Time and Atemporality of Time in Hegel’s Naturphilosophie

What is the meaning of atemporality in Hegel’s philosophy? What is the relationship between philosophy and physics, according to Hegel’s Naturphilosophie? And why should Hegel’s reading of Plato’s Timaeus be interesting for understanding both his idea of atemporality of time and the philosophical approach to the problem of the origins of the world? This Chapter addresses these questions by analysing some passages of Hegel’s writings, from the Dissertation on the orbits of the planets (1801) up to the Encyclopedia (1817/1827/1830). Hegel tackles the concept of atemporality (Zeitlosigkeit) when he refers to the idea or to the ideal dimension as considered in se and per se, the question about the eternity or the beginning of the world emerges as an integral part of the problem. The Chapter includes Hegel’s reconsideration of Plato’s Timaeus up to the arguments about the origins of the world and the notion of life in the second part of the Enzyklopädie der philosophischen Wissenschaften im Grundrisse devoted to Naturphilosophie.