For Hegel the unhappy consciousness (German: das unglückliche Bewußtsein) is associated with a stage in the history of the development of the freedom of self-consciousness.
This stage of Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit

Phenomenology of Spirit

Phänomenologie des Geistes is one of G.W.F. Hegel's most important philosophical works. It is translated as The Phenomenology of Spirit or The Phenomenology of Mind due to the dual meaning in the German word Geist. The book's working title, which also appeared in the first edition, was Science of...

 follows after the phase of the master-slave

Master-slave

Master-slave may refer to:* Master-slave dialectic, philosophical concept* Master-slave * Master-Slave manipulator, see remote manipulator...

 consciousness.

The three phases are: Stoicism, followed by scepticism or cynicism, followed by the ascetic unhappy consciousness.

Stoicism, Epicureanism and Hedonism

For Hegel the resolution of the master slave dialectic in stoicism

Stoicism

Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...

, hedonism

Hedonism

Hedonism is a school of thought which argues that pleasure is the only intrinsic good. In very simple terms, a hedonist strives to maximize net pleasure .-Etymology:The name derives from the Greek word for "delight" ....

 and epicureanism

Epicureanism

Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom...

 is not lasting. The period in history Hegel associates with this is from the time of Alexander the Great on through the times of the Roman Empire.

This Roman Stoicism is for Hegel something of a false resolution of the master-slave dialectic, it emphasises only the freedom of thought. In the Stoic's distancing of himself from the world of desires, of pain and pleasure he achieves a freedom of conscience, but that he ignores the concrete reality is apparent in the unsatisfactory resolution of the master slave dialectic. He is ignoring the reality of the dissatisfaction apparent for both master and slave.

Scepticism and Cynicism

So for Hegel history shows that stoicism is replaced by scepticism and cynicism. Here again the complete disbelief in society, rather than the reasoned and calculated disbelief of the stoic, eventually leads to a dissolution of oneself. The comedy of the cynic that is directed against society, eventually begins to turn against the comedian. The idea of goodness is seen as completely foreign to mankind.

The Unhappy Consciousness

In this externalisation of the good from human affairs we see forming what Hegel calls the unhappy consciousness. This, Hegel associates with much of the early Christian era when people turned away from the world through ascetic and monastic life and prayer.

Of course, for Hegel, each of these stages is an attainment, the achievement of the unhappy consciousness is the truth of the will, which has been trained and nurtured though the ascetic life.

The contradictions in the unhappy consciousness are given some resolution in the person of Jesus Christ. Here the temporal and eternal are combined and held up toward a higher plane wherein life now posits an afterlife. Yet it remains an unhappy consciousness since all goodness is alienated in God or in the afterlife.