Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
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Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
Read Less
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PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
Choose your shipping method in Checkout. Costs may vary based on destination.
Seller's Description:
PLEASE NOTE, WE DO NOT SHIP TO DENMARK. New Book. Shipped from UK in 4 to 14 days. Established seller since 2000. Please note we cannot offer an expedited shipping service from the UK.
In recent years, Hegel has been receiving attention from highly-regarded American philosophers, including Robert Brandom and Robert Pippin. For much of the 20th century, Hegel and his 1807 book "The Phenomenology of Spirit" were little studied in the United States, given the prevalence of analytical philosophy and positivism. Jacob Loewenberg was one of the few American philosophers who devoted serious attention to Hegel during the years from the end of WW I through the mid-1960s. Loewenberg (1882 -- 1969) immigrated to the United States in his early 20s and went on to study Hegel and receive a PhD in philosophy under Josiah Royce at Harvard. He taught at the University of California Berkeley for much of his career. I became interested in Loewenberg through his writings on his mentor, Royce, and wanted to read his study of Hegel.
In 1929, Loewenberg published a book of selections from Hegel which was used widely in American universities. In 1965, age 83, Loewenberg published his book "Hegel's Phenomenology: Dialogues on the Life of the Mind", a study of Hegel's forbidding "Phenomenology of Spirit". In his memoir "Thrice-Born: Selected Memories of an Immigrant", Loewenberg described his long-delayed project of writing a study of the "Phenomenology". Referring to himself in the third person, Loewenberg wrote,
"What kept him back from uttering it was the difficulty of hitting upon a suitable mode of procedure. He was reluctant to write an erudite commentary. For the exacting labor of exegesis, involving close attention to technical minutae, he had neither taste nor talent. What he aspired to was a task no less exacting, namely the task of capturing the spirit of a work notorious for being bewildering in matter and forbidding in manner." ("Thrice-Born", p. 187)
In his memoir, Loewenberg also succinctly explained the view of the "Phenomenology" he would present in his book. "It was his aim, without tracing the work to its historical roots, to represent it as a sort of chronicle, Homeric in scale, of man's spiritual odyssey. Here, he held, may be found generically portrayed the multiform career of human consciousness." ("Thrice-Born", p.188)
Loewenberg's book on the "Phenomenology" is written in the form of a dialogue between two friends, Hardith and Meredy. (Years earlier, Loewenberg had written a book, "Dialogues from Delphi" on the philosophy of art with these individuals as the interlocutors.) Hardith is shown in the Loewenberg's "Phenomenology" as an educated layman who is not a specialist in Hegel's book while Meredy is a Hegel scholar and probably is more representative of Loewenberg. Hegel's book is discussed and debated from various perspectives by the two friends.
The book recognizes the notorious difficulty of Hegel in terms of thought, method, language, and every other way. It describes the "Phenomenology" is perhaps the most difficult of the classical works of philosophy to understand. Thus the book does not discuss the formidable technicalities of the "Phenomenology", but instead tries to present in the discussion between friends and understanding of what the book tries to do, of why it is important, and of how it may be deemed to succeed or fail in its aims. Loewenberg's book is difficult enough in itself, but its aim is to provide a point of entry to the "Phenomenology" much more than a full commentary for Hegel scholars.
The book interprets the "Phenomenology" as indicated by Loewenberg's title as a dialogue in the "life of the mind" as opposed to a metaphysics or to a historical study. This is a debatable interpretation, as are all interpretations of the "Phenomenology" but it seems to me consistent with the current revival of interest in a non-metaphysical Hegel. Loewenberg, and the "Phenomenology" show the many different points of view people have in their approaches to life and to understanding. Hegel tries to show how mental life (not necessarily a particular person) becomes wedded dogmatically to a particular type of position. Hegel develops the strength and appeal of the position and then shows how it is partial and includes the seeds of its errors within itself which lead to the development of another position. The exploration moves from questions about the nature of sense perception to broad, difficult questions about religion and the nature of philosophy.
In the Preface to his book, Loewenberg describes the "Phenomenology" as concerned with "the life of mind on earth" and that he aims to bring out not the bristling obscure language of the book but instead what Loewenberg finds to be the "the spirit of humanism pervading the 'Phenomenology'. He explains that the dialogue form is designed to bring out in counterpoint various aspects of Hegel's thought. Loewenberg writes that the "Phenomenology" "exemplifies a tremendous debate, the subject being debated upon being the claim to exclusive truth on the part of every human persuasion." Loewenberg continues: "Recurrent alternation of advocacy and rebuttal, such as the participants in a debate concretely illustrate, imparts to Hegel's dialectic in the pages that follow a lively and focalized mobility, showing at the same time the extent to which his method is both defensible and vulnerable."
The book consists of 26 chapters which follow the sequence of the "Phenomenology" from its celebrated "Preface" through the book's end. The book is organized in four parts paralleling the "Phenomenology" under the headings "Consciousness", "Self-Consciousness", "Reason", and "Spirit". I read the "Phenomenology" many years ago and didn't reread it while reading Loewenberg's study. Instead, I simply worked with the Table of Contents in the Miller translation of the "Phenomenology" to collate the sections in Hegel's book with the discussions in Loewenberg.
I found that Loewenberg's book helped me with a book that is obscure and gave me some insight into Hegel's project. It helped me understand the scope of thought, mind, and spirit and the dangers of partial dogmatic thinking, including Hegel's own thought, and the dogmatic, partial positions on many things urged with so much passion in our own day. The book is an entry-point into the "Phenomenology" and makes no pretense of being exhaustive. Readers with a detailed knowledge of the work may well see it differently. I was glad to get to know both Hegel and Loewenberg better. Loewenberg is not much read today, but this study of Hegel's "Phenomenology" is worth knowing.
