Analysis Of Phenomenology Of Spirit By John Hegel

Following in the path of Kant and Fichte, Hegel has become one of the most influential philosophers in history. His philosophy has influenced important people, such as Karl Marx, and influential schools of thought, such as the Frankfurt School. This influence rides heavily on the chapter, Master and Slave in his book Phenomenology of Spirit. This chapter examines the relationship between two self-consciousnesses, and the process of self-creating. The relationship between the two self-consciousnesses and the eventual path to ‘acknowledgment’ or recognition of the self is outlined in the first line of the chapter: “Self-consciousness exists in itself and for itself, in that, and by the fact that it exists for another self-consciousness; that

We can break this sentence down into two separate parts. The first part says that “Self-consciousness exists in itself and for itself, in that, and by the fact that it exists for another self-consciousness” (43). This seems to end in a paradox, the self-consciousness both exists for itself and for another self-consciousness. When Hegel says that “self-consciousness exists in itself and for itself” (43) we can understand him as saying, not that there is a paradox that we must resolve, but a duality that we have to accept. His proposition of a duality is that the self-consciousness is existing for two things at one time “by the fact that it exists for another self-consciousness” (43). This duality between existing for both itself and an other is one of the most clearly defined things in the chapter and will come to make sense as a dependent relationship in which the individual’s self-consciousness must exist for another to exist for itself. The second part of the sentence says “it is only by being acknowledged or ‘recognized’” (43). This part can be interpreted as saying that the self-consciousness is, exists, when it is recognized or when the self recognizes itself as a self-consciousness. The entire sentence can, then, be understood as saying that, while the self-consciousness exists itself and for itself this is in virtue of it existing for another and, it can only exist for itself when it is recognized. To fully understand the significance of this sentence, it is not only necessary to understand it on its own but, it is also required to be understood in the scope of the rest of the chapter. The next several paragraphs will look to do that. The chapter can be divided into roughly three parts: paragraphs 2-8 make up the first part, paragraphs 9-12 make up part two, and the last part contains paragraphs