Introduction to the Reading of Hegel: Lectures on the "Phenomenology of Spirit"

"This collection of Kojeve's thoughts about Hegel constitutes one of the few important philosophical books of the twentieth century-a book, knowledge of which is requisite to the full awareness of our situation and to the grasp of the most modern perspective on the eternal questions of philosophy."―Allan Bloom (from his introduction)

During the years 1933–1939, the Russian-born and German-educated Marxist political philosopher Alexandre Kojève (1902–1968) brilliantly explicated―through a series of lectures―the philosophy of Hegel as it was developed in the Phenomenology of Spirit. This collection of lectures―originally compiled by Raymond Queneau and edited for its English-language translation by Allan Bloom―shows the intensity of Kojève's study and thought and the depth of his insight into Hegel's Phenomenology. More important―for Kojève was above all a philosopher and not an ideologue―this profound and venturesome work on Hegel will expose the readers to the excitement of discovering a great mind in all its force and power.

Table of Contents:

1. In Place of an Introduction

2. Summary of the First Six Chapters of the Phenomenology of Spirit
Complete Text of the First Three Lectures of the Academic Year 1937–1938

3. Summary of the Course in 1937–1938
Excerpt from the 1938–1939 Annuaire of the École Pratique des Hautes Études, Section des Sciences religieuses

4. Philosophy and Wisdom
Complete Text of the First Two Lectures of the Academic Year 1938–1939

5. A Note on Eternity, Time, and the Concept
Complete Text of the Sixth through Eighth Lectures of the Academic Year 1938–1939

6. Interpretation of the Third Part of Chapter VIII of the Phenomenology of Spirit (conclusion)
Complete Text of the Twelfth Lecture of the Academic Year 1938–1939

7. The Dialectic of the Real and the Phenomenological Method in Hegel
Complete Text of the Sixth through Ninth Lectures of the Academic Year 1934-1935

Appendix
The Structure of the Phenomenology of Spirit