Kommentar zur Naturphilosophie, Chapter 17
Three Misunderstandings to Clear Away in Advance
The sequence mechanism—chemism—teleology is regularly misread, and misread in three ways.
Not meant: “Everything is really mechanical.” That would be reductionism, and Hegel develops the sequence precisely against it.
Not meant: “Mechanism is false, teleology true.” The forms do not stand as error against truth, but as poorer against richer determination.
Not meant: “Every object belongs in exactly one drawer.” Actual structures display all three forms at once, on different levels.
Take an organism: its bones bear weight mechanically, its metabolism runs chemically, its behavior is directed toward ends. All three descriptions are correct—the question is which one bears where.
This also says what natural philosophy is supposed to accomplish: not to sort objects into categories, but to recognize which form dominates where. That is a judgment, not an assignment. [KF]