Sibbern’s Anticipations of Kierkegaard’s Polemic against the Hegelians: The Critique of Abstraction

Abstract The present article argues that the philosopher Frederik Christian Sibbern played a fairly substantive role in the development of what has come to be known as Kierkegaard’s critique of Hegel. Specifically, Sibbern had already worked out some of the key elements of Kierkegaard’s critique that culminates in the Concluding Unscientific Postscript. This is demonstrated by means of an analysis of two works by Sibbern which are important for his critical discussion of Hegel’s philosophy: Remarks and Investigations Primarily Concerning Hegel’s Philosophy from 1838, and On the Concept, Nature and Essence of Philosophy: A Presentation of Philosophy’s Propaedeutic from 1843.