PEL Presents Closereads: Hegel's "Unhappy Consciousness"
The Partially Examined Life Philosophy Podcast
Mark Linsenmayer
4.6 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2026
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We're within the Self-Consciousness chapter of The Phenomenology of Spirit, specifically starting at sec. 206 on the Unhappy Consciousness. This comes after the famous Master-Slave section as well as sections about Stoicism and Skepticism, and it depicts a dividedness within the self stemming from a faulty view of the relation between self and world.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, partially examined life listeners. |
| 0:08.6 | It's coming to my attention that many of you are not subscribed to close reads philosophy |
| 0:13.0 | with Mark and Wes. |
| 0:14.2 | In fact, I think there's some confusion around that in that I do occasionally put episodes |
| 0:18.7 | from that in the partially examined life feed. |
| 0:21.3 | More often, I put them in the partially examined life supporter feeds, |
| 0:25.4 | if they're particularly relevant to what we're talking about on partially examined |
| 0:29.2 | life at the time. |
| 0:30.4 | But to clarify, Wes and I have been recording these pretty much weekly. |
| 0:34.1 | We've now done 124 recordings as of this one. |
| 0:37.4 | And whether or not you want to support this |
| 0:39.4 | effort financially, the best way I think to get all that is go to patreon.com slash close reads philosophy |
| 0:45.8 | where you can either follow us at the free tier and get all the public episodes entirely ad-free. |
| 0:52.2 | Our standard public feed is available at close readsphilosophy.com or search us on Apple |
| 0:56.4 | podcasts or wherever. |
| 0:57.7 | Now, if you want to get all the close reads content, if you want to get the part two and |
| 1:01.2 | part three that we're going to have to this very episode, you'll have to give us money |
| 1:04.6 | either through that Close Reads Patreon or if you already support us or we're thinking |
| 1:08.8 | of supporting partially examined life at patreon.com |
| 1:12.1 | slash partially examined life. |
| 1:13.3 | There is a combo deal that will be a little better deal than supporting us separately in |
| 1:18.2 | different places. |
... |
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