NATURE IN HEGEL’S SYSTEM: RE-THINKING IDEALISM WITH-IN NATURE

Year 2023, Issue: 36, 221 - 237, 27.11.2023

Mert Can Yirmibeş

https://doi.org/10.53844/flsf.1361766

Abstract

Hegel’s system of philosophy offers a complex line of thought for a type of idealism, drastically different from its widely known critical readings. By examining the relationships between logic-nature and nature-spirit, the paper aims to prove that the place of nature in Hegel’s system does not allow to be conceived of as mystically idealist since philosophy, as a system of thought, in its development has to have some bearings on the material world at some point. The paper firstly provides compatible definitions of the terms, idealism and naturalism, with Hegel’s system. While the paper takes the definition of idealism in a Hegelian sense, for the purpose of the paper, non-reductive naturalism is regarded as compatible type of naturalism with Hegel’s system. In the light of the given definitions, the paper secondly examines the relation of nature to the Logic in Hegel’s system, and thirdly, examines the relation of nature to spirit. The relations of nature to the Logic and to spirit enable us to conclude that Hegel’s system of philosophy is open for involving the elements of non-reductive naturalism along with idealism.

Keywords

Idealism, Hegel, Logic, Nature, Spirit

HEGEL’İN SİSTEMİNDE DOĞA: İDEALİZMİ DOĞAYLA/DOĞADA YENİDEN DÜŞÜNMEK

Abstract

Hegel'in felsefe sistemi, geniş çapta bilinen eleştirel okumalarından büyük ölçüde farklı bir idealizm için kompleks bir düşünce dizilimi sunar. Bu makale Hegel'in sisteminde doğanın konumunu sistemin mistik bir idealizm olarak düşünülmesine izin vermediğini, düşünce sistemi olarak felsefenin gelişiminde bir noktada maddi dünya ile ilişkilendirilmesi gerektiği fikrini, Mantık-doğa ve doğa-tin ilişkilerini inceleyerek göstermeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bu makale, önce idealizm ve natüralizm terimlerinin Hegel'in sistemi ile uyumlu tanımlarını sunar. Makale Hegelci bir anlamda idealizm tanımını kabul ederken, indirgemeci-olmayan natüralizmin Hegel'in sistemiyle uyumlu bir natüralizm biçimini amacı için kabul eder. Verilen tanımlar ışığında, makale ikincil olarak Hegel'in sisteminde Mantık ile doğa arasındaki ilişkiyi incelemekte ve üçüncü olarak doğanın ruh ile ilişkisini incelemektedir. Doğanın Mantık ve tin ile ilişkisi, Hegel'in felsefe sisteminin idealizmle birlikte indirgemeci-olmayan natüralizmin unsurlarını içermeye açık olduğuna dair sonuç çıkarmamıza olanak tanır.

Keywords

İdealizm, Hegel, Mantık, Doğa, Tin

References

• Beiser, Frederick. “Hegel and Naturphilosophie”, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 34(1), (2003): 135-147 DOI:10.1016/S0039-3681(02)00083-3 (Accessed 11/04/2017)
• Drees, Martin. “The Logic of Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature”, in Hegel and Newtonianism, (ed.) Petry, M., Springer Netherlands: Dordrecht. (1993): 91-101. DOI:10.1007/978-94-011-1662-6_8 (Accessed 16/03/2017)
• Falkenburg, Brigitte. “How to save Phenomena: Meaning and Reference in Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature”, in Houlgate S. (ed.) Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature, State University of New York Press (1998): 97-137.
• Ferrini, Cinzia. “Transition to Spirit”, in De Laurentis, A. & Edwards, J. (eds.) The Bloomsbury Companion to Hegel. Bloomsbury Academic (2013): 127-133.
• Gardner, Sebastian. “The Limits of Naturalism and the Metaphysics of German Idealism”, in Hammer E. (ed.) German Idealism: Contemporary Perspectives, Routledge (2007): 19-49.
• Hegel, Georg W. F., The Science of Logic. Trans. Di Giovanni, G., New York: Cambridge University Press (2010).
• — The Encyclopaedia Logic, with the Zusatze. Trans. Geraets, T., Suchting, W., & Harris, H. Indianapolis: Hackett (1991).
• — Philosophy of Mind, Trans. Inwood, M.J., Oxford: Clarendon (2007).
• — Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature. Trans. Petry M. J. Allen & Unwin (1970).
• Houlgate, Stephen. “Logic and Hegel’s Philosophy of Nature: A Response to John Burbidge”, The Owl of Minerva, vol. 34, 2003, p.107-126. DOI: 10.5840/owl200234114 (Accessed 16/03/2017)
• —. The Opening of Hegel's Logic: From Being to Infinity, West Lafayette, Ind.: [London: Purdue University Press, 2006.
• Kim, Jaegwon. “The American Origin of Philosophical Naturalism”, in Journal of Philosophical Research vol.28 Philosophy in America at the Turn of the Century (2003): 83-98. DOI: 10.5840/jpr200328Supplement28 (Accessed 01/05/2017)
• Maker, William, “The Very Idea of the Idea of Nature, or Why Hegel Is Not an Idealist”, in Houlgate S. (ed.) Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature, State University of New York Press (1998): 1-29.
• Magee, Glenn A.. “Hegel and Mysticism”, in Beiser F. (ed.) The Cambridge Companion to Hegel and Nineteenth Century Philosophy. Cambridge University Press (2008): 253-281.
• Popper, Karl R.. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Volume 2, The High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath. Fifth Edition (rev.), London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966.
• Russell, Bertrand. Our Knowledge of the External World as a Field for Scientific Method in Philosophy, Rev., Allen & Unwin, 1926.
• Stern, Robert. ‘Why Hegel Now (Again) – and in What Form?”, in Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement, 78, (2016): 187–210. DOI: 10.1017/S1358246116000345 (Accessed 22/04/2017)
• Giladi, Paul. “Liberal Naturalism: The Curious Case of Hegel”, in International Journal of Philosophical Studies, (2014):1–23. DOI: 10.1080/09672559.2014.886280 (Accessed 11/05/2017)
• Stone, Alison. Petrified Intelligence: Nature in Hegel's Philosophy. State University of New York Press: Albany, 2005.