Jhanvi asked:

I have completely fallen in love with Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit. I spend hours deriving
conclusions and re reading it. I wanted some references to judge and guide me thorough his
phenomenology and other works.

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I have dipped into this book off and on for 30 years (apart from reading it through three or four times),
but I think it can never be useless or unprofitable to consult on occasion a well-written and
thoughtfully planned guide to basics. Very important in the beginning to steer clear of contentious
issues and unorthodox points of view; and in approaching a thinker as difficult as Hegel, nothing is
more important than to grasp what he actually says before you get into "deep" thoughts about
ramifications.

It so happens that just these last six months, I read the Phenomenologyagain, side by side with a
half dozen critical guides, and now I hear you "have fallen in love" with it. Let me tell you that this is
one love likely to abide!

So what can I recommend to you to assist you in your mind adventure? I think the very best book on
Hegel for a first-time reader is John Findlay's Hegel: A Re-examination,very old and possibly only
available through libraries nowadays, but with large chapters on the Phenomenologyand the Logic
and altogether one of the finest secondary texts on any philosopher you're ever likely to come across.
Robert Stern's book on the Phenomenologyin the Routledge Guides is also very good; it takes you
chapter by chapter and in sequence through Hegel's text. These two are, I think, indispensable.

On the second tier you find a very brilliant and insightful essay by Georg Lukacs, which forms part of
his book The Young Hegel.I can't give you references (mine are in German); but I'm sure it'll be easy
to find an English reference. What is so valuable about this essay is that it illuminates the structure of
the Phenomenologyas well as the historical presuppositions. These are not easy to grasp without a
knowledgeable guide. Then there is Adorno's Three Essays on Hegel,in which a sentence occurs
that I've memorised, because it says something important about how one should approach
philosophy, namely as a discussion and debate: "They are not the worst readers of Hegel who
scribble their notes of protest in the very margins of his text"! The chapter in which this occurs is one
entitled, "How to read Hegel", and this is surely an essential topic for anyone afraid of breaking their
jaws when silently mouthing every word so as not to miss a single nuance.

That's as far as I'm prepared to go, because the secondary literature on Hegel is vast and you could
spend a lifetime reading nothing else. But it is better, I think, to study Hegel's works with one or two
sound guides (as above) and then decide whether you want to branch out.

It's not superfluous to mention that Hegel is also the object of an unusually extensive crop of vitriolic,
and if you're scouting for something to read I would strongly recommend to you to stay away from
anything that has the faintest whiff of argumentativeness about it — at least until you've acquired
good familiarity with the subject. I will single out one book, Popper's The Open Society and its
Enemies,which was heavily criticised for its biased and totally unfair (and ill-informed) assessment of
Hegel when it was first published; meanwhile Popper has become something of an icon and people
are ready to overlook his vindictiveness. I think it's inexcusable myself. Be that as it may, these are
the sorts of texts that presuppose a wide reading before you can assess whether or not there is
something for you to learn in them.

Jürgen Lawrenz

Sydney

Try these: Taylor, Charles (2000) Hegel.Cambridge Univ Press;

Taylor, Charles (1979) Hegel and Modern Society.Cambridge Univ Press.

Steven Ravett Brown