Reform, Insurrection and Rebellion: Three Post-Hegelian Alternatives to Revolution (Feuerbach, Stirner and Kierkegaard)

Abstract

The article focuses on the objections of post-Hegelian thinkers to the concept of revolution. Post-Hegelians, European intellectuals active from the mid-1830s to the early 1860s, moved away from German romanticism and idealism, finding them inadequate for diagnosing social and individual problems. They sought practical applications for their philosophical ideas, aligning themselves with emancipatory movements such as communism. However, some, such as Feuerbach, Stirner, and Kierkegaard, rejected the prevailing revolutionary methods. Feuerbach prioritized the reform of consciousness over social revolution, Stirner advocated existential insurrection over institutional change, and Kierkegaard criticized collective revolution as a rebellion against God.