/lit/ - Literature

I've been reading this book on and off for over a year now and from my personal experience attempting to read the Preface with very little primer and limited prior experience in attempting to read philosophical works other than through secondary I got from libgen, I can say that what has helped me most in my attempt to parse this labyrinth was watching Greg Sadler's lectures on youtube. It was only with his lectures that I felt I was able to engage meaningfully with the text and although I haven't finished them I occasionally return to them. I really enjoyed the Preface, Introduction and the sections on Self Consciousness in particular but the other chapters I'll need to review, which is a point that I'd like to drive. In my opinion, this isn't a book you can simply just read and put down, it requires an occasional reread but over time, paragraphs become easier to read through and little blossoms eventually burst. I've started but haven't finished entirely a few books on secondary on this book in particular and so far the only one that's actually helped me think through his work has been Peter Kalkvage's the Logic of Desire.

I don't think I entirely "get" it, and I really don't know how many years of rereading it'll take to be able to read this at the highest levels, which is when you're able to read the Absolute Knowing section profitably and are capable of using that to bridge with the Science of Logic (and his lectures on World History), but after having gone through it at least once now with an honest attempt, I can safely say that I'm excited at the prospect of returning to it, especially after reading a couple other texts from the history of philosophy. I've found it very fun and rewarding to return to certain passages of his after reading a bit of Heraclitus and Spinoza, and I'm especially excited to return after I've been through a bit of Kant. I'm also quite curious about how differently I'll read the text after I've made it through Capital.

So far, it's only made me more enthusiastic about studying philosophy and I hope it has the same effect on you!