The Transition to Organics: Hegel's Idea of Life

I focus first on what Hegel understands to be the conceptual structure or logical form of life. Then I examine he transition, through chemical processes, from the sphere of the inorganic to that of organic. I shall show that this transition is a logical one that hinges on conceptual inner necessity, not a natural one in which chemical processes actually give rise to living organisms at specific points in time. I claim that Hegel holds neither the vitalistic view that organic life 'emerges' from an essentially lifeless matter by means of the sudden appearance of a natural productive power of generation, nor the hylozoic view that nature in its temporal existence is everywhere really alive in all its parts.