Theory and Praxis and the Beginning of Science

Abstract

In the Introduction to his Naturphilosophie in the Encyclopädie, Hegel begins by examining various ‘Ways of Considering Nature’ (PN, p. 3). He starts with man’s practical approach to Nature (§ 245), and only after discussing this approach does he turn to man’s thinking or theoretical consciousness or consideration of Nature (§ 246). The order is understandable given that man’s first relation to nature is an immediate and external one, whereas the latter is viewed as containing the means for the satisfaction of one’s own practical urges. Through our practical approach to Nature we transform the particular objects of Nature into means for our own immediate physical survival and well-being. Only then does Hegel turn, in the next paragraph of the Enyklopädie, to man’s theoretical or thinking consideration of Nature and the Philosophy of Nature per se.