Nature

Nature is the otherness of the Idea — the Idea in external form. After Logic (pure conceptuality), the Idea releases itself into Nature: space, time, matter, motion. Nature is not creation out of nothing but the self-externalization of the logical Idea. It is the Idea "outside itself" — spatially side-by-side (space), temporally in succession (time), mechanical, physical, organic. Nature develops from mechanics through physics/chemistry to life. In life, the Idea returns to itself: the organism is an end in itself. The highest form of nature (life) turns over into spirit. Nature is a necessary transitional stage: the Idea must externalize itself in order to return to itself as spirit. "Nature is spirit estranged from itself."