In this blog post, we examine why Hegel viewed philosophy as a more complete ‘romantic thing’ than Romanticism itself, exploring the meaning of inner life and reason as expressed in his thought.
In Hegel, “romanticism” primarily emerges within an aesthetic context that typologically stages the forms, history, and genres of art. Yet, in terms of its substantive content, it can be said to be the concept that precisely reveals the core of his entire philosophy of spirit. However, this concept often invites misunderstanding due to the familiarity of its name. For precise understanding, it is necessary to define this concept more rigorously as the category of “the Romantic.” It is also necessary to clarify the relationship this category holds with Romanticism, which is particularly recognized as an artistic or ideological line. A crucial point to note is that while “the Romantic” encompasses Romanticism as a subcategory, as suggested by their lexical proximity, it ultimately stands in opposition to Romanticism.
From Hegel’s perspective, aiming to construct the strongest form of rationalism, Romanticism—centered on boundless imagination and sensibility—represents a typical state of intellectual immaturity that must be overcome. Interestingly, however, he often refers to the stage where human intellect reaches its zenith—speculative reason performing the highest level of thought based on strict concepts, and even the domain of such reason, philosophy—as “romantic,” evaluating speculative reason and philosophy as “the romantic” in the most complete sense. Accordingly, the pinnacle of the “Romantic” lies in rational speculation, positioned diametrically opposed to Romanticism. Conversely, Romanticism, contrary to its name, is evaluated as the inferior, incomplete stage of the “Romantic.”
To understand this convoluted terminology, one must note that Hegel uses “the romantic” synonymously with “the Christian” at several points. Similar to the relationship between “the romantic” and Romanticism, “the Christian” carries linguistic religious connotations but constitutes a spiritual-philosophical category transcending Christianity as an institutionalized faith and doctrinal system. According to Hegel, the lowest stage of spirit is that of sensory perception, where the subject’s dependence on objects is most dominant. The highest stage is “reflection”—pure, internal, reflexive operation of the spiritual subject that has completely overcome this object dependence—namely, rational thought. This is grounded in his absolute idealism, which views the Absolute—that is, “God”—not as a personal being but as “Reason” itself, the fundamental existential structure or principle of the world. Since the Absolute itself is a complete rational structure—a precise and perfect self-moving system of concepts—the corresponding form of human intellect must likewise be Reason, the capacity for conceptual thought.
From this perspective, “the Christian” collectively refers to the stage of intellect that overcomes primitive intellectuality—which encounters the Absolute through some physical object—and achieves pure inner spirituality. Therefore, “the Christian” in its most complete sense is only attained in philosophy, which recognizes truth through pure conceptual reflection. Conversely, Christianity clearly belongs to “the Christian” in that it transcends the worship or mediation of natural objects. However, it falls short of the complete, pure interiority of intellect, which requires conceptual reflection as a precondition, and is thus evaluated as an incomplete stage of “the Christian.” For this reason, “the Christian” can be renamed “inner intellectuality” to reveal its essential meaning. This inner intellectuality has multiple stages, and its complete stage is realized in philosophy through conceptual thought. Therefore, “the Christian” can never be simply equated with Christianity.
Understanding “the Christian” in this way also clarifies the relationship between “the Romantic” and Romanticism. Romanticism, which aims for the unrestricted outpouring of feeling and imagination—that is, “the freedom to express everything in the heart”—undoubtedly constitutes one form of “the Romantic.” This is because it centers on the inner workings of the intellectual subject transcending the given world of experience. However, the inner life of the spirit achieved by Romanticism remains at an inferior stage, not yet reaching the inner life of philosophical thought grounded in conceptual reflection. For this reason, Romanticism cannot be the complete archetype of “the Romantic,” and “the Romantic” in its true sense is only achieved in philosophical thought.
