[3rd Paragraph]
To be sure, this outline deviates from an ordinary compendium primarily through the method that serves as its guiding principle. However, it is presupposed here that the philosophical way of advancing from one subject matter to another and of scientific proof—this speculative mode of cognition in general—differs essentially from other modes of cognition. Insight into the necessity of such a difference is the only thing capable of snatching philosophy out of the ignominious decay into which it has sunk in our times. People have recognized, or rather felt more than recognized, the inadequacy of the forms and rules of former logic—of defining, classifying, and inferring, which comprise the rules of understanding-cognition—for speculative science. Consequently, they have cast these rules aside as mere fetters, only to speak arbitrarily from the heart, the imagination, and random intuition; and since reflection and relations of thought must nonetheless enter in, one proceeds unconsciously in the despised method of quite ordinary inference and reasoning. I have developed the nature of speculative knowledge in detail in my Science of Logic; in this outline, therefore, an explanation of progress and method has only been added here and there. Given the concrete and inherently manifold nature of the subject matter, showing and highlighting the logical derivation in every single detail has been neglected. In part, this could be considered superfluous assuming an acquaintance with the scientific method; in part, however, it will be immediately apparent that the whole, as well as the development of its members, rests upon the logical spirit. From this side primarily, I would wish for this treatise to be understood and judged. For what is at stake here is science, and in science, the content is essentially bound to the form.
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