Time in Hegel's Preface to the Phenomenology

ABSTRACT In the Preface to the Phenomenology , Hegel indicates that the “philosophical” or “scientific” mode of cognition that emerges from the journey of consciousness contrasts with its “mathematical” counterpart which ignores time. The task of this paper is to draw clues from the Preface to the role Hegel assigns temporality in the Phenomenology . The thesis defended is that underlying the rigidity he discovers in mathematical cognition is what he takes to be a mistaken view of the origin of concepts, and an insensitivity to their path. In effect, this insensitivity amounts for Hegel to an ignorance of their temporality.