system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What does it mean for a philosopher to develop a "complete philosophical system"?

Like I read recently, for example, that Hegel is considered one of the last great "systems philosophers", having developed his own complete philosophical system. What does that involve? Does the philosopher have to touch on every branch of philosophy and come up with theories for all of them? Or do they have a broad theory that ties multiple branches of philosophy together?
gpt
I'd say both of your conditions need to be met:

> the philosopher have to touch on every branch of philosophy and come up with theories for all of them

More specifically, we could say that the philosopher has addressed every/most major branch of philosophy and..

> or do they have a broad theory that ties multiple branches of philosophy together? 

...explained how their commentary on each of these branches of philosophy ties back to their overall system. Some philosophers, for example, don't do this; they may comment on a variety of philosophical topics, but they don't link it back to a central system.

Kant is perhaps the best known "systematizer", while Nietzsche comments on nearly every branch of philosophy but does so in a very distinct, non-systematic way (hence the ease of finding passages that contradict each other.)