Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature

Edited by Stephen Houlgate

Subjects: Hegel
Series: SUNY series in Hegelian Studies
Paperback : 9780791441442, 382 pages, December 1998
Hardcover : 9780791441435, 382 pages, January 1999
Out of print (Hardcover)

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Table of contents

Abbreviations

Introduction
Stephen Houlgate

1. The Very Idea of the Idea of Nature, or Why Hegel Is Not an Idealist
William Maker

2. The Logic of Hegel's Philosophy of Nature: Nature, Space, and Time
Edward Halper

3. Space, Time and Matter: Conceiving Nature Without Foundations
Richard Dien Winfield

4. Hegel's Geometric Theory
Lawrence S. Stepelevich

5. How to Save the Phenomena: Meaning and Reference in Hegel's Philosophy of Nature
Brigitte Falkenburg

6. On Hegel's Early Critique of Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science
Kenneth R. Westphal

7. Hegel's Appropriation of Kant's Account of Teleology in Nature
Daniel O. Dahlstrom

8. How Final Is Hegel's Rejection of Evolution?
Errol E. Harris

9. Hegel's Nature
Donald Phillip Verene

10. Hegel's Worm in Newton's Apple
Mauro Nasti De Vincentis

11. The Ontological Foundations of Hegel's Dissertation of 1801
Olivier Depré

12. Framing Hypotheses: Numbers in Nature and the Logic of Measure in the Development of Hegel's System
Cinzia Ferrini

Bibliography

About the Contributors

Index

Confirms that Hegel's philosophy of nature continues to have great significance for our understanding of the natural world.

Description

Hegel and the Philosophy of Nature is an important new study of Hegel's profound philosophical account of the natural world. It examines Hegel's alleged idealism, his concepts of space and time, the conception of speculative geometry, his critical engagement with Kant's Metaphysical Foundations of Natural Science, his critique of Newtonian science, his concept of evolution, the notion of Aufhebung, and his infamous theory of planetary objects. The book confirms that, far from being surpassed by nineteenth- and twentieth-century scientific developments, Hegel's philosophy of nature continues to have great significance for our understanding of the natural world.

[Contributors include Daniel O. Dahlstrom, Olivier Depré, Mauro Nasti De Vincentis, Brigitte Falkenburg, Cinzia Ferrini, Edward Halper, Errol E. Harris, William Maker, Lawrence S. Stepelevich, Donald Phillip Verene, Kenneth R. Westphal, and Richard Dien Winfield. ]

Stephen Houlgate is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Warwick and is the author of Hegel, Nietzsche and the Criticism of Metaphysics and Freedom, Truth and History: An Introduction to Hegel's Philosophy.

Reviews

"This is the most careful and penetrating analysis of Hegel's philosophy of nature, as it flows from his Logic and what should be called his scientific method. " — Oliva Blanchette, Boston College

"In addition to Hegel scholars, this book will be of interest to people who are thinking about the relationship of science to nature and how we moderns should be approaching nature. The ecological revolution has returned the whole question of a philosophy of nature to the arena of theoretical discourse. " — John W. Burbidge, author of Hegel on Logic and Religion