Hegel's Critique and Development of Kant: The Passion of Reason

This is a study of Hegel’s critique and development of Kant’s theoretical philosophy. The main purpose of this thesis is to do justice to both of these aspects of Hegel’s complex and notoriously difficult philosophical relationship with Kant. My aim in Part I is to present in a sympathetic light Hegel’s various objections and negative response to certain Kantian doctrines. My aim in Part II is to argue that Hegel’s positive relationship with Kant does not consist in accepting and merely carrying through Kant’s transcendental philosophy, but rather in him hoping to derive from Kant clues to a superior form of logic; an understanding of how to make transcendental claims; an account of conceptual form; and a conception of philosophical enquiry as involving self-transformation. Understood in this way, we can make better sense of Hegel’s critique of Kant and also his fundamental debt to him as well.