RÉGIS DE MELO ALVES

This thesis revisits the problem of the unity between being and thought through the section on the Idea in Hegel’s Logic, where the division and unity between life and theoretical and practical knowing serve as a framework for the relation between nature and spirit, later developed in the figures of Real Philosophy. The meanings of life as the immediate realization of the concept are examined to better define the specificity of the difference between nature and spirit, as well as how the concept, contradiction and the role of negativity are distinctly realized in the system's three spheres. The notion of drive in classical German thought plays a central role, serving as the unifying thread between nature and spirit, particularly Fichte’s theory of drives, which anticipates life as the immediate realization of the concept. In Hegel, drive functions as both a guiding thread in the Idea section and as a recurring element in Real Philosophy, notably in the organic physics of the Philosophy of Nature and in the anthropology and psychology of the Philosophy of Objective Spirit, shedding new light on this fundamental notion within Hegelian idealism.