8/13 | Susan Buck-Morss on Hegel, the Phenomenology of Spirit, and the Haitian Revolution

Watch the seminar with Susan Buck-Morss:

Watch an introduction for the seminar with Susan Buck-Morss:

 

Philosopher Susan Buck-Morss presents on Hegel and World Spirit

Wednesday, April 8, 2026

Columbia University

 

Professor Susan Buck-Morss joins us at Hegel 13/13 to make a presentation entitled: “Spirit has broken with the World…,” describing the historical moment of Hegel’s writing of the​ Phenomenology of Spirit, and comparing it to our own historical moment, when the phrase, again, seems to apply, and yet, with an “inversion,” where sense certainty trumps the concept.

Readings:

Hegel, The Phenomenology of Spirit (trans. A.V. Miller):

     “Preface” (Vorrede)

     “Consciousness”:

  1. Sense Certainty (die sinnliche Gewißheit)
  2. Perception
  3. Force and Understanding.
  4. Self-Consciousness: The Truth of Self-certainty;​ Independence and Dependence of Self-consciousness; Lordship and Bondage

(See also: Hegel’s Comments on history’s manifestations as: Reason/Spirit/Absolute Freedom and Terror – “Das Wahre ist so der bacchanistische Taumel, an dem kein Glied nicht trunken ist”;  “die geistige Tierreich”; “das Durchbauen eines Kohlhaupts).

Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History 

Susan Buck-Morss, Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2009); lead essay available as “Hegel and Haiti,” Critical Inquiry 26, no. 4 (Summer, 2000): 821-865.