Why did G.W.F. Hegel criticize Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling’s idea of the Absolute?

G.W.F. Hegel criticized Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph von Schelling’s conception of the Absolute primarily because he viewed it as an undifferentiated, featureless unity that lacked internal structure or explanation.12

In his Phänomenologie des Geistes (1807; The Phenomenology of Mind), Hegel famously attacked Schelling’s definition of the Absolute as an "indiscriminate unity of the subjective and the objective" by comparing it to the night, "in which all cows are black". Hegel’s objections centered on two main points:2

• Lack of Differentiation: By defining the Absolute as a state where subject and object are lost in anonymity, Schelling failed to account for the complexity and development of reality.12
• Arbitrary Assertion: Hegel argued that Schelling never explained how one actually arrives at this Absolute, instead presenting it as if it were "shot out of a pistol".2

While both philosophers were central to Absolute Idealism, Hegel believed that truth is found in the coherent, complex development of mind, rather than in a static, featureless unity.1