Realphilosophie

*Realphilosophie* ("philosophy of the real") is the retrospective label for Hegel's philosophy of nature and philosophy of spirit, as distinguished from logic. The term does not originate with Hegel himself. The problem is that the label suggests logic is not "real" — which contradicts Hegel's intention. For Hegel, "real" means concrete, actualized (not empirical). Logic, in Hegel's usage, is very much real: it displays the real structures of thought. A better label would be "applied logic" or "concretization." The *Realphilosophie* develops the logical categories within nature (space, time, matter) and within spirit (subject, intersubjectivity, institutions). Criticism: the term "Realphilosophie" is incompatible with Hegel's own use of *real*/*reell* and falsely implies an opposition to logic. We nonetheless use the expression, with this caveat, because it has become established in the Hegel literature — without endorsing its misleading implication.