ABSTRACT
Disapproval can be based on intellectual considerations, but a little observation of ourselves and others shows quickly that the emotion accompanying it is not always proportionate to our reasons. If one thing had been different, ever so many others might have been different as well; for example, all the professors of philosophy who took to Immanuel Kant like fish to water might in that case have found Kant much less attractive. One might well consider reflections of what might have happened if only Kant had done things differently so futile that they are not even worth mentioning if it were not for the fact that reading Hegel makes questions almost inescapable. For the bizarreness of Hegel's philosophy is due largely to his misguided attempt to reconcile Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Kant, and itis fruitful to separate out these two strains and see what remains when the Kantian elements are eliminated.
