Arthur Schopenhauer and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel were two of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century. While both were German, their philosophies were very different, and Schopenhauer was a harsh critic of Hegel’s work.
One of the main reasons Schopenhauer disliked Hegel’s philosophy was that he felt it was overly complex and inaccessible. Schopenhauer believed that philosophy should be accessible to everyone and that Hegel’s convoluted writing style and complex terminology made his ideas difficult to understand.
In addition to the issue of accessibility, Schopenhauer disagreed with Hegel’s emphasis on reason and logic. Schopenhauer believed that human beings were driven by irrational desires and passions, and that these factors played a greater role in shaping human behavior than reason or logic. He felt that Hegel’s focus on reason and logic was misguided and failed to capture the true nature of human experience.
Schopenhauer also disagreed with Hegel’s view of history. Hegel believed that history was a linear progression of ideas, with each epoch building on the previous one in a process of evolution. Schopenhauer rejected this idea, arguing that history was cyclical and that there was no sense of progress or evolution in human history.
Another source of disagreement between the two philosophers was their views on metaphysics. Hegel believed that reality was fundamentally rational and that everything could be explained through reason and logic. Schopenhauer, on the other hand, believed that there was an underlying irrationality to the universe and that human beings could only ever have a partial understanding of reality.
Finally, Schopenhauer also had personal reasons for disliking Hegel. The two men had a number of personal conflicts, and Schopenhauer was known to be highly critical of Hegel both in public and in private.
In conclusion, Schopenhauer’s dislike of Hegel was driven by a combination of factors, including disagreements over philosophy, differences in writing style, and personal conflicts between the two men. While their philosophies remain influential to this day, the disagreements between Schopenhauer and Hegel highlight the diversity of thought and the ongoing debate in the field of philosophy.