Re-Visiting Hegel's Life-And-Death Struggle for Recognition

This essay is an immanent critique of Hegel's theory of recognition in the section "independence and dependence of self-consciousness: lordship and bondage" of his Phenomenology of Spirit. First, it shows that the Notion of the unity of the self-consciousness does not require the self-consciousnesses' equality. Second, it demonstrates the inherent inconsistency of a fight that would be motivated by a desire to show one's capacity to risk his life. Third, it assesses that a fight motivated by the mere desire to remain in life puts the concept of labour at the principle of the master's domination thus leading the dialectic to a successful recognition between equal consciousnesses.