50 pages • 1 hour read
Phenomenology of Spirit
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “Self-Consciousness”
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “The Truth of Self-Certainty”
In this chapter, Hegel narrows his focus from consciousness—which is a larger concept that includes the consciousness of community—to self-consciousness. Hegel’s ideas about the cognitive subject differ from his contemporaries in that he equates it with the individual person: “Opposed to an other, the ‘I’ is its own self, and at the same time it overarches this other which, for the ‘I’, is equally only the ‘I’ itself” (104). Hegel views self-consciousness as essential to understanding a greater system of consciousness; therefore, it is necessary to consider how the individual relates to the other, as this forms the distinction between one person’s experience and another’s.
Hegel suggests that what people perceive to be external objects are only emergences of cognition; the object does not appear in its true form but in the mind because of sense-experience and perception. Hegel views the “I” as the subject of differentiation between the interior and exterior. This exterior includes others. Self-consciousness is formed by the distinction between the self and others. A struggle emerges as the “I” encounters another “I,” another person or entity that also lives as a being-for-itself. A unity of the two can be formed through desire and the removal of the antithesis, or the contradictions which inevitably emerge through perception.
Independence and Dependence of Self-Consciousness: Lordship and Bondage
This section explores the struggle that emerges between two self-consciousnesses. Humans interact with others through a need to satisfy their desires. Self-awareness occurs when each individual encounters the other and notes the difference. The meaning of Hegel’s title in German calls into question the differences between individuals who are self-sufficient and those who are not, more often described by the terms “master” and “slave.” Hegel subverts expectations by arguing that both are dependent upon the other: The master is governed by the slave, and the slave is governed by the master. These represent two of the three forms of relationships that two self-consciousnesses can form. Both exist within their relation to the other.
When the two self-consciousnesses enter a relationship of inequality, they struggle as two opposing figures: “One is the independent consciousness whose essential nature is to be for itself” (115). Neither acknowledges the other is also an independent consciousness seeking the same thing. Instead, each self-consciousness views the other as a dependent figure whose purpose is to live for others. Dominance is understood through a triadic form that involves the master, slave, and an external object of desire. Hegel limits the triadic form to material objects.
The only other relationship between master and slave is a form of mutual equality, or mutual recognition. Hegel suggests that this is a fuller and more comprehensive form of self-consciousness because it acknowledges the relationship between the self and the other rather than trying to establish superiority. Hegel views mutual recognition as a requirement for absolute knowing. Therefore, social changes which abolish the lord-bondsman dialectic are the first step toward an evolution of collective consciousness.
Freedom of Self-Consciousness: Stoicism, Skepticism, and the Unhappy Consciousness
Humans cannot achieve self-consciousness in isolation. The development of self-awareness only occurs through the relationship of the self with the other. Hegel asserts that only the self-aware individual can achieve absolute knowledge. He explores how this understanding of self-consciousness and absolute knowledge relates to stoicism and skepticism. Hegel critiques stoicism, the philosophical school of thought focused on virtue and emotional control, which he suggests is one-sided and too focused on self-sufficiency.
Hegel’s philosophy applies a historical approach which examines thoughts in connection to its social context. He argues that stoicism emerged during a time when fear and bondage were seen as normal parts of the human experience. Similarly, skepticism is limited in scope. It considers only the negation of the self and others or the object. Its goal is not unification. Rather than individual freedom, Hegel proposes that there is no freedom without social liberation.
Part 2 Analysis
Hegel suggests that the foundation of self-consciousness is freedom. This is echoed by philosophers like Descartes and Kant, who describe consciousness as the knowledge of the self and the knowledge of freedom. Hegel asserts that freedom requires a liberation from the power struggle which emerges when self-consciousnesses encounter one another. Concepts like stoicism and skepticism emphasize differences rather than focusing on unification. Hegel believes that humans can never achieve The Science of Logic and Absolute Knowing until they transcend the social construct of power dynamics and, instead, embrace equality. He denies that the concept of freedom is a part of innate knowledge. Instead, it is acquired through struggle, especially struggle with others. When self-consciousness recognizes autonomy and independence in one another, true knowledge and freedom can occur.
Hege’s work on consciousness is unique in its examination of the individual with the other. He argues that the limited self-consciousness must always try to supersede the other, creating an inevitable struggle:
Self-consciousness is faced by another self-consciousness; it has come out of itself. This has a twofold significance: first, it has lost itself, for it finds itself as an other being; secondly, in doing so it has superseded the other for it does not see the other as an essential being, but in the other sees its own self. (111)
It is important to note that Hegel wrote Phenomenology of Spirit during the French Revolution. His exploration of the social context of consciousness mirrored a cultural examination of social structures and hierarchies. Here, Hegel suggests that the those on the top and those on the bottom of social systems are dependent upon one another and that it is a mistake to assume that any group holds independent power. The French Revolution was an example of this concept in real time, as French citizens challenged the economically oppressive rule of the French monarchy. Hegel noted how the French aristocracy, while appearing to exercise total power and autonomy, was dependent upon the work and submission of the lower classes.
The evolution of this understanding of self-consciousness contributes to the theme The Evolution of Truth and Consciousness. Hegel proposes that humans will always engage in a power struggle to raise their own self-consciousness above the other so long as they ignore the role of social freedom in absolute knowing. A more complex and superior form of self-consciousness acknowledges the other and engages mutual equality. A simple way of thinking about this is through the analogy of a playground bully. Children may exert power over other children to cope with their own feelings of insecurity and powerlessness. These children evolve emotionally when they begin to see their own powerlessness in relation to their peers, recognizing that they are equal in their struggle of being.
Unlock all 50 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features: