In the second half of this year-long study of Hegel's pivotal early work our focus will be onthe chapter on "Spirit." In it Hegel proposes that reflectiveself-understanding of ourselves as modern, self-determining subjects is ahistorical accomplishment, and hence that philosophical self-consciousness isnecessarily historically mediated. Central to his argument is his account ofthe Greek world represented in Sophocles' Antigone(against which a variety of feminist critiques have been lodged); the French Revolution and the Terror; the critique of the moral philosophies of Kant and Fichte (against which a variety of Kantian counters have been lodged). Thecourse will then turn to Hegel's account of "Religion," which raisesthe question of whether Hegel's system is merely a philosophical interpretationof Christian revelation or an atheistic system whose core ideals are merelyanticipated by Christianity. Finally, we shall study Hegel's account of"Absolute Knowing" (his ultimate defense of idealism againstepistemological realism), and his conception of philosophy as"speculative" writing in the "Preface." Consideration ofcontemporary accounts of Hegel's idealism by Pippin, Brandom, and others willbe a leitmotif of our reflections.