Subjective Thinking: Kierkegaard on Hegel's Socrates

One of the more surreal moments in Kierkegaard's journals involves a scene from the Underworld. Hegel has been reading Trendelenburg's Logical Investigations, and goes over to Socrates to complain. Alas, the conversation has trouble getting off the ground: Socr.: Should we begin by being altogether in disagreement, or should we agree on something we could call a presupposition?…. What do you presuppose as your starting-point? H.: Nothing at all. Socr: That's quite something! So perhaps you don't start at all? H.: I not start, I who have written 21 volumes? Socr: Ye gods, what a hecatomb you have offered! H.: But I start from nothing. Socr.: Is that not something? H.: No – on the contrary. That first makes its appearance in the conclusion of the whole, in the course of which I discuss science, world history etc. Socr.: How might I be able to master this difficult task for many remarkable things may well be included which would show up my stupidity… You know that I did not even allow Polos to talk more than 5 minutes at a time, and you want to talk XXI volumes.