A comprehensive study in English of Bruno Bauer, leading Hegelian philosopher of the 1840s.This is the first comprehensive study in English of Bruno Bauer, a leading philosopher of the 1840s. Inspired by the philosophy of Hegel, Bauer led an intellectual revolution that influenced Marx and shaped modern secular humanism. In the process he offered a republican alternative to liberalism and socialism, criticized religious and political conservatism and set out the terms for the development of modern mass and industrial society.This is the first comprehensive study in English of Bruno Bauer, a leading philosopher of the 1840s. Inspired by the philosophy of Hegel, Bauer led an intellectual revolution that influenced Marx and shaped modern secular humanism. In the process he offered a republican alternative to liberalism and socialism, criticized religious and political conservatism and set out the terms for the development of modern mass and industrial society.This is the first comprehensive study in English of Bruno Bauer, a leading philosopher of the 1840s. Inspired by the philosophy of Hegel, Bauer led an intellectual revolution that influenced Marx and shaped modern secular humanism. In the process he offered a republican alternative to liberalism and socialism, criticized religious and political conservatism and set out the terms for the development of modern mass and industrial society.Preface; Introduction: 'the friend of freedom'; Part I. Foundations: Aesthetics, Ethics and Republicanism: 1. 'The idea is life': Bauer's aesthetics and political thought; 2. 'Free means ethical': idealism, history and critical theory; Part II. Judging the Old Order: 3. 'The other of itself': the critique of the religious consciousness; 4. 'Revolution and the Republic': the state and self-consciousness; Part III. The Emancipatory Project: 5. 'Only the ought is true': Hegel, self-consciousness and revolution; 6. 'To the people belongs the future': universal right and history; Partl³'