The Preface explains just what this transformation of philosophy into science fundamentally involves. It is to this revolutionary transformation that Hegel sees the Phenomenology as first and foremost contributing. Philosophy is in the process of transforming itself into a science, becoming actual wisdom instead of mere love of wisdom (71-72). The revolution that he speaks of is not merely political but also philosophical. Spirit has broken away from its former world of existence and imaging it is about to sink all that into the past, and is busy shaping itself anew" (82). Hegel writes there that it is "not hard to see that our time is a time of birth and transition into a new era. The Preface to the work, completed a few months later in January of 1807, reflects the revolutionary excitement of the time. Everyone knows the story of how Hegel, in October of 1806, against the backdrop of the battle of Jena, composed the final pages of the Phenomenology of Spirit with the roar of Napoleon's cannons in his ears.
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