第 36 节
作者:
匆匆 更新:2021-02-27 02:11 字数:9318
absolutely self…contained and self…fulfilled。 In so far as life; ego; finite spirit are; as they certainly
are; also only determinate Notions; their absolute resolution is in that universal which as truly
absolute Notion is to be grasped as the Idea of infinite spirit; whose posited being is infinite;
transparent reality wherein it contemplates its creation; and in this creation its own self。
The true; infinite universal which; in itself; is as much particularity as individuality; we have next to
consider as particularity。 It determines itself freely; the process by which it makes itself finite is
not a transition; for this occurs only in the sphere of being; it is creative power as the absolute
negativity which relates itself to its own self。 As such; it differentiates itself internally; and this is a
determining; because the differentiation is one with the universality。 Accordingly; the universal is a
process in which it posits the differences themselves as universal and self…related。 They thereby
become fixed; isolated differences。 The isolated subsistence of the finite which earlier was
determined as its being…for…self; and also as thinghood; as substance; is; in its truth universality; the
form with which the infinite Notion clothes its differences — a form that is; in fact; one of its own
differences。 Herein consists the creative power of the Notion; a power which is to be
comprehended only in this; the Notion's innermost core。
B The Particular Notion
We have seen that the determinateness of the particular is simple as principle; but it is also
simple as moment of the totality … as a determinateness opposed to the other determinateness。
The Notion; in determining or distinguishing itself; is negatively directed against its unity and gives
itself the form of one of its ideal moments; that of being: as a determinate Notion; it has a
determinate Being in general。 But this Being no longer signifies bare immediacy but Universality …
immediacy which through absolute mediation is equal to itself and equally contains the other
moment; essential being or reflection。 This Universality with which the determinate moment is
clothed is abstract Universality。 The particular has Universality within it as its essential being; but;
in so far as the determinateness of the difference is posited; and thereby has Being; Universality is
a form assumed by the difference; and the determinateness as such is the content。 The
Universality becomes form in so far as the difference is present as the essential moment; just as; on
the contrary; in the purely universal it is present only as absolute negativity; not as difference which
posited as such。
Connected with the above is the reason why latterly the Understanding has been so lightly
esteemed and ranked as inferior to Reason; it is the fixity which it imparts to the
determinatenesses; and hence to finite determinations。 This fixity consists in the form of abstract
Universality which has just been considered: through it they become immutable。 For qualitative
determinateness; and also determinations of reflection; are essentially limited; and; through their
limitation; have a relation to their other; hence the necessity of transition and passing away。 But
universality which they possess in the understanding gives them the form of reflection…into…self by
which they are freed from the relation…to…other and have become imperishable。 Now though in
the pure Notion this eternity belongs to its nature; yet its abstract determinations are eternal
essentialities only in respect of their form; but their content is at variance with this form; therefore
they are not truth; or imperishable。 Their content is at variance with the form; because it is not
determinateness itself as universal; that is; it is not totality of the Notion's difference; or not itself
the whole form; but the form of the limited understanding is itself the imperfect form; namely;
abstract universality。 But further; we must recognise the infinite force of the understanding in
splitting the concrete into abstract determinatenesses and plumbing the depth of difference; the
force that at the same time is alone the power that effects their transition。
Since; therefore; understanding exhibits the infinite force which determines the universal; or
conversely; imparts through the form of Universality a fixity and subsistence to the determinateness
that is in and for itself transitory; then it is not the fault of understanding if no further progress is
made beyond this point。 It is a subjective impotence of reason which adopts these
determinatenesses in their fixity; and which is unable to bring them back to their unity through the
dialectical force opposed to this abstract universality; in other words; through their own peculiar
nature or through their Notion。 The understanding does indeed give them; so to speak; a rigidity of
being such as they do not possess in the sphere of quality and the sphere of reflection; but at the
same time it spiritually impregnates them and so sharpens them; that just at this extreme point
alone they acquire the capability to dissolve themselves and pass over into their opposite。 The
highest maturity; the highest stage; which anything can attain is that in which its downfall begins。
The fixity of the determinateness into which the understanding seems to run; the form of the
imperishable; is that of self…relating universality。 But this belongs properly to the Notion; and
consequently in this universality is to be found expressed; and infinitely close at hand; the
dissolution of the finite。 This Universality directly refutes the determinateness of the finite and
expresses its incongruity with the universality。 Or rather; the adequacy of the finite is already to
hand; the abstract determinate is posited as one with the universality; and for that very reason is
posited as not for itself — for then it would only be a determinate — but only as unity of itself and
the universal; that is; as Notion。
C The Individual
1。 In the first instance; therefore; individuality appears as the reflection of the Notion out of its
determinateness into itself。 It is the self…mediation of the Notion in so far as its otherness has
made itself into an other again; whereby the Notion has reinstated itself as self…identical; but in the
determination of absolute negativity。 The negative in the universal whereby this is a particular;
was defined above as a two…fold illusory being: in so far as the negative is an illusory being within
the universal; the particular remains a universal; through the reference of the illusory being
outwards it is a determinate; the return of this side into the universal is two…fold: either through
abstraction which lets drop the particular and rises to the higher and the highest genus; or else
through the individuality to which the universal in the determinateness itself descends。 Here is
where the false path branches off and abstraction strays from the highway of the Notion and
forsakes the truth。 Its higher and highest universal to which it raises itself is only the surface; which
becomes ever more destitute of content; the individuality it despises is the profundity in which the
Notion seizes itself and is posited as Notion。
Universality and particularity appeared; on the one hand; as moments of the becoming of
individuality。 But it has already been shown that they are in themselves the total Notion; and
consequently in individuality do not pass over into an other; but that in individuality there is only
posited that they are in and for themselves。 The universal is in and for itself because it is in its
own self absolute mediation; self…reference only as absolute negativity。 It is an abstract universal
in so far as this absolute negativity。 It is an abstract universal in so far as this sublating is an
external act and so a dropping of the determinateness。
Life; Spirit; God — the pure Notion itself; are beyond the grasp of abstraction; because it deprives
its products of singularity; of the principle of individuality and personality; and so arrives at nothing
but universalities devoid of life and spirit; colour and content。
Yet the unity of the Notion is so indissoluble that even these products of abstraction; though they
are supposed to drop individuality are; on the contrary; individuals themselves。 Abstraction raises
the concrete into universality in which; however; the universal is grasped only as a determinate
universality; and this is precisely the individuality that has shown itself to be self…related
determinateness。 Abstraction; therefore; is a sundering of the concrete and an isolating of its
determinations; through it only single properties and moments are seized; for its product must
contain what it is itself。 But the difference between this individuality of its products and the
Notion's individuality is that; in the former; the individual as content and the universal as form are
distinct from one another … just because the former is not present as absolute form; as the Notion
itself; or the latter is not present as the totality of form。 However this more detailed consideration
shows that t