Der Streit um die Methode

Abstract The article reconstructs the ‘debate about method’ between Schelling and Hegel, focusing on Schelling’s late critique, and placing this dispute in the context of early idealist debates. In so doing, the article makes the case that the late confrontation between Schelling and Hegel may only be properly understood in relation to their shared starting point, namely, their early attempts at putting forward an all-encompassing system of philosophy, as well as the methodological difficulties entailed therein. The first section outlines general perspectives on the debate between Schelling and Hegel, highlighting its ‘historial’ significance (in terms of Geschichtlichkeit ). The second section turns to Schelling’s charge against Hegel, according to which the latter is supposed to have outright ‘stolen’, but at the same time ‘misused’ Schelling’s method. The third section places this charge in the earlier German idealist context, focusing on the ‘histories of self-consciousness’ and Hegel’s notion of negativity, thus highlighting the background of the later disagreement.