How did Hegel and Schopenhauer reinterpret Kantian philosophy?

G.W.F. Hegel and Arthur Schopenhauer both engaged deeply with the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, though they arrived at vastly different conclusions regarding the limits of reason and the nature of reality.

G.W.F. Hegel

Hegel viewed the Kantian limitations on knowledge—specifically the distinction between phenomena (appearances) and noumena (things-in-themselves)—as a "scandal to Reason". He argued that Kant’s philosophy encouraged intellectual sloth by prematurely declaring certain truths unknowable. Hegel sought to transcend these Kantian antinomies by developing a system of "absolute knowledge," where reason could penetrate the essence of reality. He famously declared that "substance must become subject," aiming to reconcile ontology and epistemology to capture the rational structure of the world, which he believed was inherently intelligible.1

Arthur Schopenhauer

In contrast, Schopenhauer rejected Hegel’s rationalist optimism and returned to the Kantian divide to emphasize the inherent limitations of human intellect. In The World as Will and Representation, he reaffirmed that knowledge of things-in-themselves is impossible through conceptual reason. However, he reinterpreted the "thing-in-itself" as the will—a nonrational, universal life force. While reason could only grasp superficial representations, Schopenhauer argued that metaphysical insight into this underlying will could be achieved through nonrational means, such as aesthetic experience.2