Abstract

It should be no surprise to discover a young author quite without embarrassment writing under the intellectual influence of a predecessor. These new translations permit the English reader to observe two keen philosophical minds in the making. Each blatantly commandeers themes from another, yet adapts and extends them in accord with his own developing originality. Viewing them together is doubly interesting because one of our philosophers is literary mentor to the other. In present company somewhat a late starter, Fichte at 29 penned his Critique of All Revelation as an unabashed Kantian. Under Fichte’s influence the precocious Schelling produced the first essay in Marti’s collection at the remarkable age of 19! In contrast their compatriot Hegel waited to publish until his own ideas reached fuller development, thereby more effectively masking the formative influences upon them.