Hegel: Ein Rationalist?

It is almost beyond doubt that Hegel’s thought bears rationalist traits. The question, however, whether or not Hegel can count as a rationalist, is controversial. This contribution argues that although Hegel is a rationalist in the wide sense, he is not in the narrow sense of the word. This is not a trivial observation. For in numerous places of his work it seems as if Hegel holds implicitly onto the central rationalist theorem, according to which the principles of thought are the principles of the possibility of things themselves. Hegel’s idealism of absolute rationality yet claims to have overcome this theorem and hence rationalism in the narrow historical sense by rationalist means. The paper examines and critically assesses this claim with respect to the Phenomenology of Spirit and the Science of Logic.