第 38 节
作者:
匆匆 更新:2021-02-27 02:11 字数:9322
predicate combined with a subject; so that; if this combination did not take place; each on its own
would still remain what it is; the latter an existent object; the former an idea in someone's head。
The predicate which is attached to the subject should; however; also belong to it; that is; be in and
for itself identical with it。 Through this significance of attachment; the subjective meaning of
judgment and the indifferent; outer subsistence of subject and predicate are sublated again: this
action is good; the copula indicates that the predicate belongs to the being of the subject and is
not merely externally combined with it。 In the grammatical sense; that subjective relationship in
which one starts from the indifferent externality of the subject and predicate has its complete
validity; for it is words that are here externally combined。 We may take this opportunity of
remarking; too; that though a proposition has a subject and predicate in the grammatical sense;
this does not make it a judgment。 The latter requires that the predicate be related to the subject
as one Notion determination to another; and therefore as a universal to a particular or individual。 If
a statement about a particular subject only enunciates something individual; then this is a mere
proposition; For example; 'Aristotle died at the age of 73; in the fourth year of the 115th
Olympiad;' is a mere proposition; not a judgment。 It would partake of the nature of a judgment
only if doubt had been thrown on one of the circumstances; the date of the death; or the age of
that philosopher; and the given figures had been asserted on the strength of some reason or other。
In that case; these figures would be taken as something universal; as time that still subsists apart
from this particular content of the death of Aristotle; whether as time filled with some other
content; or even as empty time。 Similarly; the news that my friend N。 has died is a proposition; and
it would be a judgment only if there were a question whether he was really dead or only in a state
of catalepsy。
In the usual way of defining the judgment we may indeed accept the indeterminate expression
connection for the external copula; as also that the connected terms are at least supposed to be
notions。 But in other respects this definition is superficial in the extreme: not only; for example; that
in the disjunctive judgment more than two so…called notions are connected; but rather that the
definition is far better than its subject matter; for it is not notions at all that are meant; hardly
determinations of the Notion; but really only determinations of representational thought; it was
remarked in connection with the Notion in general and the determinate Notion; that what is usually
so named by no means deserves the name of Notion; where then should Notions come from in the
case of the judgment? Above all; in this definition the essential feature of the judgment; namely; the
difference of its determinations; is passed over; still less does it take into account the relationship
of the judgment to the Notion。
As regards the further determination of the subject and predicate; we have remarked that it is
really in the judgment first that they have to receive their determination。 Since the judgment is the
posited determinateness of the Notion; this determinateness possesses the said differences
immediately and abstractly as individuality and universality。 But in so far as the judgment is in
general the determinate being or otherness of the Notion which has not yet restored itself to the
unity whereby it is as Notion; there emerges also…the determinateness which is notionless; the
opposition of being and reflection or the in…itself。 But since the Notion constitutes the essential
ground of the judgment; these determinations are at least indifferent to the extent that when one
belongs to the subject and the other to the predicate; the converse relationship equally holds good。
The subject as the individual appears; in the first instance; as that which simply is or is for itself
in accordance with the specific determinateness of the individual…as an actual object; even though
it be only an object in representational thought…as for example bravery; right; agreement; etc。…on
which judgment is being made。 The predicate; on the other hand; as the universal; appears as
this reflection on the object; or rather as the object's reflection into itself; which goes beyond that
immediacy and sublates the determinatenesses in their form of mere being; that is; it is the object's
in…itself。 In this way; one starts from the individual as the first; the immediate; and it is raised by
the judgment into universality; just as; conversely; the universal that is only in itself descends in
the individual into determinate being or becomes a being that is for itself。
This signification of the judgment is to be taken as its objective meaning; and at the same time as
the truth of the earlier forms of the transition。 In the sphere of being; the object becomes and
others itself; the finite perishes or goes under in the infinite; in the sphere of Existence; the object
issues from its ground into Appearance and falls to the ground; the accident manifests the
wealth of substance as well as its power; in being; there is transition into an other; in essence;
reflected being in an other by which the necessary relation is revealed。 This movement of
transition and reflection has now passed over into the original partition of the Notion which;
while bringing back the individual to the in…itself of its universality; equally determines the universal
as something actual These two acts are one and the same process in which individuality is posited
in its reflection…into…self; and the universal as determinate。
But now this objective signification equally implies that the said differences; in reappearing in the
determinateness of the Notion; are at the same time posited only as Appearances; that is; that
they are not anything fixed; but apply just as much to the one Notion determination as to the other。
The subject is; therefore; just as much to be taken as the in…itself; and the predicate; on the other
hand; as determinate being。 The subject without predicate is what the thing without qualities;
the thing…in…itself is in the sphere of Appearance an empty; indeterminate ground; as such; it is
the Notion enclosed within itself; which only receives a differentiation and determinateness in the
predicate; the predicate therefore constitutes the side of the determinate being of the subject。
Through this determinate universality the subject stands in relation to an externality; is open to the
influence of other things and thereby becomes actively opposed to them。 What is there comes
forth from its being…within…self and enters into the universal element of connection and
relationship; into the negative connections and the interplay of actuality; which is a continuation of
the individual into other individuals and therefore universality。
The identity just demonstrated; namely; that the determination of the subject equally applies to the
predicate and vice versa; is not; however; something only for us; it is not merely in itself; but is
also posited in the judgment; for the judgment is the connection of the two; the copula expresses
that the subject is the predicate。 The subject is the specific determinateness; and the predicate is
this posited determinateness of the subject; the subject is determined only in its predicate; or; only
in the predicate is it a subject; in the predicate it has returned into itself and is therein the universal。
Now in so far as the subject is the self…subsistent; this identity has the relationship that the
predicate does not possess a self…subsistence of its own; but has its subsistence only in the
subject; it inheres in the subject。 Since the predicate is thus distinct from the subject; it is only an
isolated determinateness of the latter; only one of its properties; while the subject itself is the
concrete; the totality of manifold determinatenesses; just as the predicate contains one; it is the
universal。
But on…the other hand the predicate; too; is a self…subsistent universality and the subject;
conversely; only a determination of it。 Looked at this way; the predicate subsumes the subject;
individuality and particularity are not for themselves; but have their essence and substance in the
universal。 The predicate expresses the subject in its Notion; the individual and the particular are
contingent determinations in the subject; it is their absolute possibility。 When in the case of
subsumption one thinks of an external connection of subject and predicate and the subject is
conceived of as a self…subsistent something; the subsumption refers to the subjective act of
judgment above…mentioned in which one starts from the self…subsistence of both subject and
predicate。 From this standpoint subsumption is only the application of the universal to a particular
or an individual; which is placed under the universal in accordance with a vague idea that it is of
inferior quality。
When the identity of subject and predicate are so taken that at on