The long-awaited new translation

The Phenomenology of Spirit has been hotly debated by generations of philosophers, critics, and theorists since its original publication in 1807. Unfortunately, Hegel's arguments have not always been easily read or understood in English. The landmark 1977 Miller translation (Oxford University Press), with its iconic rust-yellow cover, had become out of date with contemporary Hegel scholarship — particularly with respect to its use of technical terms. A new translation has been needed for decades to resolve ambiguities and rigorously track key terms as they evolve throughout Hegel's examination of consciousness, self-consciousness, and human history.

This clear, consistent translation is a generational event that has been long in the making. Georgetown philosophy professor Terry Pinkard, the author of Hegel's Phenomenology: The Sociality of Reason (1999), Hegel's Naturalism (2000), Hegel: A Biography (2001), and German Philosophy 1760–1860: The Legacy of Idealism (2002) — among many other publications on Hegel — worked with Cambridge University Press on this new edition for more than a decade. The pre-publication translation was available for public viewing and comments for years, during which Pinkard and Cambridge continued to improve the text and its accompanying notes and resources.

The Phenomenology has always rewarded close reading and sustained attention, and in the new Pinkard translation, Hegel's argument is even more fruitful for the attentive reader. Connections that were blurred in previous versions are made more obvious, and the genuine rigor of Hegel's thinking can be appreciated in English for the first time.

From the publisher:

Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit (1807) is one of the most influential texts in the history of modern philosophy. In it, Hegel proposed an arresting and novel picture of the relation of mind to world and of people to each other. Like Kant before him, Hegel offered up a systematic account of the nature of knowledge, the influence of society and history on claims to knowledge, and the social character of human agency itself.

A bold new understanding of what, after Hegel, came to be called 'subjectivity' arose from this work, and it was instrumental in the formation of later philosophies, such as existentialism, Marxism, and American pragmatism, each of which reacted to Hegel's radical claims in different ways. This edition offers a new translation, an introduction, and glossaries to assist readers' understanding of this central text, and will be essential for scholars and students of Hegel.