Abstract

As readers of The Owl are well aware, the name “Hegel” has provoked a wide range of responses. His followers have considered him one of the greatest thinkers in the history of philosophy; his adversaries have called him every name in the book. Beloved or despised, however, Hegel seems hard to ignore and continues to capture our imagination. But while Hegel scholarship is alive and well, fundamental disagreement persists not merely on the details of Hegel’s work but on the basic question of what kind of philosopher we must take him to be. Perhaps the most familiar example is the dispute between the so-called Right and Left Hegelians. The former see Hegel as a speculative, system-building metaphysician, while the latter take him primarily as a social and political philosopher. Although each view has its merits, neither is without problems.