[18th Paragraph]
At the beginning Hegel said: in science, content and form belong together. Now we see more exactly what that means. The form is thinking that comprehends. The content is the reason within the world, both in nature and in our life together. Where the two recognize each other, there is the Idea.
Then Hegel praises a kind of stubbornness. A person refuses to recognize anything he cannot justify by his own thinking. This stubbornness does him honor. It is the mark of the modern age and the principle of Protestantism. Luther began this in faith and in feeling. The more mature spirit now wants to grasp the same thing in the concept.
There is a well-known saying: a half-philosophy leads away from God; the true one leads to God. It is the same with the state. Reason is not content with a halfway approach. It is neither cold nor hot. As the Bible says, such a thing gets spat out.
But reason is not satisfied with cold despair either. That despair says: in this world things go badly or only so-so. There is nothing better, so we might as well keep the peace. Knowledge brings a warmer peace with actuality.
In short: a person may test everything by thinking, and should do so. Whoever does this fully finds no despair, but a warm peace with the world.
Hegel’s text: Preface, paragraph 18 →