Hegelian Traces in Heidegger's Thought: A Critical Examination of Influence and Ontological Redefinition

Authors
Behzad Parvazmanesh 1
Hassan Mehrnia 2
1 Tarbiat Modares University
2 university of Tehran.
Abstract
This article critically examines the significant influence of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s absolute idealism on the ontology of Martin Heidegger and explores the ways in which this influence is both preserved and transformed within Heidegger’s thought. While Hegel, as a major philosopher of modernity, emphasized concepts such as freedom, rationality, consciousness, and history, Heidegger, one of modernity’s most influential critics, redirected philosophical inquiry toward the questions of Being and time. Drawing on the interpretations of major Heideggerian scholars, including Hans-Georg Gadamer, Michel Haar, Dominique Janicaud, and David Kolb, this study argues that Heideggerian key concepts, especially historicity and dialectic, retain unmistakable Hegelian traces. At the same time, the paper demonstrates Heidegger’s deliberate effort to reinterpret and reshape these inherited concepts within the framework of his own ontological project. The article further examines both the convergences and divergences between Hegel and Heidegger in relation to history, phenomenology, and modernity. It concludes that although the parallels between the two philosophers, particularly in Heidegger’s later thought, suggest a neo-Hegelian tendency, Heidegger ultimately moves beyond the Hegelian framework. This becomes especially evident in his understanding of the origin and completion of metaphysics, where he critically confronts and attempts to overcome Hegel’s philosophical system.
Keywords
Heidegger
Hegel
Historicity
Phenomenology
Modernity
Dialectics
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Metaphysical Research
Volume 7, English Special Issue
June 2026
Pages 119-138