Philosophy is not empty speculation—it has, time and again, “landed” in modern science and social practice.

1. Kant: Defining the Boundaries of Reason

By distinguishing between the phenomenal world and the thing-in-itself, Kant set insurmountable boundaries for reason. This idea resonates with Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorems: no formal system can exhaust all truths within itself. Gödel’s early deep understanding of Kantian philosophy makes this intellectual lineage clear.

2. Hegel: The Unity of Dialectical Logic

Building upon the boundaries set by Kant, Hegel proposed that substance is subject, unifying metaphysics and logic within dialectical logic. Metaphysics was no longer an isolated rational deduction but became a logical tool that drives the development of real history.

3. Modern Landing: From Computing to Science and Social Practice

• Computer Science: Turing proposed ordinal logic systems, using transfinite iteration to unify Turing machines and oracle machines. Satoshi Nakamoto further landed this idea, creating Bitcoin, making the fusion of philosophy and computer science a reality.
• Physics: The uncertainty principle in quantum mechanics shattered the absolute determinism of Newtonian mechanics, echoing Kant and Hegel’s insights on the boundaries of reason and the unity of contradictions. For the first time, humanity faced the fundamental structure of “incompleteness” in science.
• Social History: Marx, on the basis of Hegel’s dialectical logic, inverted the Absolute Spirit with practice, laying the foundation of historical materialism, which became the spiritual driving force behind the rise of New China.
• Economic Thought: Hayek’s philosophy of the free market also embodies the spiral development of dialectical logic.
  

4. Hegel’s Foresight and Limitations

Some of Hegel’s theories were refuted by science, such as “Absolute Spirit,” ether theory, and natural philosophy based on Goethe’s optics. Yet his dialectics anticipated both the wave-particle duality of light and relativity’s reconstruction of spacetime—over a century before science formalized them.

Conclusion

Kant defined the boundaries of reason, Hegel pushed toward unification, and later thinkers continued to land these ideas into science and society. From Turing to Satoshi, from quantum mechanics to Marx and Hayek, this intellectual trajectory not only extends the vitality of philosophy but also shapes the modern world we live in.