@GregoryBSadler]

"Edification" is pretty much always a bad word for Hegel. Check that in the passage you're thinking of, he's not setting out some partial perspective which is then surpassed or critqued.

[@wxyxx4795]

+Gregory B. Sadler I could only blame Hegel for not having an explicit organization....You are right about edification. I checked the passage again and realized that Hegel is actually describing the prevalent and pretentious view in his time which is intuition rather than notion. This way of thinking requires something from philosophy, and "philosophy is to meet this need... by providing edification rather than insight". Thank you for taking the time to reply me. Is patreon the best platform to support you?

[@GregoryBSadler]

I'd hold off on blame until you've made your way through the book once, and see what he's up to. In the Preface, Hegel is setting out for the reader his reasons why - in his view - there can't be an "explicit organization". That said, you'll find much more of that - and actual references to what thinkers, events, etc. he has in mind - in some of his other works. For example, his History of Philosophy, and his Philosophy of History - both of which are sets of lectures he gave. Yes, Patreon is my main site for viewer/subscriber support - here's my site - www.patreon.com/sadler - thanks in advance, if you intend to contribute!

[@gregothy9190]

It's funny, when I first met Hegel's words, I considered them so beyond me, that they fit into this place of intuition, the divine. They seemed so un-parsable that they were just some distant divine. But with this series, they're moving toward complex, thorough ideas. Thanks!

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're very welcome!

[@g.boychev9355]

Paragraph 8 somehow reminds me of Zarathustra's call to "remain true to the earth, and believe not those who speak unto you of superearthly hopes".

[@GregoryBSadler]

I suppose there's something similar being described there

[@MrMarktrumble]

thank you for Preface, sec 7-9

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome

[@spencertubbs1368]

It seems to me that 'movement' is one of the crucial themes in the "Phenomenology of Spirit". I am reading the term 'edification' in the sense of its static nature, which is opposed to the ceaseless movement of Spirit. In other words, in the process of edifying, one loses touch with Spirit because they are in the past, they have ceased moving, they have become the corpse that Hegel speaks of. How do you feel about this reading?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well movement . . . and articulation -- add that part in and I'd agree

[@leonardorodrigues3608]

Mr.Sadler you're a hero. Someday I'll put a nice poster of yours in my room as a tribute to "the guy who teach Hegel to thosands of people"

[@GregoryBSadler]

Glad you enjoy the videos

[@adocentyn9028]

'restoring the feeling of essential being' reminds me of something i read once in Monk's work 'On the Sublime'. Maybe hegel read some of cassius longinus' writings.

[@georgee3945]

RE 7 "The 'Beautiful', the 'holy' , the 'eternal' , 'religion' and 'love' are the bait required to arouse the desire to bite ..." A number of questions. 1) Do those items exist without scare quotes for Hegel? 2) bait arousing the desire to bite seems to be some kind of fishhook and fishing metaphor. If we are the fish, who are the fishers? Entrance into a higher realm does no good for the fish. "Turning away from the empty husks and confessing it lies in wickedness..." A prodigal son comparison? What are the terms? Inheritance, wasting, dereliction, return, reconciliation, what are the parallel terms?

[@GregoryBSadler]

If you go to the German - which is available online - you'll find, "Das Schöne, Heilige, Ewige, die Religion und Liebe". So, the quotation marks are added by Miller in his translation.

[@georgee3945]

Gregory B. Sadler Thanks, that was helpful.

[@Drdontcare1]

the fact that you didn't call this hegel bites disappoints me. I suggest this name-change along with a cover photo shift, which is the cover of a bagel bites box with Hegel's head on one bite and yours on another one. I anxiously await this transformation...

[@GregoryBSadler]

Jordan K Not going to happen, unfortunately. I've already produced 54 videos in the series.

[@Drdontcare1]

Gregory B. Sadler this is an egregious oversight, but since you replied so quickly i just want to say how much i appreciated you taking the time to do this, its been outstanding so far and I'm hoping to finish the series. its really helping me understand a book i never would have been able to grasp.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Jordan K You're quite welcome. Glad the videos have been helpful for you. You might consider becoming a backer of the project on the patreon site.

[@zhenghaowu177]

Excellent work!!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Thanks!

[@The31JOEISANERDS]

I was picking up some existentialist themes from paragraph 7, even reminded me of the idea of radical freedom, would you agree?

[@tabinekoman]

I know hegel is genius but I never Imagine this smart.

[@GregoryBSadler]

How smart do you think genius' have?

[@davidtanphilosophy]

The aspect of Stinginess in modern philosophical studies is quite apt in Hegel’s time and now. It seems both Anayltic and Continential philosophy turns people away rather than attracting them.

[@GregoryBSadler]

I'd avoid making such sweeping statements, guaranteed to be off-base, myself

[@TTFMjock]

“Happiness radiates like the fragrance from a flower, and draws all good things toward you...Life is here to Enjoy!”-- Maharishi. "By the little which now satisfies Spirit, we can measure the extent of its loss."--Hegel Cue the angry cat. Max Weber's analysis of the Protestant origins of the spirit of capitalism suddenly seems all the more convincing when one gets a glimpse of what that spiritual energy morphed into as capitalism ate out its heart. Transcendentalism seems like living-dead proof of the Weberian bourgeoisie of Lapsed Protestants. I'd have a hard time imagining the old-school Mammon-worshipers, the Fuggers, Peruzzi, et. al. ever falling for that sort of thing.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, "transcendentalism" means more than one thing. Historically, the Indian stuff is not so much what Hegel is concerned with -- there was a home-grown version of it, coming out of the ferment of German Idealism. But capitalism is only one of the major movements that has brought about a new world, developing within the husk of the old, according to Hegel -- we'll get to some of the other key moments of that a bit later in

[@AGroves100]

I'm not sure how edification can't include variety of experience and thought. Isn't edification simply a kind of awareness... Or does edification require a specific goal or functionality in mind to be edification? Or maybe I just have no idea what he's trying to say.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You'll probably do better if you stick with the terms as Hegel's using them for the time being, rather than try to bring whatever connotations you feel the term has from your experience. Edification, as Hegel's using it, is kind of thinking-lite. As I mention in the Commentary part, its original sense is "building". It falls short of conceptual thinking for Hegel

[@iggigrinner]

Thanks

[@GregoryBSadler]

you're welcome

[@CloverPickingHarp]

Many thanks for this series, as a total newb and layman it's been great. I found your comments on history to be most accurate, especially in terms of the spirit of the "democratic revolutions" and find orthodox history, seemingly intentionally, lacking in aspects of truth. Also it still seems that there is a higher education led embargo on all things metaphysical and do you think that eventually there will be a spiritual renaissance like say the New Age, only more robust and more accepted (not that I personally hope for one, not my angle)? As someone who has gotten into revision it seems that the metaphysical plays a much more potent and tangible role in history than my Classical education taught. I had the impression, and I think many do, that metaphysics and religion were harmful, repressive, and superstitious. I can't think of a more dismissive tactic to relegate something to the dustbin. I wonder if this will act like a levy breaking in a sense that bc it has been not addressed or dismissed that will drive a collective subconscious balancing act in the treatment and of metaphysical ideologies in history?

[@GregoryBSadler]

"it still seems that there is a higher education led embargo on all things metaphysical" -- it really depends of where in higher ed you are looking, I'd say. A classical education should actually have quite a bit of metaphysics built into it. Will be some sort of breakthrough or renaissance? I don't know -- but I can say this: there's a definite hunger out there.

[@CloverPickingHarp]

Sorry by "Classical Education" I meant Prussian based education bc as we all know Classical education was ushered out by some rather nefarious characters and the educational non-profits who many respectable men shed light on. I mean the Rockefeller foundation, formally General Education Board led by Bonesman Daniel Coit Gilman, dictated our curriculuum post ww2 history, this has been proven through research (ie Norman Dodd). There were absolutely no metaphysics related in my History courses in Highschool. They also started everything from the ancient Greeks, when it's obvious by the dimensions of the Pyramids that Egyptians not Pythagoras and other Greeks knew sacred Geometry. They also left out any Persian influence I suspect to keep a naturalistic base for reason and rationalism. Also as a Christian I find modern Egyptology to be hiding something and influencing thought away from the invading "Falcon Tribe from Sumeria theory" suggested by Flinders-Petrie and carried on by Dave Rohl. www.redmoonrising.com/Giza/EgyptsOrigins4.htm I just have found through revision that Orthodox history has left out so much like lets say Newton, and his black box of kabbalist gematria attempting to find out the return of Christ. That metapysical specimen was no where to be found in my historical teachings. I had to find that elsewhere among black-labelled conspiracy theorists and revisionists. Loving all these lectures especially the face to face ones like you did with Hegel. More of those would be great. I have a great respect for your candor and even-handed treating of material.

[@milosbilanovic4842]

19:37 "in keeping with this demand that absolute is given in intuition" But which demand is this? Havent we concluded that spirit has risen beyond this intuition ie substantial life and now requires knowledge in notions? Is this demand, the demand of those who havent progressed to the next step of spirits development? Or is this demand still there even in this new spirit of notions so to speak?

[@gda295]

When I posted that Hegel was the last viable gasp for theology [ Dr Sadler,] I was just guessing, [just as I am when I say that it seems you are a good reader of Hegel] ............. because I haven't read any of him!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, these videos aren't supposed to be substituting for actually reading Hegel. . so, you'll want to incorporate that as well

[@gda295]

Of course they amount to reading Hegel if all the text is read! Having [tried to] read Yehezqel Kaufman's opus which singlehandedly undid - certainly defanged- much of the latent and often subtle anti semitism in much Protestant [esp] theology , I thought a reread of it would benefit from Hegel

[@joeybrujah]

Me to my Girlfriend today: I'm studying Hegel now. She: Really? How? Isn't that super hard? Me: It is buy a professor is doing this series about his most important book. She: Do I know this guy? Me: Yeah, that dude with the banjo. She: Oh, I see. I wander how he would feel if he knows somebody is talking about him using "That dude with the banjo".

[@GregoryBSadler]

I'm cool with it

[@GregoryBSadler]

@ivan karamazov. Sure - who said it was? Why are you jumping in here in comments, apropos of nothing?

[@danielcox6193]

Probably a bad connection here on my part, but I can't help trying to connect Hegel's criticism of intuition with contemporary analytic understandings of thought experiments as "intuition pumps." I wonder if Hegel would have criticized understanding thought experiments as pumping intuitions, understood as a pure, immediate, and unfiltered contact with "the real" disclosed by the thought experiment. I'm not sure, though. Perhaps Hegel is criticizing intuition in a more fundamental mode, as in people who try to base their worldview around certain intuitional truths.

[@GregoryBSadler]

It's important to keep in mind that "intuition" is a word with multiple senses. I've often had the feeling that many analytic philosophers just use "intuition" as a kind of hand-waving on their own part.

[@jojoblazer777]

"The enlightenment is not something you can turn back. It's corrosive effect on human consciousness is not something that you can undo" I can't tell if I love that phrase or if I am highly skeptical of it. I think I love it.

[@jojoblazer777]

I would also love to know if Hegel ever commented on Spinoza, specifically the Treatise on the Emendation of Intellect, which I think really would grind on Hegel. I'd be curious to read what Hegel has to say on it. (Not to get too sidetracked).

[@GregoryBSadler]

Hegel does discuss Spinoza -- you'd want to look in his lectures on the History of Philosophy

[@scientificmystic1448]

Can you explain how you used the term ' a problematic' here. I often cringe when I hear the term, but I have never heard it used as a noun (catergorical) like you have, only as an overused verb. Could it be that it is a term inherited and misused by half-understanding social 'scientists'. I found something here (www.hegel.net/en/e13123.htm#tree) but I lack the 'culture' to understand it.

[@scientificmystic1448]

+Scientific Mystic www.radicalphilosophy.com/article/what-is-a-problematic is this the more precise meaning?

[@GregoryBSadler]

+Scientific Mystic You mean as an overused adjective, I take it. And yes, people working in the social sciences, and plenty of people in the humanities, tend to use the term a lot. It's used in multiple ways. I think we philosophers - at least some of us - tend to use it to denote a complex matter that can be examined in its structure. I'm sure others use it in other ways. Maybe some philosophers "inherit" it from social scientists? I couldn't say. I don't myself

[@scientificmystic1448]

+Gregory B. Sadler Oops I was thinking of 'problematisation'. I think the problem was meant in the sense of mathematical problems. I think alot of this sense is lost in the common comprehension of the word. The framework is the problematic, in the same way the problem is the formula x= y+t . The particular is ''problematic' in the sense that in understanding it we must refer to the larger framework, and in solving it we need to ask new questions of the material? (I.e what is y...y=x-t, etc... sorry for the bad metaphor) However, the common meanings is see are the sort that go 'why cultural appropriation is problematic'. Such trending and viral works of 'journalism' are late blooming postcolonial and feminist theories building on the works of Foucault. Particularly the concept of 'problematization of sexuality'. Which leads me to think that perhaps some of the subtlety of the french understanding of this word has been lost in translation. (see the graph) puu.sh/nV8E0/0404ed0d1a.png But usually It appears as a faux technical word in but when we actually look at it, it is more about sentiment. A way of ascribing value without justifying it. Anyway, thanks for the work, when I am lead down pointless tangents it is usually a good sign that the original spur is rich. I will continue my painfully slow progress

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, when someone says, "cultural appropriation is problematic", I think that's usually just a fancy way of saying: there's something wrong with it.

[@mandys1505]

like Wisdom 2.0 Conference, teaching mindfulness to the corporate world?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Well, I tend to think "mindfulness" is so overused today as to mean basically anything one has in mind, so really, nothing at all. . . But, if you can actually teach something to the corporate world, that's a good thing, in my book

[@mandys1505]

Gregory B. Sadler www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-purser/google-misses-a-lesson_b_4900285.html? this is a relevant, interesting article, i think...some debates are still going in fb threads

[@lucaseytchison2176]

I may be mis-interpreting your critique of continental and analytic philosophy here, but how does Hegel's critique towards both as "lacking a concern with the variety of human experience" (paraphrasing) square with the contemporary focus on culture and film studies? I don't understand how corners of contemporary analytics, (take queer or bipoc film studies as examples) are not chiefly concerned with enumerating the variety of experience.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep. Take it as directed at what most analytic has been like for decades, not exceptions you can bring up

[@lucaseytchison2176]

@@GregoryBSadler Understood! I am most familiar with analytic philosophy through these iterations, and without a knowledge of the tradition's history, I suppose I over-estimated the footprint of the above examples within it.

[@beanatta3905]

I'm confused... he says "philosophy is to meet this need, not by opening up the..." and lists a few things, continues "but rather by running g together what thought has put asunder..... and restoring the feeling of essential being: in short by providing edification rather than insight." It sounds to me he is saying thought is some of the problem, and feeling is what philosophy should restore us to. Or bringing the two together at least. Not so much that the feeling people are wrong which I would say can be confirmed by his criticism of the sole focus on an antithesis. Am I missing something (mind you I'm in the preface, not thru the book) Isn't he saying the feeling

[@GregoryBSadler]

Just keep on reading

[@jivanreyes6590]

How is the "rigour" of 'analytic philosophy' of today different from the "rigour" that Hegel is trying to achieve?

[@GregoryBSadler]

That would be a long conversation, to answer adequately. If you're interested in that, here's my tutorial page - reasonio.wordpress.com/tutorials/ Short - and thus misleading - answers are these: 1) "rigor" means different things to different movements/phases within analytic philosophy 2) When taking account of other's thought, analytics tend to be focused on very small portions of texts and a few bits of secondary lit. Hegel aims at grasping the full significance of previous thought and contemporary movements

[@jivanreyes6590]

I see. Thanks, Dr. Sadler. Your answers help me to focus on the details. I can't afford the tutorials (for now), but I'll try to not let my questions take a lot of your time. Keep up the good work.

[@deliciousmorton]

If Hegel is Half Ours; who does the other half belong to?

[@GregoryBSadler]

The Negative

[@lyndonbailey3965]

Hegel's criticism of the desire to return to the comfort of over-arching definitive concepts...sort of sounds like an intellectual precursor to skepticism about grand narratives. Maybe it is just a coincidence and, intellectuals by and large in every generation try to attack what Hegel would call the 'substantial life' mode of consciousness

[@GregoryBSadler]

I suppose one could see it as that. . . but there's plenty of others who one might also see as similar precursors. Of course, Hegel is also skeptical about skepticism. . . and likewise would be of "genealogical" accounts

[@lyndonbailey3965]

Gregory B. Sadler If I understand you right, Hegel would be circumspect about Foucault's project?

[@GregoryBSadler]

among others, yes

[@devongiguere3721]

Philosophy isn't about starting with definitions... Opens up Spinoza's ethics. 😂

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yep, that would be a weird, whacky outlier

[@devongiguere3721]

@@GregoryBSadler I know, I'm just teasing ya. Spinoza is a wacky outlier, but he's our wacky outlier!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Not mine, I'm afraid

[@ThePinkArab]

New-wave spiritualists BTFO!

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, not much new about the new age