Some Equivalence Relations in Hegel's Phenomenology that may Provide a Key to its Understanding

Spirit = Reality (spirit is reality, and reality is spirit)

Reason = (all) Reality [reason is (all) reality, and (all) reality is reason]

Reason = the conscious certainty of being all reality¹ (or the certainty of consciousness that it is all reality²)

Reason = Spirit that knows itself in its truth, as the conscious certainty of being all reality³

Reason = Self-consciousness⁴ (which exists both in itself and for itself, because the self as an object of self-consciousness is both an object in itself and for itself)

Independent self-consciousness = self-consciousness that is purely for itself and not for another (not determined by another)

Dependent self-consciousness = self-consciousness that is determined by another

The relation between independent and dependent self-consciousness = in a metaphorical sense, the relation between lordship and bondage or between master and slave

The “unhappy consciousness” = divided self-consciousness = the consciousness that is conscious of itself as divided and unable to reconcile itself with another

Consciousness (including self-consciousness) = the simple substance of Spirit

Self-consciousness as reason = all reality

Idealism = the Notion that reason is the conscious certainty of being all reality

Consciousness, insofar as it has Reason = Spirit⁵ = Reality⁶

The moments (or stages) of consciousness = sense-certainty, perception, and understanding

Pure being = the essence of sense-certainty⁷

The entire system of consciousness = the entire realm of the truth of Spirit⁸

Spirit in its truth = the living ethical world⁹ = the individual form of Spirit that proceeds from and returns to the self of Spirit¹⁰ 

Spirit = Reason = concrete ethical actuality

Religion = the consciousness of absolute being¹¹ = the fulfillment of the life of Spirit

The Three Forms of Religion = Natural Religion, Religion in the Form of Art, and Revealed Religion

Natural Religion = Religion in which Spirit knows itself as its object in a “natural” or immediate shape¹²

Religion in the form of art = Religion in which the shape that Spirit takes is a form of self through the creative activity of consciousness¹³

Revealed Religion = Religion in which Spirit is presented in and for itself as a unity of its actual shape and true form of self¹⁴

Absolute being = the self-consciousness of Spirit¹⁵

Spirit as absolute being, which knows itself as all reality = all truth

Essence = that which has being in itself¹⁶ = the spiritual alone = the actual

The true alone = the actual

Spirit = self-supporting, absolute, real being¹⁷  

Absolute Being = Spirit that is in-and-for-itself, insofar as it is simple eternal substance¹⁸

Science = the Spirit that knows itself as Spirit¹⁹

The way to science = the science of the experience of consciousness²⁰

The description of the coming-to-be of Science as such = the phenomenology of Spirit²¹

(See also my review of the Phenomenology here.)


FOOTNOTES

¹Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, translated by A.V. Miller (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977), p. 142.
²Ibid., p. 140.
³Ibid., p. 263.
⁴Ibid., p. 139.
⁵Ibid., p. 265.
⁶Ibid., p. 217.
⁷Ibid., p. 59.
⁸Ibid., p. 56.
⁹Ibid., p. 265.
¹⁰Ibid., p. 265.
¹¹Ibid., p. 410.
¹²Ibid., p. 416
¹³Ibid., p. 416.
¹⁴Ibid., p. 416.
¹⁵Ibid., p. 410.
¹⁶Ibid., p. 14.
¹⁷Ibid., p. 264.
¹⁸Ibid., p. 325.
¹⁹Ibid., p. 12.
²⁰Ibid., p. 56.
²¹Ibid., p. 15.