Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Afshin Alikhani Dehqi ¹
• Mohammad Meshkat ¹
• Mohammad javad Safian ²

¹ Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Literature and Humanities, University of Isfahan, Iran

² Faculty of Literature, Departmant of Philosophy, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

Abstract

In his Phenomenology of the Spirit, Hegel tries to explicate his claim that what he calls the System of Science should be organized merely through the "Life of Concept". In this paper, first, we will try to survey the role(s) Hegel assigns to the Concept in Phenomenology of Spirit. Then, we will examine his use of this term in Phenomenology of the Spirit and we will discuss the meanings of this term in that book. Thereafter We will discuss whether in Phenomenology of the Spirit, Concept is finite (as we have seen in Kant's philosophy) and whether it is limited to an external limit or not, and eventually we will try to show that in Phenomenology of Spirit, the absolute knowledge should be understood not as attaining a pure and simple static truth, but it must be understood as infinite unity of Concept and in fact as infinite movement of it. In fact, drawing on the interpretations of Pippin, Houlgate, and Stern, we argue that in contrast to the prevailing interpretations in contemporary Hegel studies, at the end of the Phenomenology of Spirit, it is the concept that becomes absolute, not consciousness.

Keywords

• concept
• thing in itself
• unity of apperception
• absolute knowledge

Main Subjects

• philosophy