4. Critique of Observational Science: The classification of nature based upon observations does not give the true nature of things because particular things (the determinate content) and general concepts of class (universals) blend into one another. In other words, we cannot separate existent things sharply through classification. Observational laws of inorganic nature through inductive generalization are only probable rather than certain. Generally on the European Continent (for Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and Kant) certainty rather than probability is sought. A law requires an act of consciousness that goes beyond observation. Hegel writes, “That a stone falls is true for consciousness because it is aware of the stone being heavy, i.e. because in weight, taken by itself as such, the stone has that essential relation to the earth expressed in the act of falling.” (PM, p. 290).
Because organic nature is indeterminate and in flux, laws of organic nature always present exceptions, are superficial, and lack any inner necessity to make them true. For example, although a thick coat of hair is associated with animals in northern latitudes, there is nothing in the notion of north that necessarily implies the notion of a thick coat of hair. The notion or concept of Purpose, i.e. the inner being of the organic that governs the changes in organisms through inner necessity, explains organic nature better than laws. Purpose or inner being is not as easily recognizable as the observable or the outer being and therefore the need for understanding through a rational self-consciousness rather than through passive observation. The outer is really the expression of the inner. With respect to sensibility, the inner expresses the notion of passive reflexion into itself, whereas the outer is embodied in the nervous system. Hegel rejects both physiognomy and phrenology however. Physiognomy does not establish a necessary relation between outer and inner. It also ignores the significance of acts as expressions of the inner in addition to any external physical characteristics. Phrenology exhibits similar problems.
Laws of Thought, logical laws, observed within self-consciousness are too static to capture the flux of organic nature and hence they give only a false sense of absoluteness. Psychological Laws observed within self-consciousness and based upon observations of habits, custom inclinations, passions, faculties, etc, also have to much static determinateness to capture individual consciousness, particularly the ability to select from the stream of reality. It should be clear that Hegel understands science as a process in a way different from most traditional and mainstream or standard views.
