PHENOMENOLOGY OF SPIRIT -

HEGEL Independence and dependence: The dialectic between master and slave

178 – Self consciousness exists in and for itself when and by the fact that, it so exist for another; that is, it exist only in being acknowledged (if you close the book, Sophie disappears…)

-Process of Recognition 179 – Self consciousness (the equivalent of Descartes’ ‘Cogito’ – which for Hegel is not enough, since as we said, this consciousness exists only in so far as it is recognized another consciousness and, at the same time, recognizes it, reflecting itself in it.

The Cogito must come out of itself

HEGEL DESCRIBES THE MOVEMENT OF A SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IN RELATION TO ANOTHER SELF CONSCIOUSNESS

NOTION OF RECOGNITION

… is possible only when each is for the other what the other is for it…

First movement: the cogito does not recognize the other as an essential being (it thinks of itself as the only protagonist in the play) but only as a mirror in which reflect itself.

But the other self-consciousness is equally independent and self-contained (you might feel like the protagonist but, hey… I feel like the protagonist as well!

None of the 2 consciousnesses wants to be considered and act as an object

In this first stage the 2 consciousnesses only use each other as a mean or tool to confirm their own existence: in the other they only see a reflection of themselves

186. Self-consciousness is, to begin with, simple being for self… for its essence and absolute object is ‘I’

What is ‘other’ for it is an unessential, negatively characterized object

But the other is also a self-consciousness; one individual is confronted by another individual

They have not as yet exposed themselves to each other in the form

of pure being for self or self-consciousness

Each is indeed certain of its own self, but not of the other, and therefore, its own self-certainty still has no truth

Why is recognizing the other as an absolute consciousness dangerous for us?

What happens when one of the 2 consciousnesses is only recognizing and the other is only recognized?

189. There is posited a pure self-consciousness, and a consciousness which is not purely for itself but for another… or consciousness in the form of thinghood

…one is the independent consciousness whose essential nature is to be for itself.

The other id the independent consciousness whose essential nature is to

live or be for another.

1. The outcome is a recognition which is one-sided and unequal

2. The lord is a consciousness … which is mediated …through a consciousness whose nature is to be bound up (we see ourselves in the eyes of others as in a mirror)… what now really confronts him is not an independent consciousness but a dependent one. He is therefore not certain of being for self as the truth of himself (to be really absolute and independent). On the contrary, his truth is in reality the unessential consciousness and its inessential action.The truth of the independent consciousness is accordingly the servile consciousness of the bondsman

3. 192. In this recognition the unessential consciousness is for the lord the object… but it is clear that this object does not correspond to its Notion.

… But just as lordship showed that its essential nature is the reverse of what it wants to be , so too servitude in its consummation will really turn into the opposite of what it immediately is; as a consciousness forced back into itself, it will withdraw into itself and be transformed into a truly independent consciousness

To begin with, servitude has the lord for its essential reality; hence the truth for it is the independent consciousness that is for itself.

The bondsman is able to relate to the other for what it really is – an independent existence … true perception of the power of otherness: the bondsman, even though in this phase, still does not recognize the truth about itself, can see it about the other

Plato: Only if we relate to each other as independent consciousness, we can reach the truth (true Notion or Recognition) and knowing how to relate to others as independent consciousness is essential to our own freedom

The lord is slave to its desires, while the slave, in the act ofsacrificing its happiness to the other’s, becomes aware of its freedom from immediate desires, of its independence.

Perceiving ourselves through our desires, gives us a fleeting , impermanent self-consciousness

The bondsman becomes conscious of what he truly is

196. … the bondsman realizes that it is precisely in his work wherein he seemed to have only an alienated existence that he acquires a mind of its own