Freedom and Obligation: The Moral Debate between Kant and Hegel (1781-1807)

In this paper, I deal with the concepts of freedom and obligation in the philosophical discussion between Immanuel Kant and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel. In this way, I aim to outline some aspects of the discussion in practical philosophy after the publication of the first edition of the Critique of Pure Reason (1781). By referring to some exemplary texts, I aim to show how the concept of obligation loses its central role in ethics after Hegel’s time. In particular, my aim is that of pointing to the close contact—at the beginning of the eighteenth century—between Hegel and the other philosophers at the University of Jena, who try to develop a deterministic account of Kant’s ethics.