Abstract

A longstanding interpretive issue concerning Chapter IV of the Phenomenology of Spirit is how to understand the singularly difficult discussion of the role of life in the development of self‐consciousness. Some readers hold that self‐consciousness consists in the recognition of one's independence from the demands of life, while others have argued that self‐consciousness is both life and more than life at once. This paper rejects these readings and contributes to the ongoing discussion surrounding “additive” versus “transformative” models of rationality by arguing that Hegel develops a third way in Chapter IV, what I call the constitutive model of rationality (CMR). I argue that the master–slave dialectic in Chapter IV vindicates the CMR by attempting to deny it. On my reading, Hegel shows that organic desire in creatures like us cannot be satisfied as such in the absence of the reciprocal recognition of the rationality of desire.