Hegel’s first system program and the task of philosophy

The turn of the nineteenth century brought with it a new turn in the development of post- Kantian thought. The year 1801 saw Hegel’s philosophical debut, a publication whose very title sent an unequivocal signal: The Difference between Fichte’s and Schelling’s System of Philosophy. Substantive differences of opinion had been noticeable in Fichte’s and Schelling’s writings from the beginning, and they grew still more explicit once Schelling embarked on his project of Naturphilosophie, but it was not until after Fichte’s departure from Jena that they began frankly to address their differences. Initially they did so in private correspondence, and occasional veiled references are to be found in Schelling’s 1801 work On the True Concept of Naturphilosophie.