My favorite audible book of the 700 I've rated

This is the single best Audible book I've ever listened to. I've tried reading "Phenomenology of Spirit" through out various times during my life, and like most people I couldn't get past the first two pages. This audio version brings magic to this perfect work of art.

All summaries or short commentaries on this book get it wrong. Everything you think you know about this book is probably wrong. There's no way to understand it except for actually listening (or reading) it. Forevermore, from now on I'll look askance at any statement that starts "Hegel says....".

I had just listened to "Soul Machine" by Makari (a book I liked very much, but it reads somewhat like an encyclopedia), and he ends his story with Hegel and I was intrigued by what he had to say about this book. On a lark, I decided to listened to the sample of "Phenomenology" that audible provides. I had never listened to an audio book sample before. I realized from the 3 minute and 24 second sample exactly what Hegel was trying to say and I actually understood what he was saying! I strongly recommend listening to the sample, and see if it makes sense to you.

I came to listening to philosophy by way of running out of science books and Great Course lectures. Most of the popular science books I've been listening to lately just seem to repeat themselves (or worse yet, they enter the world of Deepak Chopra's Woo Woo land).

To me, listening opens up a gateway for which reading doesn't always allow. I'm not suggesting that this book is an easy listen. It's not. Almost everyday, I take a two hour bike ride onto isolated desert roads, and I almost never could process more than an hour of this book at a time. I had to rest my mind. The reading of each paragraph number helped me immensely since I knew when a paragraph had ended and a new thought was starting. There is a strong abstract nature to this book where the author will relate an abstract to another abstract before he goes to the concrete.

There's a certain magic the author employs in his writing technique. Mathematics is the study of the changeless, and at its core it is at most a collection of items which get their meaning from the relationships which they each have with each other. This is how the author will think about the Universal of Absolute Being. It's important to realize that for the author the group of the individual species which make up the genus can only be understood from considering the genus as a whole. Or in other words, it's not the collection that gives understanding but it's the totality.

This is the exact opposite approach for which Heidegger uses in "Being and Time", he thinks understanding the parts that make up the whole provides for understanding (or using his nomenclature, gives an ontological foundation). Heidegger's book is actually my favorite book overall, but unfortunately I had to actually read it since there isn't an audio version, but there is an excellent lecture by Hubert Dreyfus freely available on Itunes. But, I like "Phenomenology" as much as I do because in the end there aren't truths but only perspectives, and Hegel gives a fabulous perspective.

I would actually suggest listening to these three Great Courses and this fictional book all available on Audible before listening to "Phenomenology". Great Courses: 1)Science Wars, 2) Philosophy of Science, and 3) Redefining Reality, and the fictional book, "The Signature of All Things", by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'd recommend the book because it's one of the best fictions I've read, and it illustrates Hegel's belief that any determination gives negation (one can paint a rose by painting everything but the rose or just as beautifully by only painting the rose and ignoring everything else).

The Great Course lectures speak loudly on the foundation of science and the nature of knowledge. Themes Hegel elaborates on significantly. Hegel's perspective is to think of our place on the "earth" (his expression) as "universal, necessary, and certain" as opposed to particular (to the data), contingent (dependent on outside factors), and probable (not certain). I recently listened to "A Beautiful Question" by Frank Wilczek, and "To Explain the World", by Steven Weinburg each a Nobel Prize Winner in physics. The first book, favors Hegel's perspective. The world is understandable as a whole (the atoms which make up our world are 'emergent properties' of the mathematics which describe them). The second book favors Heidegger, the parts that make up the whole are understandable. (Our understanding is defined by how science describes and explains based on the contingent ideas derived from particular observations).

At the time this book was written German did not have a word for 'mind' therefore any translation must take a viewpoint whether the author meant 'mind' or 'spirit'. Hegel starts the book by considering the mind within the individual, and then the spirit between individuals, and then he will go across time for both the individual and the groups (at the core of understanding for any stochastic process there are only two independent variabilities, 'within' and 'between').

When Hegel says 'objective spirit' as a thing, I took it to mean a culture with a world view. The "idle chatter', the items that make the social norms, and the items that come from outside of us, and the things that make us the they ('inauthentic' using Heidegger's word) within ourselves and between ourselves. Hegel will say the alienation we have within us and between us gives us our true knowledge.

He really seems to get Godol's incompleteness theorem (all formal systems are incomplete and have true items not provable), the Copenhagen Interruption (the measurement problem due to the wave/particle duality), Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal (knowledge of one thing means lack of knowledge elsewhere), and his teleological system is more Darwinian than not (hence it's not really teleological). Obviously, he doesn't use modern language when he describes those things, but I as a listener I read my own interruption into what the author was saying.

I noticed in the first half of the book, the author really seemed to have a wry sense of humor and sprinkled it through out the book. He'd say stuff like "it's been said in Latin and bad Latin at that" or paraphrasing 'if someone says they can tell you that you behave erratically from bumps on your head, you should box them on the ears', or 'it's like when a naughty boy gets boxed on his hears for being obnoxious, it's exactly what the boy wanted'.

I enjoyed the 6 hour commentary attached to the book. It made me realize I was understanding the book fairly closely. It's possible to be completely non-religious and be overwhelmed by the author's methodology. He'll demonstrate the problem with faith (I'd be fairly certain that Kierkegaard and his 'leap of faith' come from this book). Our duties which come from our own selfishness can lead to ethical behavior in society as a whole (the author definitely seems to embrace Mandeville and his "Fable of the Bees"). He ends the book with religion within nature and then segues quickly into the truth (certainty) of systematic science.

The book is probably not what you think it is. It is definitely not "impenetrable'. The author explains, amplifies and provides a grounding for what he is saying. There are many ways to look at and understand this book. I do it from a philosophy of science point of view. I like books that take me out of my comfort zone and open up a whole new world for me. I suggest listening to the sample and see if you get what he's saying. If you do, get this book. If not, but your still intrigued, I would suggest the lectures and book I referenced above.

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96 people found this helpful

I've got some good news and some bad news

The good news is that this is a very nicely done audio production of Hegel's Phenomenology.

The bad news is that Hegel is still difficult.

It's totally great to disagree with Hegel and all, but bear in mind that many major philosophers have already wrestled with and critiqued aspects of Hegel. Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Marx, Benjamin, Adorno, Debord, to name just a tiny fraction. So if you want to give this 1 star, you might try harder than something like "Couldn't understand this book WTF?"

No way rlly? Hegel is hard to understand? And the Pope is Catholic? Whoah, rlly? lol ; )

Tip: check out Jean Hyppolite's classic intro to the phenomenology, and also you can search for "the Bernstein Tapes" for some free intro lectures online.. Good luck!

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77 people found this helpful

Impenetrable

What did you like best about Phenomenology of Spirit? What did you like least?

I waited and waited for this one, and pre-ordered it. My favorite thing was that it was coming. What I like least is that it finally came.

Would you recommend Phenomenology of Spirit to your friends? Why or why not?

I would not. The subject matter is too difficult for listening. The book itself must be read an re-read to be understood.

How could the performance have been better?

Less sing-songy. He is not a bad performer, but the subject matter doesn't lend itself to his style. Actually, I don't think it lends itself to anyone's style. It's not his fault. I can't imagine what he was thinking as he read it. To make the audiobook better, every sentence needs to be read 3 times in a row.

Was Phenomenology of Spirit worth the listening time?

No. You need the book.

Any additional comments?

Hegel is notoriously difficult to read. It turns out that he's even worse in audioboook form. With a book, you can read the same sentence over and over. But in audiobook form, you can't kick back and listen to this. You would have to actively hit that rewind button.

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15 people found this helpful

Difficult, But Rewarding. Requires Several Listens

Hegel was responding to the rapid series of arguments that developed after the philosophy of Kant who was quickly superseded by Fichte, and Schelling in German Philosophy of the day, all difficult and powerful thinkers. As such, the work not only has difficult thought, but also a lot of terminology and background assumptions that make it a difficult read for someone not aware of Hegel's context. Many of his lectures for students have been written down and he assumes much less prior knowledge and shows he can explain his ideas much more clearly if required. People attempting to go through this work may want to skip the preface which Hegel wrote last as it has a lot of terminology explained later in the book. A secondary text or lectures will also be helpful to anyone not versed in the history of philosophy.

This is one of the most essential philosophical texts and very useful for people who want to think clearly and be able to explain their basis for knowledge of things. The method seems difficult but a lot of the realizations are in keeping with common sense, but Hegel gives a much more detailed account of just how your common sense works to better understand and express yourself. You may not get everything on the first listen, but there's so much rewarding thought in here that it's wonderful to be able to listen to from time to time and become more familiar with this wonderful book.

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12 people found this helpful

Incomprehensible to Me

Would you try another book from the authors and/or David DeVries?

For some reason I can't get through the first half hour with any comprehension of what the author/reader is saying. I probably should be embarrassed to say this, but to me this is basically just a lot of words loosely strung together. I find my mind wandering almost right away. Actually I hold a doctorate degree and can usually read pretty dense material. Either the translation is not very good, or Hegel is way above my level, or this basically is nonsense posing as intellectualism. I give up for now - maybe later.

What could the authors have done to make this a more enjoyable book for you?

Well, he could make a clear point and then cite evidence and/or logic to back up the point.

How could the performance have been better?

I don't know. I don't think I could have done any better with the material. It did drone on, so maybe the reader could have used more inflection and emphasis to keep the listener awake or alert us to key points.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Phenomenology of Spirit?

Serious abridgement down to core issues.

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Mind-bogglingly brilliant. Solid performance.

'The Phenomenology of Spirit' (1807) is essentially the "revenge of Reason" against Kant's devastating 'Critique of Pure Reason' (1781) which purports to forever confine knowledge to the non-metaphysical domain of subjectivity. Hegel's work is a long thought-experiment of sorts which seeks to pry back this lost objectivity from Kant's clutches. It is a dense and detailed first-person plural (i.e. 'we') retelling of the logical development and rational evolution of [the human] Spirit - from our most basic sentient consciousness of single objects right in front of us, to our more sophisticated perceptual awareness of things and their myriad traits as we move and change with them, through to our intelligent understanding of immaterial laws and causal connections...all the way up to the undeniable knowledge of practical activity ignited by desire, biologically determined ethical commitments, binding moral duties, irreducible religious representations, and finally terminating in a comprehensive grasp of the Concept that IS this present-continuous reality of us figuring ourselves out. This final 'beatific vision' of our sense of 'I' realizing that it is contiguous with the entire expanse of all objective reality is what Hegel calls 'the Absolute Idea,' when we ourselves are finally able to think ourselves back into existence as it were, and prove Kant wrong once and for all. In short, the Phenomenology is about ‘this’ particular individual subject who comes to learn through experience that it is and has always been [one with] ‘the’ universal object. "What is real?: rationality. What is rational?: reality."

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6 people found this helpful

Excellent Reading by DeVries

Thoroughly effective reading of complex syntactical, conceptual acrobatics. Good job DeVries. And this book is, of course, a classic of Hegel's canon worth returning to time and again.

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5 people found this helpful

Bad narration

The narrators cadence does not match the content, it’s as if the is just reading out the words without paying attention to their meaning. unlistenable to me.

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A Philosophical Classic

I deduct one star for Hegel’s sprawling style, which is probably the greatest inhibition to reading this great work. But a great and foundational work it is. Findlay’s section by section analysis at the end helps out a lot. It helps to have read some commentary on Hegel beforehand but there’s also an element of just muscling through on the first reading. Appropriately for Hegel the parts become a lot more comprehensible in view of the whole on a second reading.

Hegel states in his preface that the subject of the Phenomenology is the “coming to be of science as such, or knowledge”. I think that’s a fair description. Amid all the detours into things like phrenology it’s easy to lose sight of the direction he’s going. But the work builds up in stages toward fuller understanding. The Phenomenology has even been called a Bildungsroman, which seems fitting. Each of the book's sections is building from more basic to fuller understanding, from consciousness to self-consciousness to reason to spirit to religion and finally to absolute knowing.

I found the section on religion especially interesting. One of Hegel’s key ideas is that later stages of development do not simply negate previous stages but incorporate them. Hegel sees “revealed religion” in Christianity as the most developed stage prior to absolute knowing. The religions of Persia, India, and Greece developed religious ideas that flowed into later stages. Ultimately thought replaces the “picture thinking” of revealed religion, moving into absolute knowing. It’s an interesting theological approach, whether you buy into it or not. And it had a decisive impact on liberal Christian theology in the nineteenth century and on higher Biblical criticism, including the famous Documentary Hypothesis.

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not suitable for this medium

I have a degree in philosophy and I have enjoyed some fairly difficult philosophy audiobooks, like the Critique of Pure Reason I listened to. This one, not so much. Hegel's peculiar use of language is difficult enough on the printed page, but hearing it read at a brisk, steady clip, as it is here, is more than I can track. I regularly came away feeling frustrated and confused, and abandoned it after several hours of trying.

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2 people found this helpful