The Relation Between Conscience and Object in Hegel’s ‘Introduction’ to his Phenomenology of the Spirit

Abstract

The relation between consciousness and object in the Introduction to The Phenomenology of Spirit synthetises two fundamental Hegelian concepts: that of “relation” and that of “absolute”. In this article we show that Hegel not always interprets the relation as a medium between extremes, because in some very significant passages he intends it as an act. Furthermore the absolute is not only interpreted as determined but also as emergent beyond the universe of determinations, that is beyond the relation/contraposition of determined and undetermined.