This book is cited as one of the best exegesis of Hegel's 'Phenomenology of the Mind'. As all classics of German philosophers, Hegel's masterpiece is almost inaccessible. I¡¯ve heard that Hegel¡¯s Phenomenology of the Mind is one of the three most abstruse works in the Western philosophy. The other two are Heidegger¡¯s ¡®Being and Time¡¯ and Whitehead¡¯s ¡®Process and Reality¡¯. These works are thorny to comprehend, not to mention just to read through, for the originality of the idea presented in the works. So they are littered with the neologism even their contemporaries never heard of. The established terminology is not suitable to articulate totally novel thoughts. Hegel¡¯s work is not the exception in this regard. The Phenomenology of the Mind is regarded as the culmination of German idealism: Hegel presented his answer in the works to the enigma Kant put in ¡®The Critique of the Pure Reason¡¯, ¡®Ding an Sich (Thing in itself)¡¯. And the answer was the unknown framework at that time. That kind of thought can¡¯t be put in terminology at hand, but should be minted with coined word on its own. But such wording can¡¯t be easy to grasp for the author himself must be not satisfied with his own wording. This book is about the terminology of Hegel¡¯s Phenomenology of the Mind. The author explains organizing concepts appeared in the ¡®Preface¡¯ and ¡®Introduction¡¯. The preface and introduction of Hegel¡¯s Phenomenology of the Mind is notorious for its inaccessibility. Those parts don¡¯t introduce readers to anything, but recap all of the following chapters in its own neologism. That lengthy introduction could be understood only if you finished the last page of the book. Actually the introduction is the conclusion of the book. Hegel¡¯s stance in the ¡®Introduction¡¯ could be reached only through the incremental logical ascending of the following chapters. Terminology in the ¡®Introduction¡¯ could appear only when that kind of argumentation finished. So usually they are recommended to read the ¡®Introduction¡¯ as conclusion. But such feature is a good point to get the gist of the book. So the author of this exegesis positioned there to overview Hegel¡¯s world. W. Marx¡¯s approach seems effective. It¡¯s the good spot not only to outline Hegel¡¯s points, but also to compare Hegel with other German idealists like Kant, Fichte and Scheling, and such comparison is the best way to understand Hegel. This is the strategy W. Marx took and it seems he make it. But this book is not that easy to follow if you have not preliminary knowledge of Kant, at least. This book is not a primer for beginners but for at least graduate student. Anyway I haven¡¯t seen other book that explains better Hegel than this book.

This is an indespensible book for everybody with an interest in critical Marxist thought. The book works the muscle

Doesn't matter what ideology you like, follow or accept. Marx is a genius on sociology that made some of the most important works in this matter. This book is a good one but is not the great biography that I was expecting. I didn't see any need for the illustrations too... but is very nice written