Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit is probably his most famous work. First published in 1807, it has exercised considerable influence on subsequent thinkers from Feuerbach and Marx to Heidegger, Kojeve, Adorno and Derrida. The book contains many memorable analyses of, for example, the master / slave dialectic, the unhappy consciousness, Sophocles' Antigone and the French Revolution and is one of the most important works in the Western philosophical tradition. It is, however, a difficult and challenging book and needs to be studied together with a clear and accessible secondary text. Stephen Houlgate's Reader's Guide offers guidance on:
Philosophical and historical context
Key themes
Reading the text
Reception and influence
Further reading
Author Biography
Stephen Houlgate is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick. He is the author of An Introduction to Hegel's Philosophy. Freedom, Truth and History, 2nd Ed (2005) and The Opening of Hegel's Logic (2006), the editor of The Hegel Reader (1998) and Hegel and the Arts (2007), and co-editor (with Michael Baur) of A Companion to Hegel (2011).
