University of Wisconsin Milwaukee UWM Digital Commons Theses and Dissertations May 2017 Hegel Between Criticism and Romanticism: Love & Self-consciousness in the Phenomenology Scott onJ athan Cowan University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.uwm.edu/etd Part of the Philosophy Commons Recommended Citation Cowan, Scott onJ athan, "Hegel Between Criticism and Romanticism: Love & Self-consciousness in the Phenomenology" (2017). Theses and Dissertations. 1457. https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1457 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by UWM Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UWM Digital Commons. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. HEGEL BETWEEN CRITICISM AND ROMANTICISM: LOVE & SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE PHENOMENOLOGY by Scott Jonathan Cowan A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Philosophy at The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee May 2017 ABSTRACT HEGEL BETWEEN CRITICISM AND ROMANTICISM: LOVE & SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE PHENOMENOLOGY by Scott Jonathan Cowan The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Dr. William F. Bristow Hegel’s formulation of self-consciousness has decisively influenced modern philosophy’s notion of selfhood. His famous discussion of it appears in Chapter IV of the Phenomenology of Spirit, and emphasizes that self-consciousness is a dynamic process involving social activity. However, philosophers have struggled to understand some of the central claims Hegel makes: that self- consciousness is (a) “desire itself” which (b) is “only satisfied in another self-consciousness”; and that (c) self-consciousness is “the concept of Spirit.” In this paper, I argue that Hegel’s early writings on love help make sense of the motivation behind these claims, and thereby aids in understanding their meaning.