Thanks for your replies! I find them thoughtful and interesting. I think it makes some measure of sense, in the end, to say that Hegel and Kierkegaard mutually accuse one another in a way that is perhaps ultimately undecidable. Despite finding much of enduring value in both of them, I also find many things in both that do not appeal. Hegel’s use of thinking to overcome the negativity of experience “in thought” is something most people cannot accept. Those who are willing to entertain the reality of “absolute knoweldge” generally tend to be heirs of the “Hegelians of the right,” as opposed to the heirs of the Young Hegelians (of the left).

As for Kierkegaard, I am sympathetic to your tendency to find his claims about infinite subjectivity to be overwrought. I do find him to be rigorous, however, if you enter into the space of his collision between faith and reason (something I can’t really do, since I am not a Christian). However, I tend to find existential philosophy to be more relevant than Hegel’s “will to system.” Best regards, Tedd at InDarkTimes.