SOURCE: Kain, Philip J. “Hegel's Critique of Kantian Practical Reason.” Canadian Journal of Philosophy 28, no. 3 (September 1998): 367-412.

In the following essay, Kain contends that in Phenomenology of Spirit Hegel offers a thorough critique of Kant's ethical thought.

While many philosophers have found Hegel's critique of Kantian ethics to be interesting in certain respects, overall most tend to find it rather shallow and to think that Hegel either misunderstands Kant's thought or has a rather crude understanding of it. For example, in examining the last two sections of Chapter V of the Phenomenology—‘Reason as Lawgiver’ and ‘Reason as Testing Laws’ (where we get an extended critique of the categorical imperative)—Lauer finds Hegel's treatment to be truncated and inadequate.¹ The only trouble, though, is that like most other readers of the Phenomenology, Lauer does not recognize that Hegel had been examining and criticizing Kantian ethics throughout a much...