2. Philosophy - Stefano Franchi

O F LINES, CIRCLES, AND SPHERES.
conclusion about the general shape that philosophy must assume if it has to be true to itself
and, therefore, capable to survive the challenge moved by both religion and science. In oth-
er words, the result Hegel has reached is nothing more than a deepening of the previous
conclusion about the relationship between philosophy and its end, and a much sharper de-
limitation of what is at stake. Two important points must be established in order to turn this
prescriptive statement into a result. First, it must be specified how philosophy develops,
how it can proceed from one “system” to the next. Furthermore, the process governing its
movement must be shown at work both in abstracto and in concreto, that is, the ruling prin-
ciple must be exhibited and the historical, actual development of philosophy must be
proved to follow it. Second, it must be clarified where this developing movement leads to.
Is it an infinite development? Does it reach an end? If so, what happens at the end? Further-
more, how can we tell if such an end has been reached?
Let us begin by examining the how of the philosophical development, since its expla-
nation will shed quite some light on its where. Hegel starts by distinguishing between the
form and the content of the individual philosophical systems. The content is the same for
each, since it is just what philosophy, generally considered, is about: truth, and more spe-
cifically the truth of the world. The content of philosophy, in other words, is what I have
been trying to elucidate in the previous pages when discussing what, according to Hegel,
philosophy is, or rather cannot but be. Hegel calls such a content the Idea. The form of a
specific philosophical system, on the other hand, is the particular shape that the latter as-
sumes at the hands of a specific thinker in a determinate time. Between form and content,
Hegel contends, there is an intrinsic contrast because the content is necessarily infinite,
while the specific shapes are necessarily finite. Something is finite when it has a limit, when
something else bounds it from the outside and therefore gives it its finitude. Truth cannot
be finite in this sense since otherwise it would have to be limited and partial and would gain
its determinatedness from what lies outside itself. Truth in the true sense of the word can
only be infinite.
This contrast originate a dialectic movement that puts the history of philosophy in mo-
tion. Here is how Hegel puts it:
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