Commentary on the Philosophy of Nature, Chapter 25
Why Nature Often Has Four Steps, Not Three
A finding that runs through the whole philosophy of nature and that is irritating to read: where logic has three moments, nature often has four.
Werckmeister gives the reason: in nature the middle term is doubled — Hegel says “broken.” In the process of fire, for instance, “the broken middle and the two extremes” belong together. Where in the logical sphere a single mediating term stands, in nature two stand, because the mediating term itself splits apart.[1]
This shows itself in the elements: gases, bases and acids, salts and earths, metals — four stages from the most abstract to the most concrete. The same holds for the four Empedoclean elements themselves, where air and fire form one side, water and earth the other.
This is not a deviation from the method but its application to a domain in which the determinations fall apart — for that, after all, is the basic determination of nature. Whoever expects the triad everywhere thereby misses precisely what constitutes nature. [KF]
Werckmeister, op. cit., on the systematization of the elements. ↩︎