A Commentary on the Concept of Teleology in Hegel’s Science of Logic

Abstract

The present article aims to examine the concept of teleology in Hegel's Science of Logic, seeking to understand how this concept provides access to freedom through its speculative movement. The investigation is based on the view that the external and internal activities of teleology constitute, at this stage of Hegel's logic, a syllogistic activity oriented toward the Idea and, consequently, toward the free existence of the Concept. From this perspective, it is possible to interpret this moment of the Science of Logic as a driving force within the Doctrine of the Concept, insofar as teleology embodies a capacity for actualization associated with its own speculative 
movement. To this end, the article is organized 
into three parts. First, it briefly reconstructs the 
Kantian point of departure mobilized by Hegel in 
his account of teleology. It then examines the development of Hegel's response, the meaning of 
the concrete universal that he attributes to this 
concept, and its articulation with freedom. Finally, it investigates the aforementioned internal and external activities of teleology.