The Hegel Variations: On the Phenomenology of the Spirit

The master philosopher and cultural theorist tackles the founder of modern dialectics.In this major new study, philosopher and cultural theorist Fredric Jameson offers an innovative reading of a book that forms part of the bedrock of modern Western thought: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit. Whereas other writers have interpreted the Phenomenology as a rigidly closed system, Jameson discovers it to be a more fluid, open-ended work. Hegel’s mind is revealed to be a less systematic mechanism than normally thought, one whose ideas never solidify into pure abstractions. The conclusion of the Phenomenology, on the aftermath of the French Revolution, is examined as a provisional stalemate between the political and the social—a situation from which Jameson draws important lessons for our own age. In this major new study, the philosopher and cultural theorist Fredric Jameson offers a new reading of Hegel's foundational text Phenomenology of Spirit.In contrast to those who see the Phenomenology as a closed system ending with Absolute Spirit, Jameson's reading presents an open work in which Hegel has not yet reconstituted himself in terms of a systematic philosophy (Hegelianism) and in which the moments of the dialectic and its levels have not yet been formalized. Hegel's text executes a dazzling variety of changes on conceptual relationships, in terms with are never allowed to freeze over and become reified in purely philosophical named concepts. The ending, on the aftermath of the French Revolution, is interpreted by Jameson, contra Fukuyama's'end of history,'as a provisional stalemate between the political and the social, which is here extrapolated to our own time.

In this major new study, philosopher and cultural theorist Fredric Jameson offers an innovative reading of a book that forms part of the bedrock of modern Western thought: Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit.

Whereas other writers have interpreted the Phenomenology as a rigidly closed system, Jameson discovers it to be a more fluid, open-ended work. Hegel’s mind is revealed to be a less systematic mechanism than normally thought, one whose ideas never solidify into pure abstractions. The conclusion of the Phenomenology, on the aftermath of the French Revolution, is examined as a provisional stalemate between the political and the social-a situation from which Jameson draws important lessons for our own age.

Contents......Page 8 1 Closure ......Page 10 2 Organizational Problems......Page 15 3 Idealism......Page 36 4 Language......Page 43 5 Oppositions ......Page 56 6 The Ethics of Activity (die Sache Selbst)......Page 60 7 Immanence......Page 78 8 Spirit as Collectivity (Antigone, or the One into Two)......Page 84 9 Revolution and the "End of History"......Page 105 10 Religion as Cultural Superstructure......Page 125 11 Narcissism of the Absolute......Page 139 Index......Page 141 Offers a reading of Hegel's foundational text "The Phenomenology of Spirit". This title presents an open work in which Hegel has not yet reconstituted himself in terms of a systematic philosophy (Hegelianism) and in which the moments of the dialectic and its levels have not yet been formalized "Fredric Jameson is America's leading Marxist critic. A prodigiously energetic thinker whose writings sweep majestically from Sophocles to science fiction."--Terry Eagleton "Probably the most important cultural critic writing in English today ... It can be truly said that nothing cultural is alien to him."--Colin MacCabe "Fredric Jameson preserved and extended the legacy of Marxism for a generation of intellectuals."--Benjamin Kunkel, London Review of Books