Abstract

The essay analyzes the philosophical dimension of Bakunin's thought focusing on his knowledge of the Hegelian system. Bakunin radicalized the debates of the "young Hegelian" in Berlin by stressing the negative side of the dialectical movement of the "spirit". He then remained bounded to this Hegelian inspiration even after his Berlin experience, during his political activity. From that inspiration, though complemented with other materials, he elaborated the program of an anti-essentialist and antiauthoritarian metaphysic, critical of the normative conception of law, which determined a "dialectical" understanding of liberty.