Seyyed Javad Tabatabai's Lectures on Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

The Phenomenology of Spirit is an exceptionally, extraordinarily difficult book, and over the past four or five decades, very substantial efforts have been made to understand this book and determine its place. One of the aspects of this book's importance is that it was published in the early years of the 19th century, that is, in 1807, and all subsequent philosophers have in some way tried to take a look at it, even Heidegger, who is the last major philosopher of the 20th century and lectured on Hegel several times, particularly once in a semester, taught only the book's preface, which is no more than a few pages, which constitutes volume 36 of his collected works. Some commentators hold that in his struggle with all the important texts of the history of philosophy, from Heraclitus, Plato, and Aristotle to the latest philosopher, Heidegger succeeded in overcoming them, but in confronting the Phenomenology of Spirit, he exerted all his power to surpass it but could not manage it. Since its publication in 1807, the Phenomenology has been read and interpreted many times, especially in Germany by Hegel's students and their students and German commentators, many of whose interpretations are not considered correct today in understanding this book. These lectures, on the occasion of the two-hundredth anniversary of the publication of Hegel's Phenomenology, were presented in eight sessions in Tehran by Dr. Seyyed Javad Tabatabai, which Mr. Mostafa Nasiri has carefully transcribed and rewritten from the tapes.

Seyyed Javad Tabatabai says in the introduction to the lectures:In Iran, philosophy is usually taught through summaries and histories of philosophy; the text, especially the important and main texts, is not taught. Here, I am trying to gradually interpret some important texts, which we cannot afford not to know and not to read, as the main texts. Hegel's book Phenomenology of Spirit is the most difficult book in the history of modern philosophy. Therefore, and without intending to discourage, I must say that we have a very difficult task ahead, both for me in explaining and for you in following the thread of the material. Author: Seyyed Javad Tabatabai

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Lectures by: Dr. Seyyed Javad Tabatabai

Transcribed by: Mostafa Nasiri

Number of pages: 121

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