What Was and What is Left Hegelianism? Historical, Systematic, and Critical Configurations

Guest Editor: Gregor Schäfer (University of Basel / School of Advanced Study, University of London)

Deadline for submissions: June 15^th, 2025 (via email: dissonancia@unicamp.br)

Planned publication: December 2025 (vol. 9)

 

Having its historical base in the discussions about the legacy and possible future of Hegel’s philosophical system after his death in 1831, Left Hegelianism became one of the most dynamic and influential strands in 19^th century philosophy and public-intellectual life. Initially focused on the question of how to interpret Christian religion and its dogmata, it soon became a very practical issue addressing urgent socio-economic, political-ethical, and cultural-aesthetic problems in the post-Hegelian moment and its multiple crises and challenges in the explosive pre-1848 period. The originally religious concerns of Left Hegelianism – starting from the book Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet (1835) written by David Friedrich Strauß, who, in the defense of his book, coined the term “Left” / “Young” Hegelianism as opposed to both the “Right” / “Old” Hegelianism (around, e.g., Philipp Konrad Marheineke, Carl Friedrich Göschel, or Georg Andreas Gabler) and to the Hegelian “center” (around Karl Rosenkranz) – hereby opened up the complex field of philosophical-political debates including, influencing, and provoking, through manifold bifurcations and mediations, figures such as Arnold Ruge, Ludwig Feuerbach, Max Stirner, David Friedrich Strauß, Karl Friedrich Köppen, Bruno Bauer, Gustav Julius, Moses Hess, Mikhail Bakunin, August Cieszkowski, Edgar Bauer, or Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. At stake here are issues such as the concept of critique and its possible impact on society, the relationship between philosophy and extra-philosophical reality, the engagement for democratic progress, equal rights, and human emancipation, or – prompting more radical answers such as can be found in Marxism and anarchism – the necessity of revolutionizing the entire existing world and overcoming its institutions (such as, ultimately, the state).

Beyond this historical embedding of Left Hegelianism in the post-Hegelian situation, the systematic question arises as to what Left Hegelianism in fact is and whether it is still relevant in our present. As Jürgen Habermas once stated, the socio-political and intellectual predicament of our time is to some extent still rooted in the split between Left and Right Hegelianism and the main questions and concerns at stake. Furthermore – not least against the background of recent receptions and actualizations of Hegel’s philosophy, particularly his practical philosophy – the question becomes relevant as to how Left Hegelianism could be characterized in terms of Hegel’s own conceptions. What can – in the light of an immanent interpretation of Hegel’s philosophy – be understood as “left-wing,” as critical, emancipatory, or revolutionary? Is the historical opposition between the critical impetus of Left Hegelianism and the rather conservative intentions of “orthodox,” Right Hegelianism (supposedly closer to Hegel himself) still valid? Or could it be appropriate to decipher a Left Hegelian core already in Hegel himself – given the notoriously difficult problem of how to interpret the relationship between reason and present actuality (which in Hegel, obviously, cannot be interpreted as an immediate identity but rather may imply an ongoing contradiction and unresolved crisis within the present)?

This special issue aims to address these and related questions and invites, for this purpose, contributions from different perspectives.

Contributions that touch on – but do not have to be limited to – the following areas and aspects are welcome:

• What is Left Hegelianism in the work of prominent figures belonging to this configuration, or at least, in a broader understanding, related to its context, such as Heinrich Heine, Arnold Ruge, Ludwig Feuerbach, Max Stirner, David Friedrich Strauß, Bruno Bauer, Moses Hess, Mikhail Bakunin, August Cieszkowski, or Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels?
• What was the actual core of the historical debate between Left Hegelianism and Right Hegelianism? What is – in this context – the possible meaning of “left-wing” or progressive on the one hand and of “right-wing” or conservative on the other? How can we understand fundamental concepts involved in this debate such as “critique,” “emancipation,” “democracy,” “resistance,” or “revolution”? What is at issue in Marx’s and Engels’s prominent critique of the Left Hegelian concept of “critique”?
• Can Left Hegelianism, instead of or along with its eponymous connection with Hegel, be brought together with other representative directions and philosophers of German Idealism such as Left Kantianism, Fichte (referring to the central concept of “deed”) or, as prominently put forward by Manfred Frank, Schelling?
• Is the division into Left Hegelianism – as centrally focusing on praxis – and Right Hegelianism – as centrally focusing on contemplative and quietist theory – really adequate and precise? Or should it, instead, be further specified – given the question of who, after all, could be clearly labeled as Right Hegelian tout court and of whether something like Right Hegelianism really exists, against the background that the mediation between theory and praxis can be discerned as a very common Hegelian program shared by authors who, according to the traditional schema, may be labeled as Right or Old Hegelians (such as Karl Ludwig Michelet)?
• Is there a continuation of certain Left Hegelian concepts and motives in later philosophical sequences, such as in Jean-Paul Sartre’s existentialism or in Critical Theory?
• What is – beyond its historical origin – Left Hegelianism from a systematic or normative point of view? And which are its possible implications for contemporary Hegel interpretations? Which prominent contemporary Hegel interpretations are related to Left Hegelianism understood in this perspective (or, on the contrary, which ones would mostly belong to Right Hegelianism today)?
• Is there already in Hegel himself a Left Hegelian tendency? Or does Left Hegelianism necessarily include a critique of Hegel’s mature systematic conception?
• What – if anything – militates in favor of Left Hegelianism in our present world and in the concrete crises, conflicts, and challenges it faces?

In addition to original articles, this special issue also welcomes book reviews of recent relevant publications dealing with any aspect of the overall theme of Left Hegelianism and its legacy.

The issue is complemented by a section with interviews addressing the topic of Left Hegelianism – including confirmed interviews with Jay Bernstein (New School for Social Research), Marina Bykova (University of North Carolina), Rebecca Comay (University of Toronto), Rahel Jaeggi (Humboldt University of Berlin), Thomas Khurana (University of Potsdam), Marcello Mustè (Sapienza University of Rome), Angelica Nuzzo (CUNY), Klaus Vieweg (Friedrich Schiller University of Jena), Christopher Yeomans (Purdue University), Günter Zöller (LMU Munich).

To submit a contribution, please follow the journal’s submission guidelines.

For further inquiries, please contact the special issue editor (gregor.schaefer@unibas.ch) and/or the journal editorial team (dissonancia@unicamp.br).