First Outline of a System of the Philosophy of Nature

thought, and in relation to which alone the nature of art can also be contrasted. For if in art the concept of the deed—the design—precedes the execution, then in nature, concept and deed are simultaneous and one; the concept passes immediately into the product and cannot be separated from it.

This identity is abolished by the empirical view, which sees only the effect in nature (although, due to the constant trespassing of empiricism into the field of science itself, maxims are heard in purely empirical physics that presuppose a concept of nature as a subject, such as: nature chooses the shortest path; nature is sparing in causes and wasteful in effects); it is abolished by speculation, which sees only the cause in nature.

3.

Only of nature as an object can one say that it is; one cannot say this of nature as a subject, for this is being or productivity itself.

This absolute productivity is to pass over into an empirical nature. In the concept of absolute productivity, the concept of an ideal infinity is thought. The ideal infinity is to become an empirical one.