This is a new translation, with running commentary, of what is perhaps the most important short piece of Hegel's writing. The Preface to Hegel's first major work, the Phenomenology of Spirit , lays the groundwork for all his other writing by explaining what is most innovative about Hegel's philosophy. This new translation combines readability with maximum precision, breaking Hegel's long sentences and simplifying their often complex structure. At the same time, it is more faithful to the original than any previous ...
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This is a new translation, with running commentary, of what is perhaps the most important short piece of Hegel's writing. The Preface to Hegel's first major work, the Phenomenology of Spirit , lays the groundwork for all his other writing by explaining what is most innovative about Hegel's philosophy. This new translation combines readability with maximum precision, breaking Hegel's long sentences and simplifying their often complex structure. At the same time, it is more faithful to the original than any previous translation. The heart of the book is the detailed commentary, supported by an introductory essay. Together they offer a lucid and elegant explanation of the text and elucidate difficult issues in Hegel, making his claims and intentions intelligible to the beginner while offering interesting and original insights to the scholar and advanced student. The commentary often goes beyond the particular phrase in the text to provide systematic context and explain related topics in Hegel and his predecessors (including Kant, Spinoza, and Aristotle, as well as Fichte, Schelling, H???lderlin, and others). The commentator refrains from playing down (as many interpreters do today) those aspects of Hegel's thought that are less acceptable in our time, and abstains from mixing his own philosophical preferences with his reading of Hegel's text. His approach is faithful to the historical Hegel while reconstructing Hegel's ideas within their own context.
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Princeton. 2007. Princeton University Press. 1st American Edition. Very Good in Dustjacket. 9780691120522. Translated from the German & With Running Commentary by Yirmiyahu Yovel. 248 pages. hardcover. keywords: Philosophy Germany Translated. FROM THE PUBLISHER-This is a new translation, with running commentary, of what is perhaps the most important short piece of Hegel's writing. The Preface to Hegel's first major work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, lays the groundwork for all his other writing by explaining what is most innovative about Hegel's philosophy. This new translation combines readability with maximum precision, breaking Hegel's long sentences and simplifying their often complex structure. At the same time, it is more faithful to the original than any previous translation. The heart of the book is the detailed commentary, supported by an introductory essay. Together they offer a lucid and elegant explanation of the text and elucidate difficult issues in Hegel, making his claims and intentions intelligible to the beginner while offering interesting and original insights to the scholar and advanced student. The commentary often goes beyond the particular phrase in the text to provide systematic context and explain related topics in Hegel and his predecessors (including Kant, Spinoza, and Aristotle, as well as Fichte, Schelling, Hölderlin, and others). The commentator refrains from playing down (as many interpreters do today) those aspects of Hegel's thought that are less acceptable in our time, and abstains from mixing his own philosophical preferences with his reading of Hegel's text. His approach is faithful to the historical Hegel while reconstructing Hegel's ideas within their own context. inventory #36494.
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Good Condition. Dust jacket is fully intact, only lightly rubbed at edges. Pages are unmarked and uncreased. Overall, sound and presentable. Publisher's note: "This is a new translation, with running commentary, of what is perhaps the most important short piece of Hegel's writing. The Preface to Hegel's first major work, the Phenomenology of Spirit, lays the groundwork for all his other writing by explaining what is most innovative about Hegel's philosophy." "This new translation combines readability with maximum precision, breaking Hegel's long sentences and simplifying their often complex structure. At the same time, it is more faithful to the original than any previous translation." Size: 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.1 cm. 223 pp. Text is in English. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Philosophy; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich, 1770-1831 Phänomenologie des Geistes; Knowledge, Theory of; Spirit; Consciousness; Truth; English Language; ISBN: 0691120528. ISBN/EAN: 9780691120522. Add. Inventory No: 240124RMP014131.
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New. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 223 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Hegel (1770 -- 1831) is probably the most difficult and the most controversial of the great philosophers. Much of modern analytic philosophy, beginning with Russell and Moore, had its origin in an uncompromising rejection of Hegel (in the persons of his British idealist followers) and his obscurantism. Continental philosophers, such as Heidegger, are heavily indebted to Hegel even while philosophizing against him. I have had difficulty in prior attempts to read Hegel. His massive "Phenomenology of Spirit" proved nearly impenetrable when I read it several years ago. The short introductory secondary sources on Hegel that I read proved unsatisfactory.
Thus, I was pleased to find and read this short book by Yirmiyahu Yovel, "Hegel's Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit." Yovel is a Professor of Philosophy at the New School University and Chairman of the Jerusalem Spinoza Institute. I had earlier read Yovel's two-volume study of Spinoza, "Spinoza and Other Heretics" which made me eager to learn about Hegel from him. Yovel offers an erudite, careful and highly-philosophically informed account of this difficult philosopher.
Even with a philosopher as difficult as Hegel, the best approach begins with the philosopher's own writings rather than a paraphrase. Yovel offers a translation of the Preface to Hegel's "Phenomenology." Written in 1807, the "Phenomenology" remains Hegel's greatest work. A close reading of the Preface, which Hegel wrote after completing his text, may be the best way to begin to understand what he is about. Yovel's translation is as accessible and accurate as a translation of such a work may be. But the major appeal of his version of the Preface is the running commentary which explains and elucidates Hegel's words on an almost line-by-line basis, trying to clarify Hegel's thought and its many differing interpretations. After reading through the Preface and Yovel's commentary, I tried to read the Preface alone, without reference to the notes. This remains a daunting task. The better approach remains to read the Preface closely several times, together with Yovel's commentary.
The text and commentary forms about one-half of the book. Yovel begins with an introductory 60-page essay which, he observes, "is not intended to replace the commentary but to complement it." Much of the introduction is spent explaining Hegel's difficult metaphysical concepts which are anathema to most contemporary philosophers. Even if much of Hegel's metaphysical baggage is rejected, as it should be, Yovel argues persuasively that it must be understood in order to know Hegel and to find whatever may be valuable in his thought. Yovel tries to explain two of the most famous and puzzling statements in Hegel: that "the true is the whole" and that "the true [the absolute] is subject." He offers parallels and divergences between Hegel's thought and that of Kant and Spinoza. Yovel differentiates Hegel's idealism from that of his former friends and post-Kantian thinkers, Fichte, Schelling and Holderlin, in elucidating Hegel's rejection of "mysticism" and commitment to what he viewed as "reason". The introduction concludes with a consideration of what Yovel finds valuable in Hegel, including his commitment to a this-worldy philosophy of immancence which tries to avoid both positivism and spiritualism, a recognition that human reason is substantive rather than a formal machine-like calculus, and a concern with the meaning of existence and with the role of human activity in bringing it about (rather than finding it ready-made somewhere). Yovel also emphasizes the dynamic character of Hegel's thought, with its emphasis on becoming, the abandoning of substance-based metaphysics, and historicism. Yovel finds that the key to developing these themes for contemporary thought lies in renouncing Hegel's inflated claims to certainty and to absolute knowledge. The result would be a philosophy that "would no longer be Hegel but would not have been possible without him." (p. 62)
The book concludes with a section on "Works on Hegel" in which Yovel describes some of the competing interpretations of Hegel that have been offered in recent years together with a select but detailed annotated bibliography for further study.
This book gave me more of an understanding and appreciation of Hegel than I had before I read it. Yovel's passion for his subject and for philosophy and his commitment to its importance is apparent on every page. This is not a book for the beginner in philosophy. But it is a rare book in that it will teach both readers new to Hegel as well as the readers who have studied him for many years.
