Hegel’s Pragmatic Critique and Reconstruction of Kant’s System of Principles in theLogicandEncyclopaedia

Abstract

In theScience of LogicandPhilosophical Encyclopaedia, Hegel reconstructs Kant’s Critical philosophy by developing: a transcendental logic in theScience of LogicandPhilosophy of Nature(§2), a pragmatic account of the a priori (§3), and a crucial use of the verb “realisieren” in connection with concepts and principles (§4). These three points are central to Hegel’s specifically cognitive semantics, which Hegel developed from Kant’s Thesis of Singular Cognitive Reference into a systematic, pragmatic realism. Hegel’s re-analysis of Kant’s Critical philosophy is thus the first and still one of the most adequate forms of pragmatic realism.