Anti-Hegelian Bias in Yogācāra Studies

Abstract

One of the central questions of Yogācāra studies is whether Yogācāra should be understood as a form of idealism. In addressing this question, scholars frequently invoke Hegel’s philosophy as a type of idealism fundamentally incompatible with Yogācāra. But those references are often made without direct engagement with Hegel’s texts, relying instead on reductive accounts of his philosophy. In this paper, I aim to uncover this reductivism and show that it does not withstand critical analysis. I begin by examining a recent example of anti-Hegelian scholarship, followed by a broader survey of similar positions over the past decades. I then bring these positions into a conversation with Hegel’s texts, revealing tensions between Hegel’s philosophy and its representation in Buddhist philosophy. On this basis, I advocate for a new interpretation of Yogācāra texts through a Hegelian lens.