Hegel's Grammatical Ontology : Vanishing Words and Hermeneutical Openness in the 'Phenomenology of Spirit'

Reading __The Phenomenology of Spirit__ through a linguistic lens, Jeffrey Reid provides an original commentary on Hegel's most famous work. Beginning with a close analysis of the preface, where Hegel himself addresses the book's difficulty and explains his tortured language in terms of what he calls the “speculative proposition”, Reid demonstrates how every form of consciousness discussed in __The Phenomenology__ involves and reveals itself as a form of language. Elucidating Hegel's speculative proposition, which consists of the reversal of the roles of the __subject__ and __predicate__ in such a way that the __copula__ of the proposition becomes the lively arena of dialogical ambiguity and hermeneutical openness, this book offers new onto-grammatical readings of every chapter of __The Phenomenology__. Not only does this bring a new understanding to Hegel's foundational text, but the linguistic approach further allows Reid to unpack its complexity by relating it to contemporary contexts that share the same language structures that we discover in Hegel. Amongst many others, this includes Hegel's account of sense-certainty and the critique of the immediacy of consumer culture today. Cover 1 Contents 8 Preface 10 Chapter 1 Sense-certainty: “Here” and “Now” as Vanishing Words 20 Chapter 2 Perception: Signs and Sophistry 34 Chapter 3 Force and Understanding: The Ambiguity of the Copula 44 Chapter 4 Self-consciousness: Predicated Bodies 54 Stoicism 69 Skepticism 75 Unhappy Consciousness and the Empty Copula 81 Chapter 5 Reason: Modern Individuality 88 Observing Reason 92 Observation of Nature 92 Observation of Self-consciousness in Its Purity and in Its Relation to External Actuality. Logical and Psychological Laws (M298–308/W3, 226–32) 97 Physiognomy and Phrenology (M309/W3, 233) 104 Actualization of Rational Self-consciousness through Its Own Activity 114 Pleasure and Necessity 117 The Law of the Heart and the Frenzy (Madness) of Self-conceit 121 Virtue and the Way of the World 126 Individuality That Is for Itself Real In-and-for-itself 128 The Spiritual Animal Kingdom 130 Reason as Law-giver and Law-tester 133 Chapter 6 Spirit: The Human Story 140 The Ethical Order (M 438/W3, 328) 140 Culture 150 Culture: Faith and Insight—Enlightenment, Superstition, and the Terror 163 Spirit as Morality 178 Morality and Conscience (M632/W3, 464) 185 Chapter 7 Religion and the Absolute Other 192 Nature Religion: Light as Essence (das Lichtwesen, M685/W3, 505) 198 Nature Religion: Plant and Animal Worship 205 The Architect (Werkmeister, M691) 207 Die Kunstreligion: Religion in the Form of Art (Greece) 210 The Abstract Work of Art (M705-19) 213 The Spiritual Work of Art (M727) 216 Revealed Religion (M748) 221 Chapter 8 Absolute Knowing: Hermeneutical Openness and Science 230 Notes 238 Bibliography 240 Index 243 "Reading The Phenomenology of Spirit through a linguistic lens, Jeffrey Reid provides an original commentary on Hegel's most famous work. Beginning with a close analysis of the preface, where Hegel himself addresses the book's difficulty and explains his tortured language in terms of what he calls the "speculative proposition", Reid demonstrates how every form of consciousness discussed in The Phenomenology involves and reveals itself as a form of language. Elucidating Hegel's speculative proposition, which consists of the reversal of the roles of the subject and predicate in such a way that the copula of the proposition becomes the lively arena of dialogical ambiguity and hermeneutical openness, this book offers new onto-grammatical readings of every chapter of The Phenomenology. Not only does this bring a new understanding to Hegel's foundational text, but the linguistic approach further allows Reid to unpack its complexity by relating it to contemporary contexts that share the same language structures that we discover in Hegel. Amongst many others, this includes Hegel's account of sense-certainty and the critique of the immediacy of consumer culture today"-- Provided by publisher Introduction -- Chapter 1: Consciousness -- Chapter 2: Self-Consciousness -- Chapter 3: Reason -- Chapter 4: Spirit -- Chapter 5: Religion -- Chapter 6: Absolute Spirit -- References -- Index