How to philosophize without first principles: The case of Hegel's dialectic

Abstract The essay proposes to view Hegel's philosophical project as the provocatory task of “philosophizing without first principles.” Key to this view of the activity of philosophizing is Hegel's dialectic‐speculative method, which he establishes in contrast to Kant's transcendental philosophy and to the first principles of Fichte's Jena Wissenschaftslehre . The essay proposes two claims. The first is that dialectic‐speculative thinking is thinking without first principles; the second is that principles for theoretical and practical thinking and acting can be established only by that way of thinking, namely, dialectic‐speculative thinking, that can itself proceed without them (or is not determined or constrained by them). To put the point in a dialectical way: principles become necessary for thinking because thinking can dispense of them.