moral consciousness

The following text attempts to reconstruct the notion of the highest good in the first two parts of chapter “C. Morality” of Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit” – “The Moral View of the World” and “Dissemblance.” The main argument of the present article is that Hegel does not reject or negate Kant’s propositions on the highest good or the notion itself, as many scholars claim, but instead – he realizes its Aufhebung by integrating it into the logic of the dialectic. The analysis presented here shows that, by means of the strong rhetorical language used in these most dramatic pages of his fundamental text, Hegel focuses on the contradictions, reached by his predecessor from Königsberg and finds a path beyond them. Closely following their logic, he presents a new level of their complexity. His aim is to track the developments of thought and to open new aspects and possibilities for further approximation to the maximum of the highest good, which is itself a moral experience of the philosophical thought.