The article discusses the features of the Hegelian understanding of the historical and philosophical process - logical a priori, the prevalence of the logical over the historical. It is indicated that the source of this approach is Hegel's Elean way of thinking, which has both positive and negative sides. The positive feature of such a priori is that the history of philosophy turns into philosophical discipline, while the negative consequence of logical a priori is the arbitrary determination of the beginning and “end” of the historical and philosophical process, the violation of the order and sequence thereof, a tendentious selection of thinkers and categorical composition. It is shown that one of the critics of the Hegelian understanding of philosophy and its history was Marxism. Overcoming logical a priori, Marxism puts in its place economic a priori, which leads to worse results, because the history of philosophy loses the character of philosophy.