Viewpoints of German classical idealism used, not used and misused in social theory

In this thesis viewpoints of Hegel's philosophy of history were confronted with selected fields of 20th century social theory. The Enlightenment was chosen as a keyword. In Hegel's Phenomenology of Mind the Enlightenment is a mode of experience of consciousness, or a phenomenon of Spirit in its history, a phenomenon which is becoming outdated in his time. To illustrate such overcome this conception of Enlightenment is demonstrated on Kant's article The answer to a Question: What is Enlightenment?. Thesis then examines the way in which had Hegel's interpretation inspired Critical theory - specifically Adorno's and Horkheimer's Dialectic of Enlightenment and Marcuse's Reason and Revolution. The last part of thesis is focused on the broader field of social theory to find manifestations of thought stream begun by Hegel. It finds it out especially in thought of Gadamer in considerably radical form calling to a question the epistemology of humanities till his present. Viewpoints emerged from Hegel's philosophical reaction to the Enlightenment represent still current counterpart of neopositivist approaches and a relevant reference point in epistemological uncertainty and in finding out an adequate socio-historical role of humanities