ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates Hegel's philosophical account of living organisms and its import for current philosophical conversation on life. In part one, I will address Hegel's stance toward the distinction between the manifest and scientific images of life and living organisms. I will argue that Hegel's philosophical views cannot be reduced to an analysis of common sense or the manifest image framework but rather investigate and integrate categories coming from the natural sciences of his period. This gives new meaning to the idea of Hegelian naturalism. In part two, I argue that this is particularly notable in the case of ‘organization,’ a notion central to Hegel's understanding of living beings. I will first briefly survey and contextualize the role this notion played in debates that took place around Hegel, especially in the work of comparative anatomist George Cuvier, reconstructing Hegel's conception of ‘organization’ in detail. I will then show that organization plays a fundamental role in Hegel's thought. I will close by pointing to a potential resonance between Hegel's views and a current conceptual framework in theoretical biology that aims to elaborate the notion of organization in a theoretically viable and scientifically sound way.
