Hegel's phenomenology of spirit as an argument for a monistic ontology

Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 49 (1):103 – 118 (2006)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

This paper tries to show that one of the main objectives of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit is to give an epistemological argument for his monistic metaphysics. In its first part, it outlines a traditional, Kant-oriented approach to the question of how we can make sense of our ability to cognize objects. It focuses on the distinction between subjective and objective conditions of cognition and argues that this distinction, understood in the traditional (Kantian) way, is much too poor to do justice to our very elaborated conception of kinds of objects. The second part deals with the Phenomenology. Here it is claimed that Hegel reacts in a sophisticated way to the shortcomings of the traditional epistemological view in presenting a theory which allows us to understand why we have to distinguish between different kinds of objects and how these kinds are related to conditions of cognition. This epistemological doctrine, however, is not developed by Hegel for its own sake. Rather, it has the function of a "transcendentalistic" (not "transcendental") argument for a monistic ontology. Thus, one can make sense of Hegel's claim that the Phenomenology is to be understood as an introduction into his (monistic) System.

Other Versions

No versions found

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 100,061

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Analytics

Added to PP
2009-01-28

Downloads
158 (#141,874)

6 months
12 (#240,158)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

Social Ontology.Brian Epstein - 2018 - Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
Hegel's metaphysics: Changing the debate.James Kreines - 2006 - Philosophy Compass 1 (5):466–480.
Between the Bounds of experience and divine intuition: Kant's epistemic limits and Hegel's ambitions.James Kreines - 2007 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 50 (3):306 – 334.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references