The Logic of Desire: An Introduction to Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit by Peter Kalkavage (PDF)

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Peter Kalkavage’s The Logic of Desire guides the reader through Hegel’s great work. Given the book’s legendary difficulty, one may well ask, “Why even try to read the Phenomenology?” In his preface, Kalkavage explains why he thinks a reader should try:There is much to commend the study of Hegel: his attentiveness to the deepest, most fundamental questions of philosophy, his uncompromising pursuit of truth, his amazing gift for characterization and critique, his appreciation for the grand sweep of things and the large view, his profound admiration for all that is heroic, especially for the ancient Greeks, those heroes of thought in whom the philosophic spirit first dawned, his penetrating gaze into modernity in all its forms, his enormous breadth of interests, and his audacious claim to have captured absolute knowing in a thoroughly rational account.According to Kalkavage, the Phenomenology belongs to a quartet of the greatest works on education. The other three members of the quartet are Plato’s Republic, Dante’s Divine Comedy, and Rousseau’s Emile. No genuine philosophic education can omit a serious encounter with this giant of the modern age, the giant who absorbed all the worlds of spiritual vitality that came before him and tried to organize them into a coherent whole.”This book comes as close as I have seen to a guide to Hegel for the ‘courageous non-specialist,’ to employ Mr. Kalkavage’s expression. He writes from what is obviously a lengthy and deep study of Hegel and of the Phenomenology in particular. There is no patronising of Hegel’s complex teaching. The technical terminology is not avoided or concealed by the jovial jargon of a study manual. Kalkavage has mastered the art of presenting topics of great difficulty in a way that will instruct specialists as well as non-specialists. I found especially illuminating his portrait of determinate negation and the difference between consciousness and the phenomenolgical observer. This book should be in every college and university library.”—Stanley Rosen”Having taught philosophy to undergraduates for the past thirty-nine years, I can especially appreciate the value of Peter Kalkavage’s book,The Logic of Desire. This work will truly benefit anyone who wishes to learn what Hegel himself is teaching in his first major volume. It provides remarkable insights on Hegel’s complex work as a whole as well as serving as a sure guide for every chapter and for virtually every paragraph. Even the many endnotes are very valuable. It should be made readily available to every undergraduate who has to read any part of the Phenomenology.”—Dr. Donald C. Lindenmuth, Pennsylvania State UniversityPeter Kalkavage is a member of the senior faculty at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he has taught for thirty years. He is the author of numerous articles on philosophy. He translated Plato’s Timaeus and co-translated Plato’s Phaedo and Sophist.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review Praise for Peter Kalkavage and The Logic of Desire”This book comes as close as I have seen to a guide to Hegel for the ‘courageous non-specialist,’ to employ Mr. Kalkavage’s expression. He writes from what is obviously a lengthy and deep study of Hegel and of the Phenomenology in particular. There is no patronising of Hegel’s complex teaching. The technical terminology is not avoided or concealed by the jovial jargon of a study manual. Kalkavage has mastered the art of presenting topics of great difficulty in a way that will instruct specialists as well as non-specialists. I found especially illuminating his portrait of determinate negation and the difference between consciousness and the phenomenolgical observer. This book should be in every college and university library.”—Stanley Rosen”Having taught philosophy to undergraduates for the past thirty-nine years, I can especially appreciate the value of Peter Kalkavage’s book,The Logic of Desire. This work will truly benefit anyone who wishes to learn what Hegel himself is teaching in his first major volume. It provides remarkable insights on Hegel’s complex work as a whole as well as serving as a sure guide for every chapter and for virtually every paragraph. Even the many endnotes are very valuable. It should be made readily available to every undergraduate who has to read any part of the Phenomenology.”—Dr. Donald C. Lindenmuth, Pennsylvania State University About the Author Peter Kalkavage is a member of the senior faculty at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, where he has taught for thirty years. He is the author of numerous articles on philosophy. He translated Plato’s Timaeus and co-translated Plato’s Phaedo and Sophist (all from Focus Publishing).

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I purchased this book to better understand the PoS, the Miller translation. I worked with Dr. Sadler’s videos up to the section on Force. There, I lost track of the dialectic. This book works superbly by, at the beginning of each section, briefly introducing the reader to the scope of the section, what will come in the future related to it, and how it works. Then, it works through the experience of consciousness and explains the arguments, often explaining the most puzzling sentences. Not only is this invaluable for understanding the PoS in a broader context and as a whole, but the book also gives priceless examples of some of the most difficult concepts involved. As I write this review, I am currently finishing the section on Consciousness. The example of Force using Hardness is impeccable in showing not only what it is, but also how it relates to other sections of the book. I must clarify, that I am also reading Houlgate’s commentary as a secondary aid for the most puzzling passages. This book, however, is in my opinion superior and well worth the price.

⭐Highly recommend this work for anyone wanting or needing a better grasp of the phenomenology. An invaluable companion to the text and also beautifully written, really a pleasure to read.

⭐I have seen several commentaries that have clear explanation of what Hegel is accounting for in Phenomenology of Spirit, but they were usually explained by their own arrangement of chapters that the authors thought were clearest, thereby leaving the beginning readers not being able to read Phenomenology of Spirit along with the commentary. In that aspect, this book provides a good foundationary text on which readers can rely “when” they are reading Phenomenology of Spirit. One can read some corresponding parts of this book prior to reading some parts in Phenomenology of Spirit as this book has within it specific paragraph numbers of Phenomenology of Spirit it is addressing, and also one can solidify the understanding of specific parts of PoS by referring to this book afterward. Phenomenal.

⭐This book was intended to help me read the “Phenomenology” but it’s still too difficult for me. My first reading of Hegel was a “crawl” through “Subjective Mind” in the “Philosophy of Mind”, part 3 of the Encyclopedia without the Zusatz* in the Wallace translation. I read Kalkavage’s first chapters about Consciousness and returned to Subjective Mind in Micheal Inwood’s new translation of “Philosophy of Mind” where the main theme is Consciousness. It is a much more fruitful read this time. Consequently, I ordered Daniel Shannon’s new translation of “Spirit, Part Six of the the Phenomenology”. I’m expecting that Kalkavage’s book will help me understand Spirit properly. At a later time, I’ll take the plunge into the “Phenomenology” in its entirety. Hegel is very difficult to understand, so, I read his work in select topics such as Subjective Mind and Philosophy of Rights.*Zusatz (or Additions) were added posthumously by Hegel’s friends and students.

⭐Still reading this interesting tome.

⭐I do not have an academic training in philosophy but I participated in a reading group of the Phenomenology of Spirit. Hegel’s work is impossible to read without a guide, it’s much more difficult to read than Kant. To get a general introduction to each section I found Stern’s Routledge Guide very clear:

⭐To go into greater detail, Peter Kalkavage’s “Logic of Desire” was always helpful and insightful. The next step was to read Hegel’s text, it was not always understandable to me, but all the work was very rewarding, and I will be coming back to these texts in the future.

⭐I agree with the reviewer below. Kalkavage does what Hyppolite did in an earlier era with this monumental work. The text is carefully written as it slowly explicates each section in its own terms, without being co-opted by the language of any current strand of philosophy. I have worked on Hegel’s text for years and have taught it to many college students. This is the best background reading I can find for an introductory guide through the text.

⭐Kalkavage has written a book that is both authoritative and very interactive. One converses with a learned persona. Especially impressive is the way the writer has had his opinions challenged in the context of conversation. The book reads like a highly intelligent conversation. Kalkavage must have spent years hashing this over with a plethora of learned people. Highly recommended.

⭐Nothing in the secondary literature of Hegel compares to this as a companion to the convoluted, frustrating, but profoundly rewarding journey that is reading the Phenomenology. Anybody who is seriously interested in understanding Hegel will benefit enormously from this book. I came to it rather late in my Hegelian journey, but perhaps this is apt, as Hegel himself said “the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the drawing in of the dusk”.

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