Abstract

This thesis gives a new interpretation for the infamous move from Hegel’s Science of Logic to the Philosophy of Nature. Briefly, I argue that the reason for the move to the PN is grounded in the immanent development of the SL, that because of this the PN is a continuation of the examination of the determinations of thought and being that begins with the SL, and that, consequently, the PN develops according to the same methodological tenets as the SL. My approach is to focus on the move to the PN through the development of the relation of the Concept and Objectivity. The final determination of the SL, the system, is the absolute unity of the Concept and Objectivity and it is this determination that subsequently develops into the self-external Idea, Nature. Thus, I begin by briefly outlining the development of the Concept through the chapters of Judgement and Syllogism, where at the end of Syllogism the Concept determines itself into Objectivity. Beginning from Objectivity, I give a detailed account of the way that the Concept develops out of Objectivity, until it relates to Objectivity in the chapter on Life. I, then, trace the development of the Concept-Objectivity relation through the Idea section, which ultimately culminates in the absolute unity of the Concept and Objectivity in the system. The system is the immediate self-relation of itself to itself, and despite the immediacy and identity, has a moment of difference within itself. The expression of this difference within the self-relating system necessarily leads us into the self-external Idea: the unity of the Concept and Objectivity that is external to itself, i.e. Nature. Not only does my thesis fill an important interpretive gap regarding the coherence of the Hegelian system, a concern for many Hegelians, but I claim that it furnishes us with a concept of Nature as it is in-itself. Such a conception can open avenues for a normative ethical theory for how we ought to treat Nature in the current environmental crisis, as well as having implications for contemporary philosophy of science that engages with Nature within the parameters of science and the scientific method instead of with Nature as it is in-itself.