In the statement from the Philosophy of Right quoted below, Hegel was trying to differentiate Philosophy from crackpot political schema 'recipes for the cookshops of the future' which were being passed out in the streets of Berlin in the early 19th century by utopian and other politicos under the guise of being 'philosophies'.
As you know, Engels expanded on these themes and their dialectical intertwinning in Ludwig Feuerbach and the End of Classical German Philosophy. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1886/ludwig-feuerbach/index.htm
I'm sure Ted Winslow could cast more light on this subject, if he were reading this exchange...and willing.
Mike B)
**************************************************
Mike, that thesis is most illuminating in this context if you see it as an epistemological proposition (as in one way or another are all the Theses on Feuerebach. Mao's vulgarization of it is a useful pointer: "If you want to know what a pear tastes like, you have to change the world by biting into it." Though this distorts, it also underlines the epistemological force. If you want to interpret the world, you must enter into the collective effort to _change_ it. Knowledge is grounded in human activity. And the 'first movement' of thought must be to grasp that activity from which it has emerged. And then it is a leap, though not all that much of one, to grasp _in_ that activity the possibility of transforming it - and from the new perspective that leap enables to deepen, perhaps even radically transform, understanding of the original activity.
Carrol
-----Original Message----- From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org] On Behalf Of Mike Ballard Sent: Wednesday, February 08, 2012 8:42 PM To: lbo lbo Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Query on Hegel
"Only one word more concerning the desire to teach the world what it ought to be. For such a purpose philosophy at least always comes too late. Philosophy, as the thought of the world, does not appear until reality has completed its formative process, and made itself ready. History thus corroborates the teaching of the conception that only in the maturity of reality does the ideal appear as counterpart to the real, apprehends the real world in its substance, and shapes it into an intellectual kingdom. When philosophy paints its grey in grey, one form of life has become old, and by means of grey it cannot be rejuvenated, but only known. The owl of Minerva, takes its flight only when the shades of night are gathering." Pappa Hegel
"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it." K.M. speaking at the Left Hegelian Gun Club *********************************************************************** Wobbly Times http://wobblytimes.blogspot.com/