Hegel's Philosophy of Nature

Hegel's nature philosophy offers a non-naturalist view of mind, aligning with modern physics and ecology to enrich scientific thought.

This Element explores Hegel's philosophy of nature, examining its foundations and method in relation to Newtonian and modern physics. It highlights Hegel's view of the universe as a space-time system and Earth as an ecological whole, showing how his thought remains relevant to contemporary science and non-naturalist accounts of mind.Recent years have seen new systematic interest in Hegel's philosophical conception of the physical universe. It has become clear that Hegel's account of nature is revealing both on its own as well as by providing a non-naturalist understanding of the place of mind in nature. This Element focuses on the very foundations and method of Hegel's philosophy of nature, relating them to Newtonian and to modern physics. The volume also sheds light on Hegel's global account of the physical universe as a material space-time system and on his ecological conception of the Earth as a habitable planet populated by organic life. By drawing connections to relativity theory and earth systems science it is shown that Hegel's conception of nature is very much philosophically alive and can complement scientific accounts of nature in illuminating ways.