The Difference between Fichte's and Schelling's Systems

The text systematically analyzes how Fichte's emphasis on the absolute I as the foundation of philosophy differs from Schelling's notion of absolute identity or indifference point between subject and object. Hegel argues that while Fichte's system remains trapped in the subjective perspective of consciousness opposing an objective world, Schelling's approach better captures the unity of subject and object, finite and infinite, that Hegel saw as essential to true philosophical understanding. He develops key concepts that would remain central to his thought, including his critique of "reflection" as a mode of understanding that remains caught in rigid oppositions, and his emerging notion of speculation as a higher form of philosophical cognition that can grasp unity in difference. The work also contains early versions of important Hegelian themes like the relationship between the finite and infinite, and the role of contradiction in philosophical thinking.

This modern translation contains an afterword explaining this work's place in his larger body of works, the historical background, and a timeline of his life and works. The modern language and scholarly apparatus are designed to orient the modern reader to Hegel's world with a clean and simple lexicon. Hegel, generally inaccessible due to the sheer size and intricacy of his thought, is explained through the interpretation of Tolstoy, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer and Heidegger in this Afterword to make his historically important body of work accessible to the armchair philosopher.