Freedom gained in death. An exploration of the consciousness of death and freedom in the Phenomenology of Spirit
Abstract
In the Phenomenology of Spirit, both the process of education as well as the envisaging of death are conceived as a gradual expulsion from what Hegel calls the natural being in the world. While education is a process propelled by the internal negativity of consciousness, death is envisaged as an outward threat (see Master and Slave).
The consciousness attempting to destroy this threat by means of its own negativity (see the stoic consciousness or absolute freedom), forfeits its spirituality. In the form of an expropriation of one's own reality, the external negativity is a necessary counterweight to the negativity of consciousness.
Both aspects need to be preserved, since it is only by means of this external negativity that consciousness becomes self-conscious.