第 21 节
作者:匆匆      更新:2021-02-27 02:11      字数:9322
  progressively altered; at certain points in the scale of mixtures; two substances form products
  exhibiting particular qualities。 These products are distinguished from one another not merely by a
  more or less; and they are not already present; or only perhaps in a weaker degree; in the
  proportions close to the nodal proportions; but are bound up with these nodes themselves。 For
  example; different oxides of nitrogen and nitric acids having essentially different qualities are
  formed only when oxygen and nitrogen are combined in certain specific proportions; and no such
  specific compounds are formed by the intermediate proportions。 Metal oxides; e。g。 the lead
  oxides; are formed at certain quantitative points of oxidation and are distinguished by colours and
  other qualities。 They do not pass gradually into one another; the proportions lying in between these
  nodes do not produce a neutral or a specific substance。 Without having passed through the
  intervening stages; a specific compound appears which is based on a measure relation and
  possesses characteristic qualities。 Again; water when its temperature is altered does not merely get
  more or less hot but passes through from the liquid into either the solid or gaseous states; these
  states do not appear gradually; on the contrary; each new state appears as a leap; suddenly
  interrupting and checking the gradual succession of temperature changes at these points。 Every
  birth and death; far from being a progressive gradualness; is an interruption of it and is the leap
  from a quantitative into a qualitative alteration。
  It is said; natura non facit saltum 'there are no leaps in nature'; and ordinary thinking when it has
  to grasp a coming…to…be or a ceasing…to…be; fancies it has done so by representing it as a gradual
  emergence or disappearance。 But we have seen that the alterations of being in general are not only
  the transition of one magnitude into another; but a transition from quality into quantity and vice
  versa; a becoming…other which is an interruption of gradualness and the production of something
  qualitatively different from the reality which preceded it。 Water; in cooling; does not gradually
  harden as if it thickened like porridge; gradually solidifying until it reached the consistency of ice; it
  suddenly solidifies; all at once。 It can remain quite fluid even at freezing point if it is standing
  undisturbed; and then a slight shock will bring it into the solid state。
  In thinking about the gradualness of the coming…to…be of something; it is ordinarily assumed that
  what comes to be is already sensibly or actually in existence; it is not yet perceptible only
  because of its smallness。 Similarly with the gradual disappearance of something; the non…being or
  other which takes its place is likewise assumed to be really there; only not observable; and there;
  too; not in the sense of being implicitly or ideally contained in the first something; but really there;
  only not observable。 In this way; the form of the in…itself; the inner being of something before it
  actually exists; is transformed into a smallness of an outer existence; and the essential difference;
  that of the Notion; is converted into an external difference of mere magnitude。 The attempt to
  explain coming…to…be or ceasing…to…be on the basis of gradualness of the alteration is tedious like
  any tautology; what comes to be or ceases to be is assumed as already complete and in existence
  beforehand and the alteration is turned into a mere change of an external difference; with the result
  that the explanation is in fact a mere tautology。 The intellectual difficulty attendant on such an
  attempted explanation comes from the qualitative transition from something into its other in general;
  and then into its opposite; but the identity and the alteration are misrepresented as the indifferent;
  external determinations of the quantitative sphere。
  In the moral sphere; in so far as it is considered under the categories of being; there occurs the
  same transition from quantity into quality and different qualities appear to be based in a difference
  of magnitude。
  It is through a more or less that the measure of frivolity or thoughtlessness is exceeded and
  something quite different comes about; namely crime; and thus right becomes wrong and virtue
  vice。 Thus states; too; acquire through their quantitative difference; other things being assumed
  equal; a distinct qualitative character。 With the expansion of the state and an increased number of
  citizens; the laws and the constitution acquire a different significance。 The state has its own
  measure of magnitude and when this is exceeded this mere change of size renders it liable to
  instability and disruption under that same constitution which was its good fortune and its strength
  before its expansion。
  C The Measureless
  Chapter 3: The Becoming of Essence
  A Absolute Indifference
  B Indifference as an Inverse Ratio of its Factors
  Remark: Centripetal and Centrfugal Force
  C Transition into Essence
  Absolute indifference is the final determination of being before it becomes essence; but it does not
  attain to essence。 It reveals itself as still belonging to the sphere of being through the fact that;
  determined as indifferent; it still contains difference as an external; quantitative determination; this
  is its determinate being; contrasted with which absolute indifference is determined as being only
  implicitly the absolute; not the absolute grasped as actuality。 In other words; it is external
  reflection which stops short at conceiving the differences in themselves or in the absolute as one
  and the same; thinking of them as only indifferently distinguished; not as intrinsically distinct from
  one another。 The further step which requires to be made here is to grasp that this reflection of the
  differences into their unity is not merely the product of the external reflection of the subjective
  thinker; but that it is the very nature of the differences of this unity to sublate themselves; with the
  result that their unity proves to be absolute negativity; its indifference to be just as much indifferent
  to itself; to its own indifference; as it is indifferent to otherness。
  But we are already familiar with this self…sublating of the determination of indifference; in the
  development of its positedness; this determination has shown itself to be from every aspect a
  contradiction。 It is in itself the totality in which every determination of being is sublated and
  contained; it is thus the substrate; but at first only in the one…sided determination of the in…itself;
  and consequently the differences; namely; the quantitative difference and the inverse ratio of
  factors; are present in it only in an external manner。 As thus the contradiction of itself and its
  determinedness; of its implicit determination and its posited determinateness; it is the negative
  totality whose determinatenesses have sublated themselves in themselves and in so doing have
  sublated this fundamental one…sidedness of theirs; their 'merely' implicit being 'Ansichsein'。 The
  result is that indifference is now posited as what it in fact is; namely a simple and infinite; negative
  relation…to…self; its inherent incompatibility with itself; a repelling of itself from itself。 The process of
  determining and being determined is not a transition; nor an external alteration; nor an emergence
  of determinations in the indifference; but is its own self…relating which is the negativity of itself; of its
  'merely' implicit being。
  Now these repelled determinations do not possess themselves; do not emerge as self…subsistent or
  external determinations; but first; as moments belonging to the implicit unity; they are not
  expelled from it but are borne by it as the substrate and are filled solely by it; secondly; as
  determinations which are immanent in the explicated unity; they are only through their repulsion
  from themselves。 The being of the determinations is no longer simply 。affirmative as in the entire
  sphere of being; but is now a sheer positedness; the determinations having the fixed character and
  significance of being related to their unity; each consequently being related to its other and with
  negation; this is the mark of their relativity。
  Thus we see that being in general and the being or immediacy of the distinct determinatenesses; no
  less than the implicit being; has vanished and the unity is being; an immediate presupposed
  totality such that it is this simple self…relation only as a result of the sublating of this
  presupposition; and this presupposedness and immediate being is itself only a moment of its
  repelling; the original self…subsistence and self…Identity is only as the resulting coming together
  with itself。 Being; in its determining; has thus determined itself to essence; a being which; through
  the sublating of being; is a simple being…with…itself。
  VOLUME ONE: THE OBJECTIVE LOGIC
  BOOK II。 THE DOCTRINE OF ESSENCE
  Reflection … Appearance … Actuality
  The truth of being is essence。
  Being is the immediate。 Since knowing has for its goal knowledge of the true; knowledge of what
  being is in and for itself; it d