What is "experience" for Hegel? Dina Emundts gives a new interpretation of Hegel's fundamental philosophical theses. In an analysis of the first four chapters of the "Phenomenology of Spirit," methodological, epistemological, and ontological aspects of Hegel's concept of experience are elaborated. According to Hegel, philosophical theses must be verified and developed through analyses of experience. This is especially true for answering the question of the possibility of cognition. For Hegel, cognition is a process of acquiring and experiencing something new. It is one of the author's main intentions to show that for Hegel cognition depends on the possibility of reference to objects that are sensually experienced by us and can be 'resistant' to us.