Western Philosophy

Hegel and the Problem of Epistemology in the Introduction to The Phenomenology of Spirit

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Religion & Philosophy, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran

2 Associate Professor, Department of Religion & Philosophy, Faculty of Literature and Foreign Languages, University of Kashan, Kashan, Iran.

Abstract

One of the main preoccupations of modern philosophers, especially after the Enlightenment, was the significant epistemological challenges rooted in the views of their predecessors regarding human understanding and its limits and boundaries. In his various works, especially in The Phenomenology of Spirit, Hegel addresses some of these challenges following philosophical discussions and in his distinctive metaphysical language, attempting to resolve them. In this work, he highlights the difficulty of finding a criterion to distinguish a true proposition from a false one and finding a standard for differentiating truth from falsehood, while addressing its epistemological consequences, such as skepticism. To overcome the epistemic skepticism inherited from Plato, Hegel seeks to rely on the rational nature of reality. By stating that reality is rational, Hegel primarily means that there is nothing within reality itself that is inherently doubtful, truly incomprehensible to reason, contradictory, or inexplicable. From his perspective, philosophy must teach us this; otherwise, we will fall into skepticism and the despair brought about by epistemological theories inherited from the past. In the present essay, we will attempt to outline the epistemological challenges and some of Hegel's critical perspectives on past philosophers, based on his explanations in the introduction to The Phenomenology of Spirit.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Clarke, J. A. (2002). “Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel 1770–1831”. in Fifty Major Thinkers on Education (pp. 84-89). Routledge.
Descartes, R. (1984). The Philosophical Writings of Descartes.  John, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch. (eds.) (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.
Descartes, R. (1985). “Rules for the Direction of the Mind”, in The Philosophical Writings of Descartes, Trans. J. Cottingham, R. Stoothof, and D. Murdoch, 2 vols, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, I,7-78.
Descartes, R. (2024). Rules for the Direction of the Mind (Vol. 7). Minerva Heritage Press.
Hegel, G. W. F. (1991). The Encyclopaedia Logic: Part I of the Encyclopaedia of Philosophical Sciences with the Zusätze. Suchting, WA; Geraets, Théodore F.; Harris, HS.
Inwood, M. (2013). “Hegel, Cassirer and Heidegger”. in Hegel’s Thought in Europe: Currents, Crosscurrents and Undercurrents (pp. 106-132). London: Palgrave Macmillan UK.
Leventhal, H., Phillips, L. A., & Burns, E. (2016). "The Common-Sense Model of Self-Regulation (CSM): a dynamic framework for understanding illness self-management". Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 39, pp. 935-946.
Locke, J. & Nidditch, P. H. (1975). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. ed. by Peter H. Nidditch. Clarendon Press.
Mohtadi, Karim (1371). The Phenomenology of Spirit According to Hegel's View Based on the Book the Genesis and Structure of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit by Jean Hyppolite, Intesharat ilmi va fareangy (In Persian)
Nietzsche, F. W. (1967). On the Genealogy of Morals: Ecce Homo, trans. by Walter Kaufmann, ed. with Commentary by Walter Kaufmann. Vintage Books.
Nietzsche, F. W. (1967). Will to Power; trans. by Walter Kaufmann & R. J. Hollingdal, Vintage.
Singer, Peter (1379). Hegel, trans. into Persian by Ezzatollah Fooladvand, Entesharat Tarh No (in Persian).
Stern, R. (2002). Routledge Philosophy Guidebook to Hegel and the Phenomenology of Spirit. Psychology Press.
Westphal, K. R. (2003). Hegel's Epistemology: A Philosophical Introduction to the Phenomenology of Spirit. Hackett Publishing.
Western Philosophy
Volume 4, Issue 1 - Serial Number 13
April 2025
Pages 69-80