Two titans of philosophy—Hegel and Schopenhauer—captured side by side, embodying the tension between reason’s promise and the raw force of the will

Hegel vs. Schopenhauer: power and philosophy

One the prophet of progress, the other the philosopher of reality, revealing the politics behind ideas and the will beneath reason

23 OCTOBER 2025, 

ERIK BREZOVEC

Hegel and Schopenhauer were contemporaries. They remain towering figures in philosophy, but their story also reveals the reality of the academic system, where success often depends less on the strength of an argument than on connections, politics, and zeitgeist. Hegel was the star of his age. Many were fascinated by his sophistication and his vision of human progress. His dialectics and historicism inspired thinkers far beyond his own time. Even today, many philosophers and social scientists still lean on Hegel. Slavoj Žižek, for example, often insists he is more Hegelian than Marxist. And in my view, I understand why. So, let us see who Hegel was. 

 

A symbolic artwork of the human struggle with chains of desire and fear, reaching toward transcendence and the fragile possibility of freedom

The burden of freedom and the struggle to transcend

Exploring helplessness, desire, and the inner path to liberation

23 SEPTEMBER 2025, 

ERIK BREZOVEC

This question, posed by Serbian poet Branko Miljković, captures the paradox of freedom: it is longed for, sung about, and idealized, yet when finally achieved, it often proves difficult, heavy, and even disappointing. Freedom has been one of the most passionately pursued concepts in human history, yet its realization reveals how deeply unprepared we are, perhaps still in the infantile phase of our civilization’s development. We remain cruel, selfish, and fearful, marked by the ever-present helplessness of humankind.