The Phenomenology of Spirit: Translated with introduction and commentary

by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Michael J. Inwood (Translator, Intro., Commentary)

G. W. F. Hegel's first masterpiece, the Phenomenology of Spirit , is one of the great works of philosophy. It remains, however, one of the most challenging and mysterious books ever written. Michael Inwood presents this central work to the modern reader in an intelligible and accurate new translation. This translation attempts to convey, as accurately as possible, the subtle nuances of the original German text. Inwood also provides a detailed commentary that explains what Hegel is saying at each stage of his argument and also discusses the philosophical issues it raises. This volume will therefore prove invaluable to those who want to get to grips with Hegel's thought processes and to follow his complex argument.

544 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1807

About the author

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831) was a German philosopher and one of the founding figures of German Idealism. Influenced by Kant's transcendental idealism and Rousseau's politics, Hegel formulated an elaborate system of historical development of ethics, government, and religion through the dialectical unfolding of the Absolute. Hegel was one of the most well-known historicist philosopher, and his thought presaged continental philosophy, including postmodernism. His system was inverted into a materialist ideology by Karl Marx, originally a member of the Young Hegelian faction.

Reviews

[Maxwell Dalton · Rating 1 out of 5]

And at long last, the completion of this absolute tome marks the end of my philosophical reading list for 2025, courtesy of PewDiePie. Really came down to the wire.

Calling this book difficult would be a gross understatement. If Kant's Critique of Pure Reason is something that requires a PhD in philosophy to fully understand, then Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit must require several tenured professor positions to begin to grasp.

As such, you can imagine that my rating here is purely due to my personal experience in reading this book. I am sure that Hegel's philosophical system is amazing, but I am equally sure that I could not even begin to explain to someone what exactly this philosophical system even is, after my single month's introduction to the matter.

Early on, I toyed with the idea of trying to dive really deep into this book, but I quickly realized that in a single month this was going to be nigh impossible. One great resource I found was this youtube series. The only problem was that this series was over 800 episodes long—one episode per paragraph of the text, 30 minutes per episode. If that doesn't convey to you just how insanely difficult Hegel is to actually understand, then I don't know what will. Even while consuming my copy's provided paragraph-by-paragraph commentary, I was completely lost most of the time.

So, rather than an enlightening reading experience, this was moreso an exercise in focus. I would intermittently sit down with my big book and let my eyes glaze over the pages, allowing each word to occupy my mind for a moment before fading away. Occasionally I felt that I could grasp what was being said, but this was almost always fleeting. I retreated from reading this book in public for fear that someone would ask me about it, and I would have to confess that I was wholly unmatched to the task at hand.

So what did I glean? Well, mainly that I think Hegel is a Christian (though not in any traditional sense) and that he really loved looking at the morphing of ideas throughout time, often speaking about them in a very convoluted way. I also think I would be correct in saying that he would never expect a Goodreads review to accurately convey what he was trying to say in this book.

To quote the man himself in the preface:

The easiest course is to pass judgment on a work of substance and solidity; to grasp it is harder; hardest of all is to combine the two by producing an account of it.