Editing Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (section)

=== Philosophy of the real ===
[[File:Tetradrachm Athens 480-420BC MBA Lyon.jpg|thumb|Hegel uses the [[Owl of Minerva]] as a metaphor for how philosophy can understand historical conditions only after they occur.]]

In contrast to the first, logical part of Hegel's system, the second, [[Realphilosophie|real-philosophical]] part – the philosophy of nature and of spirit – is an ongoing project with respect to its historical content, which continues to change and develop.{{sfn|de Laurentiis|2005|pages=29–31}}{{sfn|Hegel|1995|pp=54–55}} For instance, although Hegel regards "the basic structure" of the philosophy of nature as complete, he was "aware that science is not 'finished' and will continue to make new discoveries".{{sfn|Magee|2011|p=156}} Philosophy is, as Hegel puts it, "''its own time comprehended in thoughts''."{{sfn|Hegel|1991a|p=21}}

He expands upon this definition:

<blockquote>A further word on the subject of ''issuing instructions'' on how the world ought to be: philosophy, at any rate, always comes too late to perform this function. As the ''thought'' of the world, it appears only at a time when actuality has gone through its formative process and attained its completed state [''sich fertig gemacht'']. This lesson of the concept is necessarily also apparent from history, namely that it is only when actuality [''Wirklichkeit''] has reached maturity that the ideal appears opposite the real and reconstructs this real world, which it has grasped in its substance, in the shape of an intellectual realm. When philosophy paints its gray in gray, a shape of life has grown old, and it cannot be rejuvenated, but only recognized, by the gray in gray of philosophy; the owl of [[Minerva]] begins its flight only with the onset of dusk.{{sfn|Hegel|1991a|p=23}}</blockquote>

This frequently has been read as an expression of the impotence of philosophy, political or otherwise, and a rationalization of the status quo.{{sfn|Wood|1991|pp=viii–ix}} Scholar [[Allegra de Laurentiis]], however, points out that the German expression "''sich fertig machen''", translated as "getting ready" or "to get ready", does not only imply completion, but also preparedness. This additional meaning is important because it better reflects Hegel's [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] concept of [[Potentiality and actuality|actuality]]. He characterizes actuality as being-at-work-staying-itself that can never be once-and-for-all completed or finished.{{sfn|de Laurentiis|2005|p=29}}

Hegel describes the relationship between the logical and the real-philosophical parts of his system in this way: "If philosophy does not stand above its time in content, it does so in [[Substantial form|form]], because, as the thought and knowledge of that which is the substantial spirit of its time, it makes that spirit its object."{{sfn|Hegel|1995|p=54}}

This is to say that what makes the philosophy of the real [[Wissenschaft|''scientific'']] in Hegel's technical sense is the systematically coherent logical form it uncovers in its natural-historical material – and so also displays in its presentation.{{sfn|Inwood|1992|pp=265–68}}