Dimitrije Matic: Hegelianism and Naturalism
Authors: Milosavljevic Boris 
Published: July 2015

Dimitrije Matic (1821-1884) was a philosopher, jurist, professor of public
law at the Belgrade Lyceum and politician. He served as Serbia?s Minister of
Education and Church Affairs, acting Foreign Minister, Speaker of the
Parliament, and member of the State Council. He was president of the Serbian
Society of Letters and member of the Serbian Learned Society. Matic belonged
to Serbian liberal-minded intellectual circles. He believed that the rule of
force was unacceptable and that governments should promote and support
popular education. Matic studied philosophy and law in Serbia (Kragujevac,
Belgrade), Germany (Berlin, Heidelberg) and France (Paris), and received his
doctorial degree in philosophy in Leipzig. In Berlin Matic embraced Hegel?s
speculative philosophy and theory of state (philosophy of law). Among his
professors were Georg Andreas Gabler (Hegel`s immediate successor), Otto
Friedrich Gruppe, Wilhelm Vatke etc. In Halle he listened to another
Hegelian, Johann Eduard Erdmann. He had the opportunity to attend Friedrich
Schelling?s lectures on the philosophy of mythology. If the Right Hegelians
developed Hegel?s philosophy along the lines they considered to be in
accordance with Christian theology, and the Left Hegelians laid the emphasis
on the anti-Christian tendencies of Hegel?s system and pushed it in the
direction of materialism and socialism, Matic would be closer to the first.
Actually, he was mostly influenced by his professor Karl Ludwig Michelet,
with whom he established a lifelong friendship. Matic?s doctorial thesis
(Dissertatio de via qua Fichtii, Schellingii, Hegeliique philosophia e
speculativa investigatione Kantiana exculta sit) addressed the question of
how the philosophy of Fichte, Schelling and Hegel developed from Kantian
speculative thought. The paper deals with the question whether Matic took a
shift from Hegelianism to Positivism (Naturalism) in the 1860s, which is a
claim that was taken for granted in the Yugoslav (Serbian) Marxist histories
of Serbian philosophy after the Second World War and Communist revolution.
In fact, it is rooted in Milan Kujundzic-Aberdar?s (1842-1893) periodization
of the Serbian philosophical literature. Kujundzic, professor of Philosophy
at the Belgrade Great School, classified Matic?s Science of Education into
the latest period of natural philosophy. In order to answer the question,
the paper looks into the evolution of Matic?s philosophical, legal and
political views. Matic followed Hegelian philosophy in his: Short Review
(according to Hegel?s ? Psychology in Encyclopaedia of the Philosophical
Sciences); Principles of Rational [Vernunftrecht] State Law [Staatslehre]
according to Heinrich Zepfel?s book on the philosophy of law (Grunds?tze des
allgemeinen und des konstitutionell-monarchischen Staatsrechts and Hegel?s
Philosophy of Law) and History of Philosophy (according to Albert
Schwegler?s History of Philosophy). There is nothing in Matic?s Science of
Education that would corroborate the claim that he shifted from Hegelianism
to Positivism. Though he had to attune his views to the changed, anti-
Hegelian, intellectual climate and influences on academic life, he remained
a Hegelian. The paper deals with the reasons why the Marxist histories of
Serbian philosophy insisted on his alleged conversion.