Duty and Hypocrisy in Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind : : An essay in the real and ideal / / Jonathan Robinson.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter University of Toronto Press eBook-Package Archive 1933-1999
• VerfasserIn: Robinson, Jonathan,
• Place / Publishing House: Toronto : : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]; ©1977
• Year of Publication: 2019
• Language: English
• Series: Heritage
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (164 p.)

Duty and Hypocrisy in Hegel’s ‘Phenomenology of Mind’ combines a general discussion of Hegelian themes with the first loose commentary, explication, and testing of Hegel’s discussion of morality in the Phenomenology of Mind. In this work Hegel analyses a life ordered around the idea of duty and concludes that it must inevitably end in hypocrisy. The reasons for Hegel’s conclusions are complex, and his discussion is conducted in a way which is relatively unfamiliar to English-speaking readers. His analysis of the moral consciousness is neither an inquiry into the various sorts of ethical concepts and the logical relations between them nor merely a description of how different people behave. Nor, again is it hortatory or prescriptive. Unlike Aristotle he does not instruct ‘in order to become good.’ Rather, he adopted a kind of middle ground between analysis and description and seeks to show how the faulty logic of duty brings terrible consequences to a person actually trying to build his life around such notions as ‘principle,’ ‘the categorical imperative,’ or ‘being true to one’s conscience.’ Professor Robinson’s paragraph-by-paragraph reading of an extremely important part of Phenomenology is not only a significant contribution to the understanding of Hegel’s moral philosophy but also a stimulating analysis of a topic that is relevant to much contemporary philosophical discussion.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Introduction -- 1. Reality and what ought to be -- 2. The moral point of view -- 3. The foundations of morality -- 4. Displacement -- 5. Conscience and hypocrisy -- Abbreviations -- Notes -- Reference material on Hegel's analysis of morality -- Index