The study focuses on the sceptical forms of thought and expression with which Hegel and Kierkegaard link the claim for absolute truth. With his 'self-completing scepticism' (Phenomenology of Mind) Hegel puts forward a process of purification which reveals truth through despair. In contrast, Kierkegaard's permanent mobilisation of doubt against knowledge and a directed faith appears as a 'self-consuming scepticism', the expression ofwhich requires a literarisation of philosophy.