Volume 35, Issue 2/3, Summer/Fall 2005
Nathan Andersen
Pages 119-136
Conscience, Recognition, and the Irreducibility of Difference In Hegel’s Conception of Spirit
Hegel’s conception of Spirit does not subordinate difference to sameness, in a way that would make it unusable for a genuinely intersubjective idealism directed to a comprehensive account of the contemporary world. A close analysis of the logic of recognition and the dialectic of conscience in the Phenomenology of Spirit demonstrates that the unity of Spirit emerges in and through conflict, and is forged in the process whereby particular encounters between differently situated individuals reveal and establish the emerging character and significance of the stances they uniquely occupy.