Donald Phillip Verene Donald Phillip Verene has advanced a completely new reading of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit . He shows that the philosophic meaning of this work depends as much on Hegel's use of metaphor and image as it does on Hegel's dialectical and discursive descriptions of various stages of consciousness.
Consciousness confronts itself with the aim of achieving absolute knowing.
This is the first commentary to regard metaphor, irony, and memory as keys to the understanding of Hegel's basic philosophical position. He is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Emory University.