Loyola University Chicago

Department of Philosophy

PHIL 420: Hegel

Catalog Description

Prepares students for advanced work on the philosophical thought of Hegel.


PHIL 420: Hegel - Phenomenology of Spirit

Dr. Andrew Cutrofello

In this seminar we will work through as much of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit as we can in a semester. We will try to answer several basic questions about the nature of Hegel’s project, and about whether it succeeds on its own terms. For example, what is phenomenology as Hegel conceives it, and what is spirit? What is the dialectical method that Hegel professes to follow throughout the book? Does he consistently follow it? How does the method relate to earlier conceptions of dialectical reasoning, notably those of Plato and Kant? To what extent is Hegel presenting a theory of knowledge? To what extent is he doing metaphysics? Is his conception of history teleological? What happens in the culminating moment of absolute knowing, and how does it anticipate the dialectical projects that Hegel undertakes in his Science of Logic and Encyclopedia? We will focus primarily on Hegel’s 1807 text, but we will also consider its reception history from the Young Hegelians and Marx to Robert Brandom and Slavoj Žižek