Atheism, pantheism, acosmism and monotheism in Hegel's philosophy (Commentary on a well-known passage on Spinoza)

Abstract

Atheism and pantheism systematically rejected by Hegel throughout his work. The Anm. of § 573 of the Enz. is a paradigmatic testimony of this rejection, in which the philosopher strongly criticizes pantheism, and at the same time he clearly distances himself from atheism. This has not prevented those closest to his philosophy from seeing in his critique of religion a declaration of atheism, nor has his absolute idealism appear to the most critical eyes as a kind of buried pantheism, suspiciously akin to what Heine called «the secret religion of Germany». The purpose of this article is to show the misunderstandings that underlie these interpretations, analyzing the passages that have contributed to give rise to them. Among which stands out the famous eulogy to Spinoza of the Berlin Lessons, erroneously taken as a declaration of pantheistic faith. The commentary on this well-known passage will show that behind the aforementioned praise, neither supposedly Spinozian “atheism” nor “pantheism” is hidden, but rather a certain form of “acosmism” and “philosophical monotheism” that Hegel considers a precursor of idealism.