摘要：A CENTRAL THEME IN HEGEL'S PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT is the progressive exploration and development of the necessary conditions for the actualization of the concept of self-consciousness (der Begriff des Selbstbewufitseins). (1) The heart of such actualization is an intersubjective activity: the reciprocal and equal recognition (Anerkennung) by independent or self-sufficient (selbststandig) agents of one another. Such recognition would constitute the satisfaction (Befriedigung) of self-consciousness, which, Hegel emphasizes, is defined by desire above all (Begierde uberhaupt). (2) However, the realization of the concept of self-consciousness requires not only a mutual codetermination between a pair of agents, but also that such activity be embedded in a broader social or corporate order that is governed by some acknowledged normative principle; that is, the realization of self-consciousness proves to be possible only within a larger whole that amounts to more than a mere aggregate of interests because it embodies and exhibits a principle of order. (3) Such principles are both practical and theoretical, providing foundational criteria for what counts as a justification, explanation, or reason for a given event, speech, or deed. Recognition between agents thus requires participation in a community that, constituted by fundamental spiritual (geistig) commitments, is the work and product of each and all. (4) This same dialectical development, which might appear to occur solely on the sociopolitical level, can also be described as the realization of the concept of spirit (der Begriff des Geistes). With this formulation, Hegel introduces another perspective on what is required for the satisfaction of self-consciousness or for the realization of the concept of self-consciousness: spirit itself must be realized. Absolute spirit must appear in the communal activity of self-sufficient subjects. There must be a communal self-consciousness of absolute spirit. (5) Thus, three perspectives on the same dialectic are operative in the logic that unfolds in the course of the Phenomenology. (1) actualization of the concept of self-consciousness, (2) struggle for reciprocal intersubjective recognition, and (3) realization of the concept of spirit.
