The Phenomenology of Spirit... my one week and a half journey

I'm going to be upfront: I originally picked up Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit because I thought people would be impressed if I were reading a heavyweight philosophical tome. Let me tell you—no date so far. Apparently, you need more than a thousand-page slab of dialectical reasoning to socialize successfully. Things like…self-esteem. And actually talking to people.

I was never into heavy philosophy. My only brush with it was when my sister was binging a documentary on German Idealism. I wandered in, saw some stern-looking experts talking about the Master-Slave dialectic, and thought, “Holy crap, is that actually interesting?” So I sat down and watched the whole thing with her.

Cut to some time later, and I buy Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, as mentioned above. This was in September of 2023. I loved the initial lead-up—the promise of big ideas about consciousness and history—but I stuck around because I was invested in Hegel’s wild intellectual leaps. I remember speeding through the first few chapters (the sense-certainty stuff was a breeze!), but around the Master-Slave dialectic reveal, I…lost interest for some reason.

A lot of reasons contributed to why it took me so long to finish. I was in my final year of college, and the stress meant I couldn't focus on anything. I remember hating how dense Hegel’s writing style was—seemingly endless sentences and references to everything from Greek tragedy to medieval theology. I just wanted more head-to-head conceptual drama, dammit!

It's been months since graduation, but my reading speed didn’t improve at all. Job hunting was a whole other stress. But I started reading more on the train and finally managed to power through.

My one complaint (which might be unfounded since it took me so damn long to read) is that Hegel keeps flipping between grand historical narratives about “World-Spirit” and these dense theoretical expositions. At times, it felt like he was saying, “and then consciousness moved from one shape to the next… and then it subsumed this contradiction. The next day, it moved on.” Nothing of note actually happened on the page, and I’m sitting here thinking, “WHY??? I want to see more dynamic philosophical smackdowns, not just be told we moved from sense-certainty to self-consciousness like it’s no big deal!”

And then there are entire chapters on obscure theological debates, but the coolest sections—like the Master-Slave dialectic or the ‘unhappy consciousness’—are over before you know it. Come on, Hegel! Give me more of that juicy tension!

But all in all, I loved it—every infuriating bit. My sister recommends I try Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason next. Hopefully that one’s less meandering.

TL;DR, it took me way too long to finish a philosophy classic, and that may have skewed my opinion. Shout-out to the Master-Slave dialectic, though. It shows up, smacks your mind around, and then vanishes—but it’s still the GOAT.