The path to the Phenomenology

Hegel always described the 1807 Phenomenology of Spirit, his first major published book, as his “voyage of discovery.” In that work, he brought to completion in a highly original way a whole series of youthful reflections on various topics, and he came to terms with some issues that had long vexed him. However, he came to display a great ambivalence about the book, never lecturing on it while in Berlin and in 1825 even disavowing it as the proper “introduction” to his system of philosophy, but then later signing a contract in 1831 (the year he died) to publish a revised edition of it. He did not have the same qualms about his Logic (published originally between 1812 and 1816). Although he undertook some revisions of parts of the book later in his career, he always saw it more or less as the fundamental keystone of his system. Curiously, though, late in his career, his Logic became less and less popular with the students as their interest in his youthful Phenomenology began to grow. After his death, the Phenomenology rapidly eclipsed the Logic as the central Hegelian text.