Hegel as an Attendee of Schlegel’s Lectures on Transcendental Philosophy in Jena

Abstract

This chapter deals with the relationship between Friedrich Schlegel and Hegel, focusing on their time together in Jena, a situation that has previously been neglected in the research but which was of central importance for the development of their later disputes. The contention found in the existing research that there was no personal contact between Schlegel and Hegel in Jena is revised with the help of evidence for various instances of direct and indirect contact. Hegel’s attendance at Schlegel’s public lecture on Transcendental Philosophy is highlighted as one key encounter. Here Hegel gained the fundamentals for his later criticism of Schlegel and Romanticism, but also received important impulses for, and confirmations of, his own ideas. The article then proceeds to set out similarities and differences between Schlegel’s and Hegel’s philosophies. Finally, it argues that Hegel—contrary to what has previously been assumed—already engaged indirectly with Schlegel’s position in his early writings, before the Phenomenology of Spirit.