I've been reading Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. Needless to say it is close to unintelligible for me. What secondary lit should I read to properly understand it?
>>1
You can’t go wrong with the Cambridge Companion to Hegel. There is Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History by Buck Morss which is provides an alternative look at Hegel’s intellectual influences. There is a series on YouTube called Half Hour Hegel which goes through the entire Phenomenology including the preface and introduction.
>>2
Thank you! I have heard of Half Hour Hegel but it the book on Haiti, that sounds very interesting.
I've been here, >>1, and I recommend giving up. Whilst it does start to sink in after a lot of study and exposure to dumbed-down explanations I'm not sure it's worth the effort and what little I did gleam from my initial attempts I have long since forgotten. Go read Kierkgaard instead (who likes to poke fun at Hegel)
>>4
You still learn quite a bit by pushing through a dense philosophical book, even if you don’t understand what the author’s trying to get across it makes reading these books in the future a little easier. Sometimes the journey is better than the destination as the old cliche goes. It’s perfectly fine to go through a book and not really remember what the author is doing beyond a vague gist of what they’re trying to say.
>>1
Mind if I ask why your reading Hegel? Have you tried reading Hegel before? your a beginner you shouldn’t really start weigh Hegel and if your new to reading him you shouldn’t start with the Phenomenology but his Lectures on the Philosophy of History which provides you with nice intro to how Hegel sees world history and eases you into his dense writing style.
Anyway, if your looking for secondary sources I’d seriously recommend the Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel’s Phenomenology of the Spirit by Robert Stern. It’s a really good introduction that’s beginner friendly and written in an easy to follow clear fashion.
>>5
I am reading Hegel because he's pretty much the guy everyone thinks overcame Kant (who I really like) and I wanted to evaluate his criticism.
>>6
Great! With a bit of patience and second hand reading you shouldn’t have an issue. I actually think Hegel is a lot easier to read than Kant lol
Since the creation of this thread Pinkerton has released a paragraph-by-paragraph explainer companion. I recommend this and Houlgate's reading guide for a boring-but-classroom reading of the Phenomenology.